Public Relations Market Intelligence

Industry Outlook & Drivers

Public Relations Global industry Outlook

The Global Public Relations market in 2016 was valued between $15 billion and $16 billion

Public Relations Global Market Maturity

• The public affairs agency and specialty market (agencies specialised in a particular PR service area or business sector) in Latin America is still in the evolution phase, with the presence of very few specialised PR agencies
• The major challenge in European and North American markets is to find and retain critical talent at a time when the need for talent to manage specialised areas, like digital PR, is increasing

Public Relations Industry Trends

• The North American and European markets for public relations are mature, with ongoing mergers and acquisitions to increase geographic reach, industry-specific expertise and service execution expertise in areas such as media relations and digital and social media
• As expectations increase for demonstration of return on investment for all communications spending, there has been (and will continue to be) an increased focus on measurement and evaluation, where most of the buyers are investing 5–7 percent of their PR budgets in measurement. However, measurement and evaluation remains a weakness of the industry overall, and buyers are looking for improved methods for public relations to be viewed credibly by other functional departments, such as marketing, sales and financial

Public Relations Industry Drivers and Constraints 

Buyers are looking to work with their incumbents to create measurable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which take into account both quantitative and qualitative variables. However, the difficulties in measuring and evaluating agencies would remain a major constraint for the PR industry Sources: Primary Expert 1 and Beroe Analysis.

Rapid Use of Social Media:

• Increased adoption of social media is leading to increased spend in digital PR, with earned media being the dominant revenue driver Growth Driven by Content:
• A majority of the top buyers estimate that future PR growth is mainly derived from creating relevant content on traditional and digital mediums with an objective of building reputation among various stakeholders Rise in Technology Adoption:
• The PR industry is experiencing changes in response to new technology, expansion of new communication channels and greater use of data analytics

Talent Crunch: PR Firms are not Mastering Digital and Other New Technologies 
There is a growing need for diverse talent among resources to meet the PR agencies' demand for skilled resources in digital mediums
Digital agencies are increasingly preferred over PR agencies for any of the digital PR requirements due to the PR agencies' lack of digital expertise