The pace of change in PR feels like a snowball rolling downhill faster and faster. As it does in every other area of marketing, business and economics.
Despite that, PR agencies grew 5% across the board last year compared to the prior 12 months. Partly as a result of the 60 elections that took place around the world in 2024, especially the one in the U.S. Partly as clients asked for more and more senior counsel to help them navigate a perilous and complicated world. And partly to support business and organizational transformation around AI.
AI is revolutionizing the industry and clients expect their agency partners to be able to operate quickly and at scale. The pace of change is not going to slow down. And this annual snapshot of the PR industry will look very different in 12 months’ time.
The comforting trend in this time of permanent revolution, tariffs, corporate disruption and AI reinvention is that PR is valued more than ever by C-suites and CEOs and, as other segments decline, the industry’s revenues are still growing — even if those working within it have to do more with less.
- Steve Barrett, editorial director, PRWeek