3. Two simple words
remind us that great ideas
shatter expectations.
Two simple words
set Ketchum apart.
break through
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4. Agency Report Card 2012
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6. Agency Report Card 2012
The competitive landscape this year’s Report Card now offer a wide range of digital
for American public relations and social media strategies in addition to their historic
firms has never been tougher. expertise in mainstream media relations. Some offer
experiential communications, a range of content creation
The past few years have services--including digital, video, print and more--and are
seen dramatic changes in the even creating advertising campaigns.
way companies communicate
with their key stakeholders, a The growth of the PR industry in 2012—we estimate
blurring of the lines between that the North American business as a whole grew
consumer and corporate communications, an increase by close to 10 percent—indicates that despite what
in the number of channels, and a shift in the balance continues to be a tough economy, public relations
between paid, owned, and earned media channels. As a agencies are benefiting more from the opportunities of
result, more and more agencies are competing for clients’ this new age, rather than suffering as a result of new
communications dollars: advertising agencies, digital challenges. But there is no doubt that agency leaders will
specialists and even management consulting firms are need to remain attuned to shifts in the media landscape
beginning to offer services that would traditionally have and changing client expectations if they are to continue
been considered part of the PR agency’s responsibility. to thrive in the new communications environment.
At the same time, of course, those changes are
creating new opportunities for public relations firms to Paul A. Holmes
expand their own offerings. Most of the firms profiled in
Paul Holmes, Editor
EDITORIAL.............................................................................................................................................................. 04
CONTENTS
WHAT IS A PUBLIC RELATIONS AGENCY?................................................................................... 06
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)...................................................................................... 12
AGENCIES OF THE YEAR........................................................................................................................... 14
ALPHABETICAL INDEX................................................................................................................................. 18
GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX.............................................................................................................................. 20
SPECIALTY INDEX............................................................................................................................................ 22
NATIONAL MULTI-OFFICE, MULTI-SPECIALTY FIRMS............................................................. 24
SPECIALIST, BOUTIQUES, SMALL AND MID-SIZED FIRMS............................................... 78
4 www.holmesreport.com
7. “Public relations can’t be learned except by experience.”
‐ Harry S. Truman
KEKST AND COMPANY
For more than four decades, Kekst has been dedicated to providing extraordinary
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Mergers & Acquisitions
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Public Affairs
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437 Madison Avenue One Market Plaza
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Tel: (212) 521‐4800 Tel: (415) 852‐3900
WWW.KEKST.COM
8. Agency Report Card 2012
WHAT IS A
PUBLIC
RELATIONS
AGENCY?
Having allowed itself WHAT IS A PUBLIC RELATIONS AGENCY?
to be defined in terms
Clients not intimately involved with the public relations industry may be surprised to learn that
of media relations and there is no consensus answer to that question, even among those who own and manage firms that
publicity, the public call themselves public relations agencies.
relations industry is Indeed, while many of the firms participating in this report consider themselves part of the
public relations industry—they enter PR awards, are listed in PR league tables and rankings,
coming to realize that
belong to PR associations—they often call themselves by another name, preferring terms such as
the digital and social Communications (which has also become a popular synonym for public relations on the client side
media age requires a of the business).
broader skill set. Even those firms that continue to self-identify with the industry by making the term Public
Relations part of their name will occasionally assure prospective clients that “we are not just a public
Paul Holmes argues relations agency” or that “what we do goes beyond traditional public relations.”
that the industry needs Yet the truth is that little or nothing about what they do—even those who are now active in digital
to go back to its roots, and social media, as most are—would strike the pioneers of the public relations profession as
to embrace the surprising or non-traditional or beyond the confines of the discipline they helped to define. Indeed,
early practitioners like Edward L. Bernays or Arthur W. Page would more likely to be shocked
multiple tools and to find PR people describing themselves as mere communicators; they would have considered
multiple channels communications to be only one aspect of the far broader role true public relations people can and
that can help client should embrace.
organizations manage
the relationships LOSING TOUCH WITH THE INDUSTRY’S ROOTS
with their key Bernays and Page and the others who created the foundation upon which the public relations
stakeholders. business was built would have been even more disappointed in the trajectory the industry has taken
in recent years, and at the negative perceptions surrounding the term “public relations” that resulted,
prompting so many practitioners to seek alternate descriptions.
