Public Relations Agency

A public relations agency, or firm, is a company hired by another organization to provide certain services. Some 3,000 or more public relations counseling firms operate in the United States.

The hiring organization is referred to as the client. Under the best of circumstances, the firm helps improve the client's reputation and its relationships with its publics. The services can range from strategic and managerial—such as planning and implementing annual major campaigns and providing senior-level counseling—to the more tactical, such as generating news releases or printed promotional materials.

Increasingly, companies are turning to outside counsel even when they have internal public relations departments. Most of America's most-admired companies have a relationship with a public relations firm. Clients hire firms for different reasons. There might be a need for expertise that the client doesn't have, or there might simply be a staff shortage that an agency can help fill.

Some companies prefer to use the term firm to connote their emphasis on counseling and strategic planning and to differentiate from advertising agencies. Public relations is a management team concept that the term agent or agency doesn't imply. Many, though, use the terms interchangeably.

The Council of Public Relations Firms, a trade association representing large U.S. public relations firms, estimates that about 20,000 public relations practitioners work for public relations firms in the United States, and more than 40,000 worldwide. The larger companies, such as Hill & Knowlton, employ as many as 2,000 people worldwide. However, public relations is also a field in which independent practitioners, or freelancers, can thrive.

Several publications and organizations—including O'Dwyers Directory of Public Relations Firms, PR Week, and the Council of Public Relations Firms—track rankings of the top companies by revenue. Rankings can shift annually due to mergers and acquisitions and business factors, as well as ranking criteria and firms' willingness to disclose financial information. Some of the largest U.S. firms (based on global revenues) are BSMG Worldwide; Burson-Marsteller; Edelman Public Relations Worldwide; Fleishman-Hillard International Communications; GCI Group/APCO Worldwide; Golin/Harris International; Hill & Knowlton; Incepta (Citigate); Ketchum; Manning, Selvage & Lee; Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide; Porter Novelli; Ruder Finn; and Weber Shandwick Worldwide. Fifty percent or more of public relations revenues are generated by the top 10 firms.