PR Marketing Agencies: 14 Best to Boost Your Reputation in 2024 [Full Review]

Public relations (PR) is vital to boost your brand reputation and garner credibility. Many brands work with PR marketing agencies to run campaigns with the best results.

Businesses know the power of PR, and by 2025, PR’s market value will exceed $129 billion. 

There’s no surprise why PR marketing is blowing up because well-executed PR can boost your awareness, authority, and credibility, making your brand more attractive to targeted buyers, investors, and stakeholders.

But bad PR can do the exact opposite and taint your public perception and reputation.

To avoid the damage negative PR can cause and build a sound strategy that drives results, work with any of the top PR marketing agencies.

But with so many PR marketing agencies, how do you choose the best one for your brand?

And how can PR agencies give your brand the positive exposure it needs?

We’ve created a detailed review of the best PR marketing agencies, the key services they offer, and their top clients. This guide will help you choose the perfect PR marketing agency in record time!

Ready to find a PR agency that works for your brand?

Here we go!

What is PR?

Public Relations (PR) is the practice of managing the image of an organization to influence the public’s perception of its brand – how people think about the business. You may be familiar with traditional PR like press releases and trade shows. But today’s PR extends to building long-lasting relationships and providing value to your audience.

PR involves using all media and communications to maintain and grow your business reputation. This is an ongoing process. Your business should always have a sound PR strategy to drive positive public perception.

PR marketing also covers practices like crisis management to minimize the effects of negative PR and find a way to turn it around. With a PR strategy, you can understand what your audience thinks about your brand and how this changes based on your business and marketing decisions. These insights inform you well enough to find the best solutions for a sterling public image.

While the two are often confused, PR is different from marketing. Marketing uses paid programs like advertising, while PR uses earned or free media coverage like newspaper features and websites. However, you can use PR in outbound marketing campaigns.

A few benefits of PR include:

• Boosts Brand Awareness: Great PR helps drive consistent and positive public attention which plants the brand in the mind of the public. A fantastic brand image can’t be bought off the shelf, but a good PR can  benefit the brand and help shape all aspects of your business.
• Increased Credibility: Having third parties talk about your business positively increases its credibility. The media only runs content they believe is credible and their audience will find interesting. Their third-party endorsement builds your online reputation and confidence in your audience.
• Enhanced Website Traffic: When PR goes digital, it yields one big benefit – backlinks. The more backlinks you have directing traffic to your website, the more popular you become. As more people search for your brand online, and credible websites link back to yours, your SEO rankings increase.
• New Leads: Effective PR can simultaneously improve social media engagement, generate high website traffic, and boost SEO rankings, resulting in new leads and increased conversion rates. Due to public mistrust of traditional advertising, PR has become the preferred means of achieving all these advantages.

Source: Rachel Whynot

What Services do PR Marketing Agencies Offer?

So how can you access the benefits of PR? Top PR marketing agencies can help you and your brand reap the benefits of good PR. So what does a PR agency do?

Let’s check out some of their services:

Market Research

No meaningful PR result can be achieved without first understanding your audience. Market research is the key to unlocking the benefits of PR. PR marketing agencies conduct market research through different ways like surveys, interviews and focus groups. They may conduct research on media outlets, influencers, and media hosts that are focused on your target audience or business industry.  This will help them to understand your audience and then design an effective PR campaign for you.

Media Relations

After getting a good understanding of your target audience, the PR agency proceeds to engage the most suitable media for your brand message. PR marketing agencies handle the relationship between the media and your business. They pitch your brand to media outlets, journalists, and influencers to get media mentions and coverage. They also develop media content for you and respond to media queries.

Event Planning

PR marketing agencies organize events, tradeshows and outreach as tools to increase brand awareness and reputation. They can help to communicate with your audience and draw media outlets to cover your events.

Crisis Management

Organizations could come face to face with crises at any point in their existence. While it is often not hoped for, PR marketing agencies are equipped to confront crisis situations in a very professional manner. They typically have a ready crisis communication plan and could designate an official spokesperson who can adequately address tough and hostile questions professionally.

14 Best PR Marketing Agencies in 2024

Here are the ultimate PR marketing agencies for your business.

1.Edelman

Edelman is a global PR agency that helps companies promote and manage their brands through their integrated networks and PR-driven services. This agency has teams of strategists and creative thinkers to offer their clients a continuous flow of fresh new thinking and game-changing ideas. With over 60 offices spread across the globe, they help their clients build impactful PR campaigns.

2.BCW

BCW is a global PR firm formed through the merger of Burson-Marsteller and Cohn & Wolfe. This is an award-winning agency with services ranging from corporate reputation and public affairs to government relations. They have a diverse team of PR specialists. As if they couldn’t get any better, BCW is part of the WPP Group, one of the world’s most comprehensive communications service groups.

3.FleishmanHillard

FleishmanHillard is a member of the Omnicom Group, an American global media, corporate communications holding, and marketing company. But this isn’t the only excellent aspect of working with this PR agency. FleishmanHillard has worked with global brands, like Samsung and PepsiCo to develop effective PR campaigns that boost brand reputation and awareness. You can rely on this agency for expert financial and professional consulting services and PR campaigns that amplify your business.