Bernays defined public relations as a form social science. Page was insistent that “public
perception of an organization is determined 90 percent by what it does and 10 percent by what it
says”—a clear challenge to those who see PR as synonymous with communication.
Yet somehow, the modern public relations business—including the vast majority of PR agencies—
has allowed itself to be defined by the use of a single tool. Somehow, public relations has become
synonymous with publicity or media relations or earned media. And this has led to the proliferation
of an even less flattering term: “spin”—a term that implies that a company’s public relations activities
are not only completely divorced from its behavior but often completely contradictory to it.
Defining public relations so narrowly, in terms of a single tool or channel rather than in terms of
the process of (as the name implies) managing relationships, has never been particularly helpful to
6 www.holmesreport.com
9. Specialized
Thinking
I N T E G R AT E D CO M M U N I C AT I O N S
1 6 E a s t 3 4 TH S t re e t , N ew Yo r k , N Y 1 0 0 1 6
212.508.9600 / w w w . m a k o v s k y . c o m
Finance / Health / Tech / Energy / Branding / Digital / Change Management
10. Agency Report Card 2012
those who practice public relations in its truest form. But it has reduced internal newsletters and magazines; written executive speeches;
barriers to entry, so that the profession became open to—and arguably, created and managed events; handled product placement in television
dominated by—those whose only real skill was the ability to generate programming; and even created advertising—usually corporate or
publicity or secure positive media coverage for their clients. issues-oriented advertising rather than product.
Until relatively recently, that was a Faustian bargain the majority of This ability to create content in a myriad forms has come to the fore
practitioners seemed ready to accept. There was plenty of money to be in the digital and social media age, which has seen increased demand
made in managing earned media coverage for clients, and by focusing for all of these forms of content and more: corporate blogs, digital
on that aspect of public relations, the industry was able to differentiate press offices, Facebook pages and social media hubs, podcasts and
itself from related disciplines (most notably advertising) and to grow into webcasts, YouTube videos, mobile apps and widgets, even games and
what is today close to a $10 billion global business. in some cases television formats and original programming.
But over the past few years, that narrow definition of public relations Once again, a firm that defines its purpose in terms of securing
has begun to look far less attractive to many practitioners, largely as earned media coverage or publicity for its clients will find the transition
a result of the opportunities presented by the growing importance of to managing relationships or developing multichannel content difficult;
digital and social media. a firm that defines its purpose in terms of public relations in the historic
sense will embrace new forums for conversation and new forms of
THE SOCIAL MEDIA AGE CHANGES content for what they are: wonderful and effective news tools that
enhance and facilitate the process of building deeper, more enduring,
EVERYTHING
and mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their
Because the rise of digital and social media has encouraged stakeholders.
companies to embrace two trends that are integral to public relations
in its original Bernaysian sense, but alien to it—or at least beyond its REDEFINING PUBLIC RELATIONS
capabilities—in the narrower form much of the industry has adopted.
The first of those trends involved the realization that organizations It should be clear that while the digital and social media revolution
need to engage their stakeholders (consumers, employees, presents the public relations industry with an opportunity, it is not to
shareholders, communities and others) in honest and authentic “move beyond” traditional public relations, but rather to rediscover
conversation in order to develop real relationships with them. public relations in its traditional sense, and to abandon the modern,
Until relatively recently, it was still possible for a company to believe restricted model with its focus on earned media or publicity.
that their brand was defined was defined by all the things it said about All of which is not to say that earned media is unimportant. Quite
itself: by its logo, its advertising, its sponsorships, its press releases. the opposite: as consumers are bombarded with multiple messages
Today, that seems like a hopelessly old-fashioned view of how the across multiple channels, the need for credibility—the major benefit
world works. Today, brands are defined by all of things consumers of earned over paid messaging—will only increase. Firms interesting
(and other stakeholders) say about the company, its products and in managing the relationships between an organization and its
services, in conversations that take place online and off—often without stakeholders will need to be adept at earning the confidence and
the input or even the awareness of the company itself. the endorsement of credible third-parties. But those third-parties will
Companies cannot control those conversations or, by extension, include not only traditional media, but also new media (bloggers are
the perception of their brands. But they can influence them: first by the most obvious example) and other opinion leaders (a group that
ensuring that their communications are authentic and honest (which includes not only traditional authorities such as politicians, educators
in reality means ensuring that their products and services deliver on and scientific experts, but ordinary members of the public, friends and
the promises they make and—just as important—that their corporate family members, identified by much modern research as the most
policies and behaviors reflect the values they espouse in public); and credible sources of information in an environment in which institutional
second by participating in those conversations in a respectful and trust has been horrible eroded).
responsive manner, devoting at least as much energy to listening as But true public relations firms will also need to recognize that public
they do to talking. relationships are impacted by many other forms of communication.
