Top 10 Global
PR Agency Ranking 2017

2016	2015	Agency	HQ	Fee Income 2016 ($)	Fee Income 2015 ($)	Growth (Constant Currency)
1	1	Edelman ¹	USA	874,968,000	854,576,000	4.4%
2	2	Weber Shandwick ²	USA	825,000,000	775,000,000	6.5%
3	3	FleishmanHillard ³	USA	570,000,000	570,000,000	0.0%
4	4	Ketchum ⁴	USA	562,000,000	530,000,000	6.0%
5	6	MSLGroup ⁵	France	485,000,000	480,000,000	1.0%
6	5	Burson-Marsteller ⁶	USA	480,000,000	480,000,000	0.0%
7	7	Hill+Knowlton Strategies ⁷	USA	380,000,000	385,000,000	-1.3%
8	8	Ogilvy PR ⁸	USA	361,000,000	347,000,000	4.0%
9	9	BlueFocus ⁹	China	268,675,634	244,814,558	17.2%
10	10	Golin ¹⁰	USA	247,000,000	227,000,000	7.9%

Global PR Agency Rankings 2017: Growth Slows Among Major Networks

Rankings: Top 10 | Top 250 | Holding Groups / Networks
Analysis: Global PR industry growth rebounds to 7%
Research: Global Communications Report

Growth among the major global PR networks slowed in 2016, to just 3.3% compared to 4.4% one year earlier, with the world's top 10 global PR firms reporting fee income of $5.1bn in 2016.

There were some notable exceptions to the pattern, however. Weber Shandwick outshone key rival Edelman by growing at around 7% while Interpublic sibling Golin also grew in the high single-digits, bolstered by the acquisition of Brooklyn Brothers.

Meanwhile, one year after cracking the Top 10, China's BlueFocus Communications continued its impressive growth, up 17% in constant currency terms to $269m, including subsidiaries such as Citizen Relations and We Are Social.

Edelman remains the world's biggest PR firm, although constant currency growth of just 4.4% saw its lead over Weber Shandwick diminish. Edelman's performance was affected by slowing growth in EMEA and Asia-Pacific, along with a 14% decline in Latin America.

Elsewhere, France's MSLGroup leapfrogs Burson-Marsteller to enter the top 5, thanks in part to continued growth from acquisition.

All growth figures are on a reported (rather than organic) basis, with several firms in the top 10 helped by acquisitions. Yet many of the big PR agency networks still struggled to grow, especially at Omnicom and WPP.

Overall, we estimate that the top 10 global PR firms generated fee income of around $5.1bn, a 3.3% increase in reported terms. A fuller picture of global PR industry size is provided by the analysis of our Global Top 250, based on submissions from almost 400 PR firms from across the world.

Date: 24 April 2017

Rankings: Top 10 | Top 250 | Holding Groups / Networks
Analysis: Global PR industry growth rebounds to 7%
Research: Global Communications Report