4.Brunswick

Brunswick Group is an advisory firm helping companies to build trusted relationships with all their stakeholders. Though they often refrain from publishing their clients’ details, they represent firms like British Airways, Marks & Spencer, the Bank of Scotland, and many more of the world’s biggest companies. They have experts in every PR-related vertical and provide specialized services for investor relations, financial and corporate communications, and opinion research. Brunswick Group has 23 offices in 14 countries. With such an impressive list of clients and services, enterprises can’t go wrong with this agency.

Source: Brunswick

5.Ketchum

Ketchum is a global PR agency cum global communications consultancy offering marketing, branding, and corporate communications services across multiple industries. Working with brands like Whirlpool and Gillette, Ketchum has a wide range of solutions for PR campaigns that make a difference. This agency will help your brand develop a sound reputation through public affairs, issues and crisis management, and financial communications.

6.MSL Group

MSL is an impressive PR marketing agency that is part of a network of companies specializing in strategic communications and engagement. This agency offers PR solutions for small businesses wanting to drive more targeted traction and enterprises aiming to secure valuable investors and solidify stakeholders. Unlike many PR marketing agencies on this list, MSL provides expert campaigns for experiential and influencer marketing. With an agency like MSL you can accelerate brand awareness and credibility from multiple channels.

7.Hill+Knowlton Strategies

Hill+Knowlton Strategies, known as H+K Strategies, is an international PR marketing agency. They have over 80 offices globally, serving over 40 markets. Their approach combines strategy, creativity, and data-driven PR marketing strategies. H+K Strategies has won the EMEA PR Network at the Campaign Agency of the Year Awards for the third time in three years. Working with Twitter to launch its Arabic (Feminine) language was one of this agency’s most notable campaigns. This campaign drove the #FeminineArabic campaign and is one of Hill+Knowlton Strategies’ many successful PR case studies.

8.5W Public Relations

Need a PR marketing agency with a strong focus on digital marketing campaigns? 5WPRi is the PR marketing agency you need! Proving its credibility, 5WPR has worked with The Green Beret Foundation. They helped this organization secure over 200,000,000 media impressions. You can develop custom campaigns to drive awareness and visibility through SEO, digital marketing, online reputation management, event marketing, and PR.

9.MC Group

Founded in 1993, MC group is one of the youngest PR marketing agencies on our list. Nonetheless, they boast big names as part of their clientele, like Vodafone, Air Malta, and Bayer. MC group is currently the largest independent PR and advertising agency in Germany and Europe. They are also a market leader in corporate and national branding and communications, political communications, PR, and digital marketing.

10.Havas PR

The Havas PR Global Collective is part of Havas – a top-five global advertising and communications group. In their leadership team. Havas PR has many award-winning PR and digital marketing specialists. What put’s this agency in its own league is the 360-degree services it offers. You can work with Havas PR to develop custom digital marketing, PR, media relations, social media marketing, content marketing, and brand marketing strategies. They rely on data-driven solutions for impactful PR campaigns, and Havas PR has a long list of impressive clients.

11.Ogilvy

Ogilvy is a New York City-based advertising, marketing, and PR agency. They specialize in brand strategy, advertising, customer engagement, PR, influence marketing, digital transformation, and strategic partnerships. One of Ogilvy’s most impressive PR campaigns is its partnership with Dove. Ogilvy worked with Dove to create a movement provoking India to confront how beauty biases are amplified when finding a life partner. You can collaborate with Ogilvy to create similar projects reflecting your brand values and mission.

12.Teneo Holdings

Teneo is a PR marketing agency that’s worked with large organizations and enterprises to deliver a range of services. You can work with this agency for effective PR marketing strategies centered around your brand, crisis management campaigns and financial communications and investor relations. This is the PR marketing agency you want to work with for high-level PR that involves attracting and securing investors and stakeholders.

13.FTI Consulting

FTI Consulting is a successful PR marketing agency offering high-level PR solutions for enterprises and large organizations. This agency can develop strategic communication channels and information governance and privacy frameworks. They rely on data-driven PR solutions to help your brand maintain and grow a positive public image. FTI Consulting also offers business consulting and transformation, making this an ideal choice for businesses like Wells Fargo and Steinhoff Creditors

14.APCO Worldwide

APCO is the first majority women-owned PR agency on this list! Winning multiple awards, APCO develops expert PR campaigns to reflect your brand’s story and amplify your values. They have worked with eBay and MARS, among other world-renowned organizations, and there’s nothing APCO doesn’t offer for PR marketing. You can rely on this agency for crisis management, research and analytics, and organizational performance.

Conclusion

There you go. A list of the best PR marketing agencies for successful PR campaigns. Modern PR has gone beyond promotions and special offers. Effective PR propels your entire company towards expansion and higher success rates. Building a recognizable brand image requires conscious and effective PR effort is a great investment for your entire business. Get your PR where it needs to be with the help of these agencies!

References

Statista: Public relations (PR) market value worldwide in 2020, 2021, and 2025

Meltwater: 20 Most Important PR Statistics for 2024

Prowly: 20+ PR Industry Statistics You Should Know in 2023