In other words, they need to focus on developing relationships rather Rather than positioning their discipline as a (cheaper, or more cost-
than delivering messages. They need to focus on their public relations. effective, or more credible) alternative to advertising, for example, they
If conversation is important in the digital and social media age, will need to recognize that advertising is just another (often immensely
content is almost equally so. Digital and social channels provide powerful) tool for building public relationships—as are sponsorships,
organizations with an opportunity to create content in a wide variety of websites, events, and all other forms of content. That doesn’t mean PR
formats, content designed to engage, entertain and educate consumers firms need to be involved in the production of all of these elements, but
and draw them into the conversation about companies and their brands. it does mean that PR firms need to understand when they are the most
Public relations firms have always been content creators, of course, effective tools for a particular task, and be prepared to recommend
but historically the focus has been on developing content that appealed them as part of an overall public relations solution.
to a single audience: the media. That meant press releases (or, for Most important, however, is that public relations firms—and the
television, video news releases), but it also meant photographs, fact clients that employ them—will need to recognize that all of these
sheets, surveys, white papers, and in more recent years infographics or communications activities, including the various forms of content
website content. discussed here, and the conversations taking place online and off
Public relations firms that define the scope of their operations in terms between organizations and their publics, are secondary to the way an
of earned media or publicity might stop there, but many of the best firms organization acts.
have always gone further: many PR firms have long produced annual We have entered a true Age of Transparency, an environment
financial and corporate responsibility reports for their clients; produced of heightened scrutiny, in which every employee, every consumer,
8 www.holmesreport.com
11. Editorial Feature
every neighbor has access to channels that can deliver and amplify relations in its truest sense.
their experience with the organization to a mass audience. In that It’s a mistake because clients need to be able to identify the firms
environment, any inconsistency between a company’s messaging— with whom they do business as part of an industry. There’s little value in
whether the medium is earned, paid or owned—and an individual’s being the world’s only “perception management” firm (to take one terms
experience can be extremely damaging. adopted and swiftly abandoned by a leading public relations agency
And so public relations has to involve actions as well as words, and a decade or so ago) because relatively few clients are going to say to
public relations firms have to be prepared to advice companies on policy themselves: “We don’t need a brand consultancy or a PR firm, we need
and behavior, not just communications. Substituting just two words a perception management agency.”
in Page’s dictum, they need to remember that “the relationships of an And finally, it’s a mistake because it sells the people in our industry
organization are determined 90 percent by what it does and 10 percent short. If we are truly skilled at managing the relationships between
by what it says.” organizations and their stakeholders, at changing perceptions, at
Some will argue—indeed, some of the firms in this report have positioning brands and managing reputations, then the challenge of
argued—that embracing this agenda for their firms means abandoning changing the relationship between the PR industry and its clients should
the term “public relations,” that the term has become so corrupted, so not be beyond us.
misunderstood, so narrowly defined that clients are reluctant to accept Today, many clients respond to a PR firm that brings them a big
that a public relations firm can do all of the things required to managing branding idea, or a reputation management solution that requires
an organization’s relationships with its publics in the social media age. significant changes in corporate policy, or a communications
And so some will embrace other descriptors, or invent new terms to campaign involving events, website development, advertising, and
differentiate themselves from the mass of firms describing themselves as more, and says: “I didn’t expect all that; you guys are more than just
PR agencies and viewing themselves as part of the PR industry. a PR agency.”
We believe that’s a mistake. We need to get to a place where clients respond to a PR firm that
It’s a mistake first because there is really no better description than brings them an earned media strategy and says: “Is that all? I thought
public relations for what this new age requires. This is an age in which you guys were public relations people, not publicists.”
organizations need to focus on building strong, authentic, mutually As an industry, we can do that by accepting that we need to adopt
beneficial relations between themselves and the public. a public relations strategy in the true, traditional sense of the term:
It’s a mistake because all the other descriptions—particularly, as we we need to change our collective behavior and then we need to
have seen, “communications,”—imply something narrower than public communicate that change and what it means to our stakeholders.
