Top PR Agencies

The global PR industry is bigger, and more concentrated at the top, than most people realize. According to PRovoke Media’s 2025 Global Top 250 ranking, the largest 250 firms produced a combined $15.7 billion in fee income last year, up 4.2% year over year. And the top of that market has been rearranged in ways that matter if you’re shopping for a PR agency in 2026.

That’s the industry the following agencies operate in. To build this list, we weighed PRovoke Media’s global rankings, PRWeek and SABRE Award wins, O’Dwyer‘s fee-income data, verified Clutch reviews, and Bulldog PR Award recognition (the only major PR awards judged by working journalists).

How We Chose These Agencies

Every agency on this list had to clear at least three of the following signals: a top-tier PRovoke or O’Dwyer’s ranking, a recent major industry award (PRWeek, SABRE, Bulldog, or Clutch Global), verified client reviews at scale, a client roster that speaks for itself, or measurable creative and campaign work.

We also intentionally included both holding-company giants and boutique firms. Most “top 10” lists you’ll find online are 100% enterprise agencies, which isn’t useful if you’re a founder or mid-market brand that can’t (and shouldn’t) commit to a $50,000-per-month retainer. Clutch and Trustpilot skew smaller, so boutique firms show up strongly there while the global giants dominate on the analyst and awards side.

1. Edelman

Family-owned since 1952, the firm has roughly 6,000 employees across 66 offices in 28 countries. It’s the largest independent PR agency in the world by fee income (approximately $1.1 billion annually) and holds the #1 spot on O’Dwyer’s 2025 global rankings at around $950 million.

Edelman publishes the Edelman Trust Barometer, now in its 26th year and the most-cited PR-industry research worldwide. The firm has the largest Fortune 100 corporate reputation roster of any PR agency, and it consistently leads in crisis, public affairs, and executive positioning.

Best for: Enterprise clients that need multi-market reputation, crisis, and public affairs capability at scale.

2. Weber Shandwick (The Weber Shandwick Collective)

Weber Shandwick, now operating under The Weber Shandwick Collective brand, is one of the flagship agencies inside Omnicom Public Relations Group following Omnicom’s November 2025 acquisition of IPG. It was named PRWeek’s Global Agency of the Year in 2024 and remains one of the two or three most influential holding-company firms in the world.

The Collective’s strengths are large-scale consumer campaigns, integrated corporate communications, healthcare, and technology. It has one of the deepest global benches in the industry, which matters if you’re running a coordinated campaign across multiple markets.

Best for: Global consumer brands that need integrated PR, social, and creative firepower.

3. FleishmanHillard

FleishmanHillard is part of Omnicom PRG and, as of early 2026, has absorbed Porter Novelli (the firm that pioneered social marketing in 1972) as a dedicated brand under its umbrella. Global CEO J.J. Carter has led the firm since October 2024, with Jillian Janaczek stepping in as Americas CEO in February 2026.

Fleishman is best known for corporate communications, crisis handling, healthcare, and public affairs. Clients tend to describe them as structured and disciplined, making it the kind of firm you hire when you need a defined process, not creative pyrotechnics.

Best for: Corporations that need structured, crisis-ready communications and deep public affairs expertise.

4. Ketchum

Ketchum is PRWeek’s most-awarded PR agency historically, and it returned to the winners list at the 2026 PRWeek US Awards for its work with Wendy’s. The firm merged with Golin in 2026 under the Omnicom PR banner, but it still operates as a distinct brand with its own creative identity.

Ketchum’s sweet spot is creative storytelling, thought leadership, and consumer PR, particularly food and beverage. It’s built for brands that want their campaigns to actually be talked about, not just placed.

Best for: Established consumer brands looking for creative campaign firepower and cultural resonance.

5. Ogilvy PR

Ogilvy PR is part of the WPP-owned Ogilvy network, and it had one of the biggest nights at the 2026 PRWeek US Awards: 11 winners and 22 shortlisted entries. It has also been named the Most Awarded Influencer Agency six years running.

The Ogilvy pitch is integration. If you’re a brand that wants earned media, influencer campaigns, and advertising running as one program with a single P&L behind them, Ogilvy is one of the few firms structured to actually deliver that.

Best for: Brands that want PR embedded inside a larger integrated creative and advertising program.

6. Burson

Burson was formed in 2024 when WPP merged BCW and Hill+Knowlton into a single firm, immediately creating one of the largest holding-company PR networks in the world. The consolidation gave the new firm an unusually deep bench for corporate reputation, crisis management, public affairs, and global communications.

Burson is particularly strong in regulated industries, geopolitics, and government relations, the kind of high-stakes work where you need advisors who’ve navigated it before. If you’re facing a reputational risk that could show up in Congress or across multiple regulatory bodies, this is one of a small handful of firms built to handle it.

Best for: Global corporations and regulated industries navigating serious reputational or regulatory risk.

