November 16, 2006

There is universal belief amongst the management of PR agencies around the world, that prospects will improve for their agencies, but their optimism is tempered by a growing recognition of 'new' threats to their businesses. Most noticeable amongst these is a perceived growing trend by clients to take back in-house those duties previously carried out by agencies. Other threats that are acting as brakes on their growth include a worldwide lack of experienced staff and market/economic factors such as slowing economies.

But most PR agency management remains bullish. And a new macro-economic business driver has appeared on their radar screen for the first time; a noticeable change in attitude towards the need to communicate (at both an individual and corporate level) that is fuelling a growing demand for public relations.

These are the principal findings to emerge from the Autumn 2006 edition of the ICCO World Report, which includes responses from affiliated trade associations based in fifteen countries around the world, from as far afield as Australia and India, to Turkey and the US. The trade associations that took part in the Survey collectively represent over 690 PR agencies, which employ over 12,600 staff.


Other key findings to emerge from the Report were:

• Healthcare Rules
For those agency leaders working on their 2007 business plans, healthcare continues to be the industry sector which offers the best growth prospects, followed by finance. And for the first time, the public sector has replaced IT as the next most desirable industry to target. Textiles remain rooted at the bottom of the growth league.

• Moving up the Value Chain
Corporate reputation and corporate communications has emerged for the first time as the area of specialisation or 'agency line of business' which offers the best growth prospects, followed by lobbying and public affairs. But third placed media relations continue to be the earnings powerhouse for most agencies.

Interestingly, despite the hype, few agency leaders see much growth potential for green-related issues, and 'environmental' joined sponsorship at the bottom of the growth prospects table.

• Majority of Agencies Remain Independent; for now
The majority of the world's PR agencies remain independent, but with significant regional variances. In Turkey, over 98% of the trade association's members were reported as being independent, whilst in Russia, this has dropped to just twenty-two per cent.

• International Assignments will Generate New Revenues
Almost all the countries predicted that the level of fees generated from international projects would increase in 2007, by as much as forty five per cent in Germany. The average predicted increase was a very healthy twenty-five per cent.

• Central And Eastern Europe and Asia Dominate Agency Thinking
Central and Eastern Europe and Asia remain key geographic areas of interest for most agency management, and all these regions are tipped to be the 'High Growth' areas for 2007.

• Where to locate your Global 'Hub'? Where else but Asia!
For the first time, trade associations were asked which geographic regions would emerge as future global hubs. China, Singapore and Hong Kong emerged as the most popular choices, but admittedly, from a low response rate.

• About the ICCO World Report
Each year the ICCO polls its twenty-nine trade association members to get feedback regarding the state of their local markets and to provide market information that will help each other. Each trade association submits a 'Country Report' based on a standard template. All these Country Reports can be downloaded from the ICCO website (www.iccopr.com).

The responses provided by the trade associations on behalf of their members are then compiled into the ICCO World Report which is published each Autumn.

These trade associations each represent independent PR consultancies in their own countries and the ICCO World Report therefore represents a useful barometer on the current opinions and attitudes of the global PR agency community.

This World Report includes actual data for the first six months of 2006 and predictions for the second two quarters.

Fifteen national trade associations took part in the 2006 survey. These trade associations included: Austria; Australia; Czech Republic; Russia; Germany; Greece; India; Ireland; Italy; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; Turkey; UK and the USA.

Copies of the ICCO Autumn 2006 World Report can be downloaded from the ICCO website: www.iccopr.com


Simon Quarendon
Secretary General
International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO)
Telephone: +44 (0)20 8392 6795
Email: simon@iccopr.com
websites: www.iccopr.com, www.iccosummitindia.com