Be Relevant, Stay Relevant
When something is truly relevant, the company, brand or cause becomes part of us.
Building relevance for our clients is at the core of our mission.
Discover Relevance at www.brodeur.com and download our Relevance white paper.
33 Offices Globally. Boston | New York | Phoenix | Portsmouth, NH | Washington, DC
www.holmesreport.com 9
12.
13.
14. Agency Report Card 2012
FREQUENTLY
ASKED QUESTIONS HOW WERE FIRMS SELECTED HOW DID YOU SELECT YOUR
FOR INCLUSION IN THEAGENCY AGENCIES OF THE YEAR?
REPORT CARD?
There are several criteria for inclusion. We met with many of the firms included in
One is size. We made every effort to include this Report Card personally, sitting through
the largest agencies as well as the leaders in credentials presentations and discussions
major geographic markets. about philosophy, culture, values, and
Awards were another indicator of quality, strategy. In addition to those meetings we
and we included many firms that had won spoke with more than 100 clients and industry
awards on a national or regional level. experts. In almost every case, we asked the
Finally, word of mouth was important. As we individuals which firms they most respected.
talked to participating firms, we asked them We also took into consideration growth and
who among their competitors they respected. industry recognition such as awards, which
As we talked to clients of participating firms, provide us with a unique insight into the way
we asked for their recommendations, and our participating agencies think.
Best Agencies to Work For survey identified Both historic positioning in a market—
firms that employees around the industry consistent leadership over time—and more
admired. recent accomplishments and performance
Of course, we were dependent on the were taken into consideration.
participation of the firms themselves. We
contacted more than 250 firms to invite them HOW CAN MY FIRM PARTICIPATE
to submit the detailed information we needed IN NEXT YEAR’SAGENCY
in order to create a thorough and accurate REPORT CARD?
profile. Many of them failed to respond and
several declined to participate for their own Simply contact our editor, Paul Holmes at
reasons. pholmes@holmesreport.com. Be prepared
to answer questions about your firm ranging
DO YOU EVER WRITE NEGATIVE from the general (what makes your firm
REVIEWS OF THE FIRMS YOU different from its competitors) to the specific
INCLUDE? (recent new business successes, awards
and recognition earned) and to include client
Not usually. Firms are included because we references or testimonials. We will start pulling
believe they are good enough to recommend together information for the 2013 Report Card
to our client-side readers. If we don’t think beginning in November of this year.
a firm is good enough to be included, we
exclude it, rather than wasting our valuable IS THERE ANY COST FOR
space and our readers’ valuable time with a INCLUSION?
negative review.
Absolutely not. Because the Report Card
reaches an extensive client-side readership—
both in the U.S. and globally—several
participating firms have chosen to advertise,
but firms are included on merit, not because
they have bought ads, and we would never
exclude a firm that didn’t advertise.
12 www.holmesreport.com
15. NEW RULES
PR has changed. Have you?
Social
monitoring
Visual
storytelling
News
optimization
Get your
guide to
today’s
PR here
lewispr.com/HolmesNA
Digital communications
from 24 offices globally
16. Agency Report Card 2012
LARGE AGENCY information.” And it clearly resonates with clients. Says
OF THE YEAR: Bryan McCleary, director of external relations at P&G’s
AGENCIES
OF THE YEAR baby care division: “At P&G, we are trying to move away
EDELMAN from thinking about people as consumers, to start to think
EDELMAN last won our Large Agency of the Year award about them as citizens and human beings, and the name
in 2005, which looks like an extraordinary oversight. In really speaks to that need.”
the intervening years, no firm has enjoyed better overall HONORABLE MENTION:
growth or made such an impressive contribution to the
DKC, EuroRSCG Worldwide, Taylor, WCG
positioning and thought leadership of the industry. It’s no
exaggeration to say that Edelman could justifiably have
won the award in any (perhaps even all) of the years
SMALL AGENCY OF THE YEAR:
since then, and so this year’s Large Agency of the Year MITCHELL COMMUNICATIONS GROUP
award is long overdue.
