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America, an increase of 212 per cent over five
years, according to IMS (Table 26.2).
Financial
The growth of financial public relations has
been powered by a battery of forces combining
to create a major practice area.
Increasing individual wealth in many countries
has multiplied the number of individual
share owners. Unit trusts and mutual funds
have attracted huge sums of money from
investors, allowing them the chance to participate
in baskets of stocks of every kind. The
media coverage of the performance of companies
makes heroes (or villains) out of those
who lead them and has captivated large audiences
previously unmoved by the making of
money or the movements of markets.
Internationalization of money markets and
the world’s major stock exchanges and the
introduction of 24-hour trading in stock shares
and bonds have supercharged the growth of
international financial communications.
Although both require a mastery of
finance, public relations on behalf of financial
institutions that sell products and services
(insurance bank, brokers, mutual funds, mortgages,
etc.) and investor relations are two
quite different practices. Public relations for
financial service organizations is usually considered
to be a speciality within the category
of consumer marketing communication.
Internationally, investor relations (IR) as a
general rule does not even report through the
PR channel to top management. Most public
companies have vice presidents (or directors)
of investor relations whose direct reporting
line is to the chief financial officer, who in turn
reports to the CEO. In only a few companies
does the senior IR executive report to a chief
communication officer.
Table 26.2 Industry sector: healthcare 2001
revenues
Firm name
2001 revenue
($)
1 Fleishman-Hillard Inc. 60,050,000
2 Ketchum, Inc 49,265,000
3 Porter Novelli 41,100,000
4 Edelman Public Relations
Worldwide 40,427,331
5 Ruder Finn Group 33,268,000
6 Ogilvy Public Relations
Worldwide 29,562,958
7 Weber Shandwick Worldwide 28,244,697
8 Manning, Selvage & Lee 28,189,631
9 GCI GROUP/APCO
Worldwide 24,542,462
10 Burson Marsteller 20,701,000
Total top 10 355,351,079
Source: Council of PR Firms/PR Week rankings
IR in the United States even has its own professional
organization, the National Institute
of Investor Relations (NIRI). Similar organizations
exist in other countries, operating outside
the orbit of PR organizations.
Some of the largest IR/financial PR firms are
not included in the rankings of PR firms
because they do not reveal their income. The
total is impressive. Possibly the largest in the
specialty is Kekst & Company, in the United
States. And Brunswick, followed by Financial
Dynamics is the dominant power in the
United Kingdom, where it represents twentyfive
companies of the FTSE Index. Through a
series of acquisitions and mergers by Citigate,
a new global player has been created under
the name Incepta. Reporting $266 million in
fees for the year 2001, this firm entered the
rankings as the fifth largest of all global PR
firms.
© 2004 Sandra Oliver for editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters, the contributors