7. Golin

Golin merged with Ketchum in 2026 under Omnicom PR. At the 2026 PRWeek US Awards, Golin stepped up from an Honorable Mention the year before to winning both Agency of the Year and Outstanding Consumer Agency, one of the most decisive year-over-year improvements at the top of the industry.

The firm’s reputation is built on consumer PR, cultural storytelling, and integrated brand campaigns. It’s the kind of shop that consistently produces work you actually remember.

Best for: Consumer brands that want award-winning creative work with holding-company scale behind it.

8. Finn Partners

Finn Partners is the largest independent agency on this list that isn’t Edelman. It was founded in 2011 when Peter Finn spun it out of Ruder Finn as a standalone business, and it’s since grown into one of the largest independents in the US through a mix of organic growth and acquisitions. In 2026, it was named to PRovoke Media’s 100 Best Agencies in the US.

The firm’s largest practice is healthcare (roughly $60 million in revenue), and it also has strong tech, travel, and purpose-driven practices. Its integrated model (earned, social, and paid running together) is a big part of why it wins launch work that used to go to holding-company firms.

Best for: Growth-stage and mid-market companies that want independent-agency attention with global reach.

9. Society22

Society22 is where the list transitions from holding-company giants to boutique firms with disproportionate reputations. Founded and led by celebrity publicist Danielle Sabrina, the agency was named a Clutch Global Award winner three times in 2026 and, in June 2026, was named Global Investor Relations Firm of the Year by Clutch. It holds a 5.0 rating on Clutch across 20+ verified reviews and has landed on the Inc. Regionals Northeast fastest-growing list two years running.

Its specialty is founder-led marketing, investor relations, IPO and M&A communications, and executive visibility, the exact set of moments where a growth-stage company needs senior PR judgment, not a rotating account team.

Best for: Founder-led and growth-stage companies going through fundraising, IPO prep, or executive-visibility campaigns.

10. Disrupt PR

Disrupt PR is an Austin-based independent boutique led by CEO Marin Richardson, a former on-air journalist for NBC News, CBS News, and Fox News with a master’s degree from Columbia’s journalism school. That background matters, because it’s what won the firm the Gold Award for Best Boutique Agency at the 2026 Bulldog PR Awards — the only major PR awards judged exclusively by working journalists. Disrupt was also named Best New PR Agency by the Bulldog Awards in 2023.

The firm has landed clients in The Today Show, The New York Times, CNN, Forbes, Entrepreneur, and The Wall Street Journal, and it’s listed among the top PR firms in Austin on Clutch. Its ten-person team is intentionally small, and Richardson personally oversees client strategy, a direct contrast to the “senior-led pitch, junior-led execution” pattern that shows up in a lot of larger-firm reviews.

Best for: Founders and mid-market brands who want a senior journalist leading their strategy, not a junior AE learning on the job.

How to Choose the Right PR Agency for Your Business

The best agency for your competitor isn’t necessarily the best agency for you. A few things to consider before you sign a retainer:

Match agency size to company stage. Holding-company firms typically require retainers starting around $50,000 per month, and their model depends on staffing accounts with a mix of senior strategists and junior executors. That’s the right choice for a multinational running coordinated campaigns across regions. It’s rarely the right choice for a Series A startup or a mid-market brand.

Prioritize sector fit over size. An agency with deep experience in your industry, even remotely, will almost always outperform a bigger generalist. The single biggest predictor of a successful PR engagement is whether the account team already knows the journalists who cover your space.

Ask who’s actually on your account. Award-winning senior leadership doesn’t matter if your day-to-day contact is a recent grad who’s still learning how to write a pitch. Get names, titles, and years of experience for everyone who will touch your account before you sign anything.

Vet reviews and awards separately. Clutch and Trustpilot reflect client satisfaction. Bulldog Awards reflect what journalists, the people your PR firm is actually pitching, think. PRWeek, SABRE, and PRovoke reflect what the industry itself considers the best work. All three matter, but they measure different things.

Understand what you’re paying for. Most traditional PR retainers cover media relations, executive positioning, and reputation work. Increasingly, they also touch content, influencer, and social. Make sure the scope on paper matches what you actually need — and that you’re not paying for capabilities you’ll never use.

The Bottom Line

The top of the global PR industry has consolidated, but it hasn’t weakened. Edelman still sets the pace on independent scale. Weber Shandwick, FleishmanHillard, Ketchum, Ogilvy, Burson, and Golin all have holding-company backing that gives them global reach few firms can match. Finn Partners is the strongest independent counterweight in the mid-market. And Society22 and Disrupt PR prove that boutique firms with the right leadership can compete on results with agencies twenty times their size.

Any one of these ten is a defensible starting point for a shortlist. The right one for you depends on what you actually need and whether the team you’re hiring is built to deliver it week after week, not just at the pitch.