ELISE Mitchell founded her Arkansas-based public relations
It is also well-deserved not only on the basis of the
firm in 1995 and for a decade ran it as a sole proprietor-
firm’s accomplishments over the past seven years,
ship, barely registering on the national radar. In 2005,
but on the basis of a stellar 2011. At a time when
however, she began a transformative effort to create a
the public publicly-held PR agencies that make up
national, full-service agency—an effort that has paid spec-
Edelman’s peer group were growing on average in the
tacular dividends. Six years later, Mitchell Communications
mid-single digits, the only truly global independent saw
fee income growth in the region of more than twice Group ended 2011 with fee income in excess of $11 million
that level, ending the year with US revenue in excess of (up by about 75 percent) and a team of 60 serving some WCG102_07W_Ho
$380 million, with a team of 2,200 serving clients such major blue-chip brands including Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club,
as adobe, eBay, GE, Heinz, Merck, Microsoft, Shell, Hilton, Tyson, Procter & Gamble, Southwestern Energy,
Starbucks, and Unilever. New business in 2011 came and JB Hunt that would be the envy of most New York
from AstraZeneca, GE, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, agencies.. But Mitchell’s success is about more than just
Novartis, and many more. growth: it’s about committing to an approach that puts
And no firm has made more of a contribution to business counseling first; building an agency culture that
the soaring standing of the public relations industry. emphasizes both performance and values; and developing
Edelman was a pioneer in the digital and social a broad array of creative services—from digital to research
media realm, and remains an industry leader; its Trust to training—that impact client success on many fronts.
Barometer, now a decade old, has become the most HONORABLE MENTION:
quoted piece of intellectual property in the industry;
French/West/Vaughan, Kaplow, Padilla Speer
it has produced groundbreaking research on cause-
Beardsley, RF Binder
related marketing and developed new planning and
measurement tools; and established itself as one of the
industry’s employers of choice.
BOUTIQUE AGENCY
OF THE YEAR:
HONORABLE MENTION:
GolinHarris, Ketchum, Ogilvy Public Relations, CATALYST
Weber Shandwick FOUNDED in 2005, when it spun out of Taylor to focus on
its core sports and active lifestyles business (an entertain-
MIDSIZE AGENCY ment practice was quickly added), Catalyst was our New
OF THE YEAR: Consultancy of the Year in 2009, and has certainly justified
the predictions we made at the time. Last year saw growth
CITIZEN RELATIONS
of close to 20 percent, so that the firm ended 2011 with
CITIZEN Paine—the former PainePR, which rebranded fees of almost $6 million and a client list that includes
in mid-2011—has been producing a dazzling array of some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment:
creative work for a couple of decades now, so its seven Consumer Reports, ESPN, Glaceau Vitamin Water, NAS-
nominations for North American SABRE Awards (more CAR, Powerade, Purina, Subway, Timex, Under Armour
than any other midsize firm) were no great surprise. and Xbox 360 (which along with Dick’s Sporting Goods,
Those campaigns included work in the US for Procter Geico, and Skyy Spirits was new in 2011). The firm also
& Gamble (the Future Friendly and Give Education CSR strengthened its digital team with the addition of Shripal
efforts, digital work for Old Spice, social media outreach Shah (formerly with the Washington Redskins), opened an
for Pampers), Aflac (crisis management) and Duracell
office in Washington, DC; and produced award-winning
(cause marketing), as well as a Canadian project by
work for Dick’s (a cause marketing effort focused on
Citizen Optimum for Future Shop. But the firm’s 2011
athlete concussions) and Purina Dog Chow’s partnership
repositioning deserves at least as much attention.
with the movie Tintin.
