APAC revenue dips for Edelman as global revenue slips back to under $1 billion

Edelman dropped under the $1 billion global revenue mark after two years following another tough year of trading, especially in its main US market but also in APAC and the UK.

The firm’s like-for-like global revenues excluding currency fluctuations were $986 million last year, compared to $1.04 billion in 2023. Revenues in the U.S. were down 7.9%, from $639 million to $589 million.

On this basis, APAC revenues were down 11.5% from $103 million to $90 million; the UK dropped 5.2% from $113 million to $110 million; Canada was up 19.2% from $32 million to $38 million; and Latin America remained steady at $35 million.

“It was a challenging year for PR, but also for the entire communications sector,” said Edelman CEO Richard Edelman.

In terms of dropping back under the psychologically important $1 billion in revenue, Edelman added, "We're determined to get back there, but size was never a big thing for me. I just want to be big enough to have all of the industry sectors, practices and offices that enable us to be the premier communications firm."

The totals include United Entertainment Group, data and intelligence shop Edelman DXI, financial boutique Edelman Smithfield and public affairs consultancy Edelman Global Advisory, but not sister DJE Holdings agency Zeno Group. 

EMEA revenues were up 1.3% from $229 million to $235 million, with the UAE performing particularly well, up 33.4%, and Saudi Arabia growing 18.5% across the year. Germany was up 9.5%.

The three biggest sectors contributing to Edelman’s drop in revenues in 2024 were health, which was down 3.7%; tech, down 6.2%; and food and beverage, down 4.4%.

“Health, food and technology are a large part of our business,” said Edelman, who added that the tide had started turning. “We have won more than $5 million in new business in these areas in recent months.”

These wins include the COP30 account to support the sustainability summit in Brazil in November this year and two new healthcare accounts. New account wins in 2024 included Reynolds Consumer Products and America250.

Major client losses in 2024 included Adobe, which switched to Golin after a 20-year run at Edelman, Charles Schwab and Dairy Management, another two-decade relationship.

Edelman's food and beverage subsidiary Edible lost its decade-long estimated $9 million consumer marketing, media relations and issues management brief for Florida Department of Citrus to Padilla.

Departures from Edelman in 2024 included domestic crisis and risk practice lead Brooke Buchanan, who left Edelman to join Panera Bread as chief corporate affairs officer; COO, global brand Allison Cirullo, who joined Burson in April as global chair, consumer and brand; and Texas GM Will Crain, who left to become head of CEO communications advisory at Weber Shandwick.

US chief creative officer and global chief experience officer Taj Reid moved to Burson; while executive global creative director Jordan Atlas and EMEA co-chief creative officers Mattias Ronge and Stefan Ronge left Edelman to launch their own consultancies.

In December 2024, Edelman laid off 5.3% of its workforce, affecting 330 staffers. The cuts were in response to an expected decrease in revenue in 2024 of around 8% in the US and 3% globally, according to CEO Richard Edelman at the time, but the final global number came in at 4.9%, pushing the agency back under the $1 billion revenue threshold.

The DJE Holdings agency also closed sub-brands and conflict shops Edible, Revere, Salutem, Mustache, Edelman Global Advisory and Delta as a result of the restructuring, parting ways with long-time executives.

The world’s largest PR firm saw growth of 6.7% among its top 100 clients in 2024 and its global clients grew 2.8%. Its top growth sectors were government at 21% and retail at 9.4%; Edelman’s top growth offering was financial comms, at 6%.

In the US, retail was up 8.2%, public and government affairs was up 15.5% and social and business organizations were up 12.8%.

New hires included a boomerang back from Burson, Aaron Guiterman, as U.S. head of public and government affairs, and Edelman public and government affairs recruits Nikki Haley as vice chair, Emma Peacock as head of health policy and Luis Montero as head of technology policy.

Kirsty Graham was promoted to CEO of Edelman US; Rakesh Thukral to CEO of Edelman APAC; Lisa Sepulveda became global chief people and culture officer; Courtney Gray Haupt, co-chair of global health; Smita Reddy to president of Assembly and partner, global client management; Courtney Bigelow to partner,  global client management; Jen Hauser, co-chair, global health; Marie Claire Maalouf, EMEA chief creative officer; and Anthony Chelvanathan, global creative partner.

“We made some changes during the year, and I’m convinced they can improve the business,” said Edelman.

Edelman integrated a proprietary LLM product called ArchieAI into its TrustStream platform to deliver real-time, trust-building recommendations it says produce up to 96% accuracy, empowering brands to act instantly—40 clients now use TrustStream daily. 

Edelman won 16 Cannes Lions at the International Festival of Creativity last year, including becoming the first PR firm to win a Titanium Lion for DP World’s The Move to Minus 15, four Gold Lions, six Silver Lions and five Bronze Lions.

In 2023, Edelman’s global revenue fell 3.7% year over year in terms of constant currency to $1.04 billion. It was down 9.1% to $639 million in the US. The UK grew 3.6% to $113 million in revenue.