Leading PR agencies worldwide 2020

Edelman topped the ranking of leading PR agencies worldwide with an annual fee income of over 840 million U.S. dollars in 2020. That year, the five agencies with the highest fee incomes were all based in the United States, while the leading non-U.S.-based firm was Brunswick (UK).

Edelman

Edelman is a Chicago-based public relations and marketing consultancy firm founded in 1952. In the seven decades that followed since the company’s foundation, Edelman has become not only the largest PR firm in the U.S. but also the largest agency worldwide, employing more than five thousand people as of 2020. Even though Edelman’s fee income declined by nearly six percent in 2020, the company remains a blueprint for effective PR and communications campaigns. The agency was named the Global Digital Agency of the Year at PRovoke Media’s 2019 Global SABRE Awards, with some of Edelman’s best-known international clients, including Samsung, IKEA, eBay, and KFC.

Fastest-growing PR agencies

While Edelman remains the undisputed market leader, other firms are also seeing meteoric growth while trying to claim a larger slice of the PR pie. In 2020, Spool Marketing and Communications was the fastest-growing PR agency worldwide, having grown their annual fee income by over 170 percent. The up-and-comer was founded in Chicago in 2018 and serves a client roster of food, CPG, grocery, and cannabis brands, to name just a few.