Chief executive Daryl McCullough says the new brand
“reflects the democratization of communication and the HONORABLE MENTION:
changing landscape of how people receive and share Borders & Gratehouse, Lane PR, Revive, Spectrum
14 www.holmesreport.com
17. Agencies of the Year
NEW AGENCY OF THE YEAR: ton, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, Regina, Toronto, Vancouver and
Victoria, plus affiliates in four other markets) were thriving, not only in
FINN PARTNERS terms of size and growth but in terms of the kind of strategic public af-
RUDER Finn has already given birth to one hugely impressive midsize fairs and corporate communications work the agency built its reputation
independent, RF Binder, and in May of last year announced the forma- on. Now that Hill+Knowlton Strategies (thanks to the merger of H&K and
tion of another, with co-chief executive Peter Finn leaving to launch his Public Strategies) is again a significant player in that business globally,
own firm, Finn Partners (all three remain part of the Ruder Finn Group). it’s no surprise that the Canadian business is even more bullish on the
Finn Partners launched with an impressive footprint (160 people in New future. Longtime president Michael Coates has built an operation with
York, Chicago, Washington, DC, Los Angeles and San Francisco); a strengths in some of Canada’s key sectors—healthcare, energy and
strong client roster (the Jamaican Tourist Board, IEEE, Liz Claiborne, financial—and the firm’s work in the past 12 months ranges from launch-
Logitech, The North Face, Rosetta Stone, StubHub, Vonage, Hyundai); ing Sun Life Financial’s Inspire the Nation fitness movement to assisting
a formidable leadership team (Richard Funess, Howard Solomon, Alicia Cliffs Natural Resources with the controversial acquisition of iron mines
Young, Gail Moaney, and Noah Finn; and strength in technology, travel, in Quebec to crisis preparedness for low cost carrier WestJet to a high-
consumer and corporate affairs, and digital. The firm debuted just out- profile presence for Dolby at the Toronto International Film Festival.
side the top 10 US independents, with fees of $23 million, and quickly HONORABLE MENTION:
picked up new business (CTIA–The Wireless Association, NetZero and
Citizen Optimum, Edelman, High Road Communications, National
Vonage) and awards (for its CSR work with Hyundai). But Finn believes
PR
that in the long-term the firm’s key differentiator will be its culture and its
focus on people: a “true partnership” model.
LATIN AMERICAN AGENCY
HONORABLE MENTION: OF THE YEAR:
olmesReport_HalfPageAd_M01.pdf 1 9/13/12 2:53 PM
Story Partners, the10company
FSB
CANADIAN AGENCY OF THE YEAR: THERE’S plenty of interest in Latin America among big multinational
agencies, with Burson-Marsteller and Hill+Knowlton Strategies well-
HILL+KNOWLTON STRATEGIES established in key markets, Edelman and Weber Shandwick making
EVEN when Hill & Knowlton’s US operations were in the doldrums, the acquisitions, Ketchum launching a sports practice in Brazil, and leading
agency’s offices north of the border (wholly-owned in Calgary, Edmon- Spanish firms Inforpress and Llorente & Cuenca both expanding aggres-
18. Agency Report Card 2012
sively in the region. But our first Latin American Agency of the Year award CREATIVE AGENCY OF THE YEAR:
goes to one of a handful of local firms that have emerged as market
leaders in recent years. FSB was founded in 1980 by Francisco Soares M BOOTH
Brandao and today has revenues of $55 million, employing almost 400 NO practice within the public relations discipline has changed more as a
people across four offices in Brazil, and serving a client roster than in- result of the digital and social media revolution than consumer marketing,
cludes the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Sports, the Brazilian National and M Booth has changed right along with it, adding new capabilities,
Agency of Oil and Gas, and the Ministry of Tourism, and private sector new clients, and in 2011 a new positioning. It’s not just that M Booth has
giants Exxon Mobil, Ultra/Ipiranga, GSK, Oi, Microsoft, Pirelli and Roche. built an impressive social capability (though it has, with its own FirstWord
Increasingly global in focus, its social media work for Rio de Janeiro state digital practice and the shared resources of its parent company Next Fif-
government won a Cannes Silver Lion last year. teen doing strong work for brands ranging from American Express to The
HONORABLE MENTION: Macallan), but that it has developed a new approach, “creative science,”
which places a heavier emphasis on research and insight alongside the
Burson-Marsteller, Jeffrey Group, Llorente & Cuenca, S2 Publicom
firm’s well-established ability to develop breakthrough creative ideas. All
of that helped M Booth to approximately 20 percent growth in 2011, with
CONSUMER AGENCY OF THE YEAR: revenues of slightly more than $14 million and new business from brands
OLSON like Allianz, Banfi Vinters, Disney Consumer Products, Foursquare,
General Electric and longtime client Unilever.
