|
Firm Name |
Founded |
Leadership |
Revenue |
Empl |
Previous Year’s List |
| 1. |
HL Group |
2001 |
Hamilton South and Lynn Tesoro, founding partners |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
| 2. |
Rubenstein |
1953 |
Howard Rubenstein, founder and chairman; Steven Rubenstein, president |
N/A |
190 |
3 |
| 3. |
DKC |
1991 |
Sean Cassidy, US CEO |
$51M |
250 |
1 |
| 4. |
PMK*BNC |
2010 |
Cindi Berger and Michael Nyman, co-chairmen/CEOS; Chris Robichaud, CEO |
N/A |
300+ |
8 |
| 5. |
Finsbury |
1994 |
Michael Gross, CEO |
N/A |
200+ |
11 |
| 6. |
42West |
2004 |
Leslee Dart, Amanda Lundberg, Allan Mayer, principal partners |
N/A |
100 |
13 |
| 7. |
Hiltzik Strategies |
2008 |
Matthew Hiltzik, founder, president and CEO |
N/A |
22 |
16 |
| 8. |
Kekst and Company |
1970 |
Jeremy Fielding, president and CEO |
N/A |
70 |
7 |
| 9. |
Edelman |
1952 |
Richard Edelman, president and CEO; Russell Dubner, president and CEO US |
$855M |
780 |
5 |
| 10. |
The Magrino Agency |
1992 |
Susan Magrino, chairman and CEO; Allyn Magrino, president and COO |
N/A |
N/A |
48 |
| 11. |
M18 |
2010 |
Michael Tavani and Meghan McGinnis, co-founders |
N/A |
N/A |
28 |
| 12. |
Optimist Consulting |
2016 |
Leslie LeCount, Paul Lerner, Scott Cooke, founding partners |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
| 13. |
Joele Frank |
2000 |
Joele Frank, managing partner; Matthew Sherman, president |
N/A |
110 |
6 |
| 14. |
Hill & Knowlton Strategies |
1927 |
Beth Balsam, US CEO |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
| 15. |
Weber Shandwick |
2001 |
Jack Leslie, chairman; Andy Polansky, CEO; Gail Heimann, president |
N/A |
4,000 |
2 |
| 16. |
Brunswick Group |
1987 |
Steven Lipin, senior partner |
N/A |
N/A |
34 |
| 17. |
Alison Brod Marketing & Communications |
1995 |
Alison Brod, founder and CEO |
N/A |
N/A |
15 |
| 18. |
Havas PR |
1976 |
Marian Salzman, CEO |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
| 19. |
Berman Group |
2006 |
Sarah Berman, founder and president |
N/A |
47 |
9 |
| 20. |
Burson-Marsteller |
1953 |
Donald Baer, worldwide chairman and CEO |
$400M |
N/A |
17 |
| 21. |
Global Strategy Group |
1995 |
Jon Silvan, founding partner and CEO; Jefrey Pollock, founding partner and president |
$31M |
86 |
14 |
| 22. |
Prosek Partners |
1991 |
Jennifer Prosek, founder and CEO |
$30M |
100 |
24 |
| 23. |
Ruder Finn |
1938 |
Kathy Bloomgarden, CEO |
$73.8M |
565 |
10 |
| 24. |
Sard Verbinnen |
1992 |
George Sard, chairman and CEO; Paul Verbinnen, president |
N/A |
150 |
19 |
| 25. |
Goldin Solutions |
2010 |
Davidson Goldin, founder |
N/A |
12 |
20 |
| 26. |
SKDKnickerbocker |
2004 |
Josh Isay and Jennifer Cunningham, managing directors |
N/A |
95 |
21 |
| 27. |
|
2005 |
Leadership: Valerie Berlin and Jonathan Rosen, principals and co-founders |
N/A |
N/A |
4 |
| 28. |
APCO Worldwide |
1984 |
founder and executive chairman; Nelson Fernandez, chairman North America and managing director New York |
N/A |
N/A |
45 |
| 29. |
5W |
2003 |
Ronn Torossian, founder and CEO |
$25.2M |
140 |
30 |
| 30. |
The Door |
2008 |
Lois Najarian O’Neill, co-founder and president; Charlie Dougiello, co-founder and CEO |
$6.2M |
38 |
N/A |
| 31. |
Sunshine Sachs |
1991 |
Ken Sunshine, Shawn Sachs, Heather Lylis, Keleigh Thomas Morgan, partners |
N/A |
162 |
29 |
| 32. |
Quinn PR |
1987 |
Florence Quinn, founder and president |
N/A |
100 |
N/A |
| 33. |
PR Consulting |
1997 |
Pierre Rougier, founder; Sylvie Picquet Damesme, NY partner |
N/A |
N/A |
41 |
| 34. |
ID-PR |
1993 |
Kelly Bush Novak, founder and CEO |
N/A |
100 |
32 |
| 35. |
Kwittken |
2006 |
Aaron Kwittken, founder/CEO; Jason Schlossberg, chief creative officer |
N/A |
70 |
N/A |
| 36. |
N6A |
2010 |
Matt Rizzetta, founder, president and CEO |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
| 37. |
Mode PR |
2008 |
Amanda Carter, founder and president |
N/A |
7 |
N/A |
| 38. |
