PR industry ‘bouncing back from recession’

News Article - 22 July 2011
Category: Business

PRWeek's Top 150 PR Consultancies 2011 report indicates the PR industry has bounced back from the depths of despair during the recession, returning to an average growth rate of almost ten per cent last year.

The data, calculated by accountants Kingston Smith W1, puts the PR industry back in line with 2008 growth figures - greatly encouraging after the 2009 decline to less than one per cent growth.

Esther Carder, partner at Kingston Smith W1, said: "The healthy growth was evenly spread across the sample, with about half the consultancies growing by ten per cent or more.

"The general mood in marketing services and PR has begun to improve with a marked upturn in M&A activity."

Francis Ingham, director general at PRCA, also agreed that the industry could expect strong future growth.

"Last year was the year PR consultancies shrugged off the recession and got into their stride again.

"For every one that contracted, roughly four grew. Rather than the prolonged period of gloom and retrenchment that some predicted, there is now good reason to anticipate strong future growth."

The economic reprieve for the PR industry has also been attributed to the fact that an increasing number of groups are expanding their social media and digital skills sets as well as their geographic footprint.

The UK's largest PR agency by fee income was Bell Pottinger, who received £68 million, up £7.9 million on the previous year. Edelman remained the nation's largest independent agency, with a 12 per cent increase in fee income to £29 million. The total fee income received by the Top 150 PR agencies in 2010 was £839 million, £25 million up on 2009.

In an industry where every minute and every pound counts, the importance of implementing a workflow-controlled system can never be underestimated. An increasing number of PR agencies look to creative business solutions to receive full visibility of information they need in order to boost client service and increase profitability.

Article keywords: pr, pr industry, pr consultancy, agency, recession

---

More industry news

• Think tank warns UK may have already slipped back into recession
• Growing demand for HR staff in technology and international sectors
• Boosting business growth a ‘priority’ to avoid Eurozone slowdown
• HMRC launches alternative disputes pilot scheme this week
• December employment statistics disregard gloomy recruitment predictions
• Eurozone manufacturing PMI shows modest improvement
• UK scores highly for economic governance by ratings agency
• Government launches two-year project focusing on manufacturing sector
• Burden of regulation on UK businesses ‘too high’

Back to news home page »