CHICAGO-BASED Dig Communications, founded by Peter Marino in
2004, was already well on its way to being one of the hottest young PR HONORABLE MENTION:
firms in the country when it was acquired by Twin Cities ad agency Olson Carmichael Lynch Spong, Coyne PR, Fast Horse, Zeno Group
in December of 2010. That deal helped fuel an impressive 40 percent
increase in PR fee income for the firm, now operating under the Olson CRISIS AGENCY OF THE YEAR:
banner, ending the year at close to $11 million. That growth was driven
in part by new business from Mars, Reynolds and Dremel and in part by SLOANE & COMPANY
expanded assignments from the firm’s longstanding clients: MillerCoors, ELIOT Sloane’s 10-year-old public relations agency works across three
Wrigley and PepsiCo (which added brands such as Tropicana and Propel sectors: about a third of its business involves financial communications,
Zero to Brisk, Lipton Natural Iced Tea, Naked and others). Olson is best a third is public affairs, and a third is crisis—but across all three sectors
known for its creative consumer work, from an opportunistic effort on Sloane & Company earns its fees by delivering candid and courageous
behalf of the Skittles brand after Seattle Seahawks running back Mar- counsel directly to the C-suite at times of great stress. The past year
shawn Lynch celebrated a touchdown with a handful of the candy to the was a good one for the firm, which saw revenues increase by 10
launch of Dunder Mifflin branded paper for Staples subsidiary Quill.com. percent to around $11 million (though the bottom line has always been
But what catches the eye is the way the firm blends traditional consumer more of a priority than the top) and a host of high-profile assignments.
work with more corporate notions of CSR and community outreach Sloane was brought in by Philips Electronics to communicate with
through its proprietary Brand Anthropology approach. the global investment community a fundamental shift in its business;
HONORABLE MENTION: worked with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters to address a prominent
activist investor; helped Walgreens through a very public dispute with
Cone, DeVries PR, Lippe Taylor, Zeno Group
Express Script; and added Chesapeake Energy and the American Gas
Association to its clients in the issues-rich energy sector (where it has
CORPORATE AGENCY OF THE YEAR: picked up awards for its efforts on behalf of T Boone Pickens). Pound
FTI CONSULTING for pound—Sloane has a staff of about 20—few firms are doing as
much contentious, high-profile business.
WHEN FTI Consulting acquired what was then Financial Dynamics in
2009, it was a watershed moment not only for FD but for the PR industry HONORABLE MENTION:
as a whole: the first time a top tier firm had been sold to a management Levick Strategic Communications, Singer Associates
consulting firm rather than an ad agency or marketing company. The first
three years of the marriage between the two disciplines suggest a strong DIGITAL/SOCIAL AGENCY
degree of compatibility. FD—renamed FTI in 2011—has continued to OF THE YEAR:
thrive, with revenues up by a healthy 7 percent last year, and to benefit
from synergies in areas such as change communication and litigation SHIFT COMMUNICATIONS
and regulatory support. In the US, the firm picked up new business from SHIFT’S investment in an integrated offering that blends paid, owned
Novartis while continuing its high-profile work for Transocean (one of the and earned media reaped rich dividends in 2011, spurring growth of
companies at the center of the BP oil spill), Allstate, Comcast, The Dow around 15 percent. The firm’s digital capabilities encompass typical
Chemical Company, and Independent Petroleum Association; added tal- social media solutions, along with ecommerce, design/build and a con-
ent, most notably Robert Knott, who previously led the GE ecomagination tent marketing facility that has proved a true differentiating factor. Shift
work at Edelman; added new capabilities in digital and social media; and leveraged this offering to land some impressive new business, including
produced some impressive thought leadership, including a paper calling assignments from McDonald’s, AOL, Salesforce.com and H&R Block.
for CEOs to take on a more statesmanlike role. All of that took place in And there was plenty of eye-catching digital work, for Overstock.com,
a year that saw Ed Reilly named global chief executive and Mark McCall Zeo, Everbank and, perhaps most notably, a crisis brief for Applebee’s
promoted to head of strategic communication for the Americas region. that offers a model for crisis communications in the social media era.