Cultural Counsel |
2015 |
Adam Abdalla, founder and president |
N/A |
10 |
N/A |
| 39. |
Becca PR |
2006 |
Becca Parrish, founder |
N/A |
N/A |
23 |
| 40. |
Nasty Little Man |
1992 |
Steve Martin, founder and owner |
N/A |
N/A |
36 |
| 41. |
DiGennaro Communications |
200 |
Samantha DiGennaro, president |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
| 42. |
Sharp Communications |
2000 |
James Brodsky, president |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
| 43. |
Marino |
1993 |
Francis C. Marino, president and CEO |
N/A |
40 |
12 |
| 44. |
The Peggy Siegal Company |
1984 |
Peggy Siegal, founder |
N/A |
N/A |
42 |
| 45. |
Nadine Johnson Inc. |
1995 |
Nadine Johnson, president |
N/A |
50+ |
27 |
| 46. |
KCD |
1984 |
Ed Filipowski, worldwide president and chief strategist; Julie Mannion, president of creative services |
N/A |
N/A |
33 |
| 47. |
Kaplow Communications |
1991 |
Liz Kaplow, president and CEO |
N/A |
75 |
18 |
| 48. |
NJF, an MMGY Company |
1987 |
Nancy J. Friedman, founder and creative director |
N/A |
50 |
N/A |
| 49. |
Nicholas & Lence Communications |
2007 |
Cristyne Nicholas, CEO; George Lence, president |
N/A |
14 |
38 |
| 50. |
Boneau/Bryan-Brown |
1991 |
Chris Boneau and Adrian Bryan—Brown, co-founders |
N/A |
17 |
47 |
At the bottom of this article is a chart created from the list of 2016’s Top U.S. PR firms according to The Observer. The chart lists the basic statistics of each of the agencies. But there are also some of the thoughts and observations that were listed in the article for you to ponder.
In 2015 there was an obvious overlap happening between PR, social media, advertising, and the like. That increased in 2016 and will probably fully merge over the next couple of years allowing traditional PR and advertising firms to offer both to their client base and do so efficiently. Now it’s less about companies and more about the people overseeing the work for clients. It may also be about who understands niche markets better so that agencies representing one or two sectors primarily will start getting more of their work, whether it be advertising, digital or public relations work for those markets.
Because of that, many agencies have stopped calling themselves PR firms or advertising firms, they talk more about communications, content and media providers and distributors instead. Florence Quinn, founder of the travel and lifestyle powerhouse, Quinn, said: “We create strong ideas that resonate with people and the media. This is incredibly exciting because there are a gajillion ways to produce content and even more ways to distribute it. The line between earned and paid media has been crossed forever; there is no going back.”
Shawn Sachs, CEO of Sunshine Sachs, who represents A-list celebs, blue-chip nonprofits, and global corporations described the radical transformation, saying: “We’ve got 35 people who don’t do traditional communications,” said, the firm’s CEO. “That’s pretty significant for a firm with about 160 people. We hired our second art director this year. If you’d said that 10 years ago, people would have thought you were crazy. In the broadest sense, we’re a communications company. But we’re also an advertising company, a marketing company, a digital company, an events company, an idea company. We’re a lot of things.” That’s not to say that traditional PR doesn’t still have a place, earned media is still a much better way of attracting customers for a client than advertising, in fact, according to Andy Polansky, Weber Shandwick’s CEO, it’s “absolutely critical.”
The Observer said that in choosing the list and assigning placement it didn’t make choices according to size of the agency or their revenues. Instead, it looked at more subjective factors such as momentum, new Superstar hires, how they handled crisis situations for clients, and the firms’ responses to questions from the Observer.
