PR is $10 billion industry: Holmes Report

The Holmes Report has reported that the global public relations industry grew by 7.9 per cent (8 per cent in 2010) to $10 billion in 2011. The industry employs more than 66,000 people worldwide, up from around 59,000 people in 2010.

The key findings of the research are:

·        Small, midsize and independent firms, that had submitted their numbers for both 2010 and 2011 to the Holmes Report, saw their fee income increase by an average of 10.4 per cent, reporting combined fees of $4.5 billion (up from $3.75 billion in 2010)

·        Publicly traded holding companies (WPP Group, Interpublic, Omnicom, Publicis Groupe, and Havas), that did not provide revenue numbers to the Holmes Report, reported PR revenues of around $4.4 billion, with average growth of just less than 6 per cent. Those groups between them own eight of the 10 largest public relations firms in the world

·       The networks of independent public relations firms submitting numbers to the Holmes Report had together revenues of around $1 billion. In addition, at least $450 million in revenue comes from member firms that elected not to submit data to the Holmes Report

In all, the Holmes Report has identified a little more than $9.4 billion in worldwide public relations fee income.

“Given that there are literally thousands of smaller public relations listed in other rankings and directories and participating in trade associations around the world, we are confident that the public relations agency business is today at least a $10 billion business,” says Paul Holmes, Editor-in-Chief of The Holmes Report. “It is clear from this research that PR is a significant global business, and that it is growing faster than the world economy as a whole.”