HONORABLE MENTION: HONORABLE MENTION:
Abernathy MacGregor, Brunswick, Glover Park, Kekst + Company Edelman, Ogilvy PR, Weber Shandwick, Zocalo Group
16 www.holmesreport.com
19. Agencies of the Year
FINANCIAL AGENCY OF THE YEAR: est levels of that country’s government. And, Ogilvy probably deserves
some measure of credit for extricating itself from California’s ill-fated
JOELE FRANK WILKINSON BRIMMER KATCHER high-speed rail project.—AS
LAST year was another strong one for Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brim- HONORABLE MENTION:
mer Katcher, most obviously in terms of the mergers and acquisitions
APCO, Capstrat, Davies, Jones Public Affairs
arena: it was number one in mergermarket’s ranking by value of
deals working (handling 87 deals worth a combined $170 billion) and
TECHNOLOGY AGENCY
climbed to number two in terms of volume (it actually ranked number
one in Corporate control Alert’s similar league table), helping to keep
OF THE YEAR:
companies such as Airgas, Clorox, Family Dollar, Lionsgate, Potash SPARKPR
and Tenet independent. But M&A now accounts for less than a third SPARKPR’S growth story became a particularly compelling one in
of the firm’s overall work, with the largest part of its revenues coming 2011, as it surfed the startup wave to deliver a topline improvement
from ongoing investor relations and corporate communications work of 20 percent, and an expanded footprint that included new offices
and the rest split between proxy contests (the firm handled shareholder in New York and Los Angeles. The Bay Area firm lives and breathes
activism issues for Canadian Pacific, Family Dollar, Oshkosh and more) startup culture, but has increasingly proved able to transfer that
and crisis work including bankruptcies and restructurings and litigation sensibility to more well-established clients, handling high-profile
and regulatory action.—PH assignments such as Specific Media’s acquisition of MySpace, and
HONORABLE MENTION: NBC Today Show’s online presence at SXSW. Revenues of more than
$10m are generated by just 36 full-time staffers, thanks to a unique
Abernathy MacGregor, CJP, Kekst + Company, Sard Verbinnen
business model that warrants commendation. And there was plenty
of new business, from such companies as SocialVibe, the Bleacher
HEALTHCARE AGENCY OF THE YEAR: Report, Vevo, MSNBC, HootSuite, Crowd Factory, Greylock Partners
MARINA MAHER COMMUNICATIONS and Sugar CRM.—AS
LAST year was a big year for Marina Maher Communications, which HONORABLE MENTION:
picked up a global SABRE Award, expanded its digital and creative Airfoil, Atomic PR, Horn Group, Outcast
capabilities, and was acquired by Omnicom. Amid all that activity, it
would be easy to miss the fact that MMC, one known exclusively for
its prowess in the consumer realm, has become a major player in
the healthcare arena. A health and wellness practice that began life
focused very much on the wellness side of that equation (a natural
extension of its unparalleled expertise in marketing to women) has Creative Business Communications.
become a robust player in the pharmaceutical business too, drawing
on the experience of practice leader Diana Littman Paige (formerly of
Cohn & Wolfe) and others. The firm’s major clients include Merck, Novo
Nordisk, and Pfizer, with new business from Genentech and Fibrocell
contributing to 40 percent growth in the practice last year. Says Noreen CooperKatz combines the
Verbrugge, executive director of global communications at Merck:
“MMC has keen insight about what is on women’s minds, how to reach
professionalism, strategic thinking
them and what are the upcoming trends.”—PH and experience of a large global
HONORABLE MENTION: agency, with the nimbleness and
Biosector 2, ChandlerChicco, CooneyWaters Group, GCI Health
hands‐on client focus of a small
PUBLIC AFFAIRS AGENCY firm. Connect with us to get the
OF THE YEAR:
conversation going.
OGILVY
OGILVY may not seem an intuitive choice for the public affairs honor,
but a summary of its 2011 record reveals a depth of performance that
puts specialist and network rivals to shame. Ogilvy Government Rela-
tions racked up $20m in lobbying fees, making it the highest-ranked
PR firm on the list, thanks to big-budget retainers from such clients as
Blackstone Group, Chevron and Highstar Capital. The lobbying arm PUBLIC CREATIVE
was in fine fettle, but it was Ogilvy’s broader public affairs offering that RELATIONS DIGITAL SERVICES
caught the eye. The firm consolidated its reputation as a go-to-player
for high-profile government work, reeling in major new assignments for Creating corporate, Leveraging digital and Producing multi-media
marketing and public social media channels creative elements,
California’s new health insurance exchange; the Centers for Disease
affairs campaigns meetings and events
Control and Prevention; and the Essential Health Benefits Coalition.
The firm’s work for Mexico, overseeing efforts to reinvigorate the 205 Lexington Avenue, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10016 | 917.595.3030
country’s global reputation and tourism appeal, took place at the high- www.cooperkatz.com
www.holmesreport.com 17