The Prolific North Top 50 PR Agencies 2025

Prolific North has delved into the data from Mustard’s research, which reveals that pre-tax profit for the top 10 agencies in this year’s list surged by 39% compared with last year.

Further down the ranking for agencies placed 11 – 50, it is a mixed bag as pre-tax profit increased by just 2%. Overall across the Top 50 PR agencies, balance sheets were down 7.5% while revenue was up 8% and headcount was largely flat at -0.5%.

We’ve also analysed how the Northern PR landscape has evolved over the past decade.

“They say ‘turnover is vanity and profit is sanity’, but over the past decade of collecting data, the combined turnover of the top 50 has increased by an impressive 42% from £74.9m in 2020 to £106m in 2025. This is more notable when compared with the more modest growth in combined turnover of 9% in the preceding 5 years from £68.7m in 2015,” explains Robyn Mason, research manager at Mustard.

Headcount has grown at a more modest pace, rising 15% between 2020 and 2025, compared with an 11% increase in the previous five years.

“This, in itself, isn’t too surprising to find that bigger agencies are achieving more with less. This suggests PR agencies in the North are operating with greater
efficiency, stronger capability and more mature, consultancy-led models than we saw ten years ago,” explains Mason.

“This is also likely symptomatic of the changes the PR industry has witnessed in the last 10 years. The shift from “traditional” PR to digital has accelerated. PR is now much more about online media, social platforms, SEO, content marketing, and digital storytelling than it was a decade ago. With that comes increasing automation and efficiency. Many are offering broader services too – the last decade having seen a growth in areas such as reputation management, crisis comms and ESG / values-driven strategic communications – strengthening agencies’ ability to weather market fluctuations and sustain year-on-year revenue growth.”

A big congratulations to everyone on the ranking this year – and to Citypress for retaining the top spot for a second year running!

There is also a minor shift in the top 10 as Manchester’s Bottled Imagination has climbed nine places to eighth, while Leeds-based iseepr slides into ninth position.  Well done to everyone featured on the list this year, including the high climbers and new entrants on the list too.

Join in the conversation on social media using the hashtag #PNTop50