PR and communications agency leaders are upbeat and bullish about the year after spending 2025 recalibrating their businesses.
A new CPRA Agency Leader Sentiment Survey, shared exclusively with B&T, has found agency bosses are energised, positive and excited, with one leader saying “battle on, with confidence”.
Of the 56 agency leaders polled, seven in 10 anticipate revenue growth for 2026, with 62 per cent predicting more than a 5 per cent lift.
In terms of profitability, nearly three quarters (74 per cent) forecast growth with 58 per cent indicating it would be above 5 per cent.
In fact, business performance was easily the biggest priority for agency bosses, chosen by 82 per cent, followed by efficiency and productivity gains (37 per cent) and deploying AI tech to improve efficiency (30 per cent).
Other priorities include retaining existing clients, converting new business opportunities better, creating new products and offerings.
“2025 was a tough year. Margins across the industry declined to an average of 7 per cent, according to the CPRA 2025 Benchmark Survey, and most agencies spent time and money in 2025 restructuring and transforming businesses to better match changing market and client needs,” CPRA chairperson Helen Hutchings told B&T.
“Our 2026 sentiment survey shows our agency leaders feeling the hard work in transforming teams and service offerings is largely done, and they face this year significantly more confident about growth.”
CPRA Agency Special Interest Group chair, Chris Savage, told B&T that “earned first agency” leaders have spent the past year recalibrating their business and teams to be match fit, and are now starting to see dividends.
“The biggest progress they see is in the rebuilding of teams which are better skilled to deliver real value for clients in a fast changing communications environment,” he said.
“They also see a ‘coming of age’ of client recognition of the critical role earned first plays in building brands, and in building and protecting reputation.”
Nonetheless, PR agency leaders remain due to various factors that will continue to place pressure on their business models.
According to the survey, the major barriers to growth are staff costs, clients wanting more for less, smaller budgets and scope creep.
“We have to be bolder with pricing,” one agency boss said. Another noted that AI needs to be leveraged for efficiency and effectiveness.
Although broadly positive about being ‘match fit’ and clients appreciating the value of PR, agency leaders noted several frustrations with clients.
Chief among these are pushing agencies to work at breakneck speed and then the partnership becoming bogged down by slow client decision making and procurement. One described this as a “race to the lowest cost”.
A squeeze on budgets, short-term commitments to budgets and projects, and unrealistic expectations with “outrageous deadlines” and “short lead times” were also bugbears noted by some.
“The biggest barrier they face is dealing with a client community that is under massive pressure, which has led to a demand for more from less from agency partners. That’s fair enough,” Hutchings said.
“What’s not fair is the expectation for ‘free work’ that is damaging agencies the most. This comes in the form of scope creep, aggressive demands from procurement and a growing trend to pitch out every project.”
Savage also picked up on the ‘more from less’ trend, noting that it amounted to agency staff essentially working for free.
“This was seen by the majority of respondents as a massive issue that needs constant work,” he said.
“Unlike many other sectors of the broader industry, earned first professionals are often delivering the value in real time, not through back-room activity, but by experience, knowledge and insights provided in the moment through counsel. The quality of the team is the most critical tool in the armoury, and this is coming at a cost.”
Savage concluded: “The PR agency industry faces into 2026 with more confidence, clarity, commitment and energy than I’ve ever seen. The business models are still under pressure, but their market offering is sharper and more critical than ever before.”
