It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic battered the marketing and communications world. As a result, revenue growth in the PR sector fell to a record low last year, according to an annual industry survey conducted by PR merger and acquisition consultancy Gould+Partners.
The Gould+Partners survey, which is focused on net revenue growth—calculated as fees plus mark-ups— found that PR industry growth stalled at 3.1 percent in 2020, down 2.2 percent from the 5.3 percent the industry produced in 2019.
According to Gould+Partners, it’s the lowest growth year since Gould+Partners began tracking PR industry growth rates in 2013.
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Among the PR agencies surveyed in the study, only the largest shops—or agencies boasting more than $25 million in net revenues—showed positive growth. Among the remaining firms—agencies with net revenues between $10-$25 million, agencies bringing in between $3-$10 million and those with under $3 million in net revenues—all showed decreased growth.
“I was not surprised at all to see the growth at just 3.1 percent,” Gould+Partners managing partner Rick Gould told O’Dwyer’s. “I thought it would possibly be ‘negative’ industry growth, based on the other four surveys we took during the 2020 pandemic year.”
When broken out by region, PR firms located in Southern California saw the highest average net revenue growth last year, at 16.9 percent. Firms in the U.S. Northwest came in second, at 7.1 percent, followed by firms in the Washington D.C. area (6.4 percent) and firms in the Southeast (6.1 percent). Northern CA firms (5.3 percent), Canadian firms (4.8 percent), Northeast firms (3.2 percent), Midwest firms (2.6 percent) and firms located in the New York City metro area (1.1 percent) followed. Firms in the U.S. Southwest saw the lowest average net revenue growth last year, at .4 percent.
Gould+Partners’ “2021 Net Revenue Growth Report” was based on responses from 211 PR agencies located in ten regions across North America.
DJE Holdings, parent of Edelman and Zeno, launches RUTH as an independent shop named after Ruth Edelman, mental health advocate, wife and longtime business partner of Dan Edelman.
New York City PR firms make up the largest slice of O'Dwyer's 147 firm overall ranking with 33 of 40 in the New York/New Jersey area either calling Manhattan their home or having a presence there.
Subject Matter+Kivvit, which joined forces in May, has rebranded as Avoq, an integrated shop with more than 200 professionals in Washington, New York, Asbury Park (NJ), Miami and Chicago.
While PR pros stationed at in-house comms. teams and those working for agencies share many of the same objectives, they also have markedly different top priorities, according to a recent report.
Edelman is cutting 240 employees or about four percent of its workforce to cope with the cooling down of the PR sector, according to a memo from CEO Richard Edelman.
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Sep. 22, 2021, by Joe Honick
Making these results even more interesting is just how much the values of major corporations rose in the same period. It really is worth time to figure who benefits from the bad times as well....the same as we calculate the beneficiaries of wars and their sacrifices.