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REPORT Few bright stars shine for PR industry revenues Jack O’Dwyer Eight of the 10 largest O’Dwyerranked independent PR firms found themselves in the minus column for 2009, a trend that extended to 15 of the top 25 firms and 32 of the top 50. Similarly, most specialty PR rankings bore all the signs of ’09’s economic rough patch, aptly reflecting the recession’s impact on the communications industry and resulting in a decline of dozens of firms taking part in our annual rankings. Several areas of PR however, showed promise and even signs of improvement in ’09, during a time that otherwise made for a year to forget. Healthcare reveals rare ’09 gain Eighty firms reported more than $284 million in healthcare billings in 2009, according to the O’Dwyer rankings in that category. Perhaps PR’s lone sector bright spot over the past year, eight of the top 10 firms in the healthcare realm showed at least modest gains last year compared with ’08. See O’Dwyer’s rankings of top HEALTHCARE PR firms, pg. 34 Edelman and Ruder Finn saw increases of nearly 6% and 4% at the top of the heap, respectively, while Cooney/Waters Group (+18%), Spectrum (+8.6%), GYMR (+11%), Hager Sharp (+18%), MCS (+15%) and Crosby Marketing Communications (+19%) posted gains among mid-sized firms. Widmeyer Communications more than tripled its $1 million in ’08 healthcare billings to $3.4 million. APCO Worldwide (-28%) and Makovsky + Co. (-7.3%) were down from ’08 in healthcare. Ninety-six firms reported figures last year in the category. Food/beverage PR shows promise The food & beverage category of the O’Dwyer rankings drew entries from 54 firms reporting 2009 revenue, almost the same number as for the previous year. Twelve of the 25 largest food PR practices showed declines while ten had gains and three were even. Food PR firms reported revenue totaling nearly $103 million for ’09. Category leader Edelman had a 5% decline to $51,947,570 while second place APCO Worldwide had a gain of 16% to $6,546,408. Hunter PR, New York, in third place, was about even at $5,669,985. A newcomer in the No. 4 spot, weighing in at $5,651,110, is FoodMinds, administratively based in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., but with offices and correspondents in major cities. See O’Dwyer’s rankings of top FOOD/BEV. PR firms, pg. 34 Clients of the three-and-a-half-yearold firm include Applegate Farms, Dairy Management, Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S., Kellogg Co., National Confectioners Assn. and Welch Foods. The firm is headed by PR pros Laura Cubillos, Bill Layden and Sue Pitman, who were formerly at Porter Novelli and then Edelman. Fourteen full-time pros are assisted by a network of 70 pros throughout the country who include registered dietitians, Ph.D.s, science writers and food policy specialists. Other PR firms with expanding food practices included Coyne PR, Parsippany, N.J., up 5% to $2,571,000; M/C/C of Dallas, up 150% to $500,000, and Hope-Beckham, Atlanta, up 197% to $513,431. Financial PR, IR reveals a bad year Most financial/IR firms reporting to O’Dwyer’s had significant declines in 2009 because of poor economic conditions, particularly on Wall Street. Only four firms managed sizable gains while three others were flat. Forty-four firms, including 11 new to the list, reported their figures, down from 69 that reported 2008 revenue. See O’Dwyer’s rankings of top FINANCIAL PR firms, pg. 33 Gaining were Cubitt, Jacobs & Prosek, up 14% to $4,500,000; RF| Binder Partners, New York, up 12% to $2,600,000; Gregory FCA Communications, Ardmore, Pa., up 26% to $1,900,000, and Lambert, Edwards & Assocs., Grand Rapids, Mich., up 16% to $1,845,600. Edelman, the largest firm in financial/IR, saw revenues in this category fall to $22,696,826 from $53,298,302. Because of gains in other categories, Edelman’s overall fees were only off 2% to $440.1M. ICR, Westport, Conn., No. 2 ranked firm, declined 11% to $20.5M from $23.2M. Ruder Finn, No. 3, had a drop to $2,200,000 from $17,324,279. Its overall fees were off only 7.2% to $89.1 million. APCO Worldwide, No. 4, was about even at $11.6 million in 2008 vs. $11.4 million in 2009. Some firms said their figures were too bad to report, ignoring traditional advice on Wall Street that bad as well as good numbers must be reported on a regular basis. FTI Consulting, which owns the financial communications firm FD, reported in February that its PR operations fell 20% in 2009 to $180 million. Tough sledding for travel A majority of the 35 firms reporting their travel PR fees to O’Dwyer’s had negative performances in 2009. Two bright spots were category leader Edelman, which was even at $15,213,343 and Ruder Finn, which posted a 16% gain to $3,500,000. Lou Hammond & Associates was off 5% to $5,413,488 while M. Silver Associates, was down 3% to $3,986,000 and Quinn & Co. was off 18% to $2,401,972. Others on the negative side were Allison & Partners, San Francisco, down 23% to $2,235,926, and Vollmer PR, Houston, down 14% to $1,796,582. rbb Public Relations, Coral Gables, Fla., posted the biggest gain, up 33% to $612,812. See O’Dwyer’s rankings of top TRAVEL/TOURISM firms, pg. 37 Twenty-three of those on the 2008 list of 45 did not return while 13 firms joined the list including Ypartnership of Orlando, Fla., with travel fees of $1,938,067, and 5W Public Relations, New York, with travel fees of $1,174,750. Firms reporting figures accounted for $53M in travel PR fees for 2009. Environmental, public affairs down Most of the environmental and public affairs practices of firms reporting to O’Dwyer’s had declines in 2009. Edelman continues to head the practice area with fees of $53.4 million, off 16%. Continued on next page 18 MAY 2010 WWW.ODWYERPR.COM
APCO Worldwide, Washington, D.C., grew its PA practice 48% to $25,019,349 while Levick Strategic Communications, D.C., grew 118% to $1,943,423 in this area. Ron Sachs Communications, Tallahassee, Fla., had a 5% gain in PA to $2,403,000. Twenty-two of the 46 firms on the 2008 list are not on the 2009 list. Combined, the reporting firms had more than $120 million in revenue in the sector last year. See O’Dwyer’s rankings of top ENVIRON. PR / PA firms, pg. 33 Joining the list are 20 firms including Allison & Partners, San Francisco, with PA fees of $1,878,456; Peritus PR, Louisville, Ky., $1,555,752; Blue Practice, San Francisco, $916,883; ETC, Inc., Cincinnati, $820,249, and IW Group, West Hollywood, Calif. IW is a specialist in the Asian-American community whose clients include McDonald’s, Merrill Lynch, Wal-Mart and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Others new to the list include Winning Strategies, Newark; Coyne PR, Parsippany, N.J.; Schneider Assocs., Boston; Public Communications, Chicago, and Jackson Spalding, Atlanta. 72 tech firms rank Seventy-two PR firms reported their net fees to O’Dwyer’s for 2009, off from the total of 100 that were in the 2008 ranking. Included in the total are 14 firms that are reporting tech/industrial fees for the first time. Edelman, which has the most fees in the category, gained slightly from $86.3M to $88.5M from ’08-09. Text 100 fell from $58 million to $48.6 million while Ruder Finn gained from $19.3 million to $20.5. APCO Worldwide had the biggest gain in the category among the top 25, its tech/industrial fees rising from $11.2 million to $16.05 million. See O’Dwyer’s rankings of top TECH PR firms, pg. 36 Newcomers to the list included Jackson Spalding, Atlanta, $3,385,321; RF|Binder Partners, New York, 1,800,000; Cubitt, Jacobs & Prosek, New York, $1,800,000;Gibraltar Assocs., D.C., $1,116,255; Karbo/Fonkalsrud Comms., San Francisco, $893,301; Schneider Assocs., Boston, $829,250; Dye, Van Mol & Lawrence, Nashville, $708,579, and Feintuch Comms., New York, $502,555. [Note: two sets of firms reported identical revenue for 2009, therefore the list numbers only 70.] More than $267 million in fees were reported in the sector. ‘09 an “off year” for New York PR Most of the PR firms with New York operations submitting documentation of 2009 fees to O’Dwyer’s were down or even. The five biggest firms were mostly about even, the exception being healthcare specialist Cooney/Waters Group, which grew 18% to $12.3 million. It ranked No. 3 after Edelman, which had a slight decline to $92.2 million from $93.2, and Ruder Finn which declined to $63.1 million from $66.9 million. In fourth position was 5W Public Relations, declining slightly to $11M from $11.5M. No. 5 firm RF|Binder Partners was off to $10.4 million from $11.3 million. Many of the smaller firms had double-digit declines. Second biggest gain in the top ten was registered by food specialist Hunter PR, No. 7, growing 5.5% to $10 million. Eighteen of the top 25 had minus years. Best year in the top 25 was had by San Francisco generalist firm Allison & Partners, headed by Scott Allison, which more than doubled its New York fees to $5.5 million from $2 million. Its overall fees were up 12% to $14.6 million. See O’Dwyer’s rankings of PR firms by region, pg. 37 Washington, D.C.-based Widmeyer Communications, which has a broad practice covering PA, marketing, health, education and other areas, saw its New York office grow 73% to $5.2 million. Overall revenues were up 7.4% to $9.7 million. Catalyst PR, consumer PR firm specializing in sports, entertainment and active lifestyle accounts, gained 36% to $4.5 million. Affect Strategies, handling technology and professional services clients, grew 60% to $1.07 million. Feintuch Communications, headed by Henry Feintuch, formerly at KCSA Strategic Communications, joined the list at $502,555. It handles technology, financial services, healthcare, advertising and media placements. MAY 2010 WWW.ODWYERPR.COM 19
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