Best 15+ Public Relations Agencies in Montreal

If you want to work in the field of public relations, here are the items that will help you start your career.

A college degree doesn't matter much to work in PR agencies, but most job postings will ask for a bachelor's degree. Most people who work in PR agencies develop a strong grasp of language, style, and both oral and written communication skills by earning a bachelor's degree in fields similar to journalism and communications.

As in most areas, one of the most critical roles in the PR industry is the connections you have. Because the nature of the job is to engage with audiences and manage their brand identity and reputation, PR firms look for people who are already on social media and are good at networking. Being active on social media and participating in industry-related pieces of training, events, and conferences, meeting people in the industry, and developing your network will be very logical steps for those who want to get a job in PR agencies.

When you're ready to apply for a job at PR agency, make sure your resume showcases your social and creative skills. Use your cover letter to showcase not only your achievements and experience but also your personality. When creating your resume, you can pretend you're writing a press release or blog post that aims to promote your brand in a positive way.

The top five PR agencies in the world are as follows:

• Edelman

Edelman, the world's largest PR firm with more than 6,000 employees and a revenue of $984.9 million in 2021, is an American PR and marketing consulting firm founded in 1952 by Daniel Edelman. It is currently managed by Daniel Edelman's son, Richard Edelman.

• Weber Shandwick

Weber Shandwick is an American PR firm founded in 2001 by the merger of Weber Group, Shandwick International and BSMG. In 2021, it took the second place in the ranking of the world's largest PR agencies with a revenue of 860 million dollars.

• BCW (Burson Cohn & Wolfe)

Burson Cohn & Wolfe, which put $772 million into its coffers last year, is a New York-based multinational PR and communications firm. In February 2018, parent WPP Group PLC announced that it had merged its subsidiaries, Cohn & Wolfe, with Burson-Marsteller. The combined agency is now known as Burson Cohn & Wolfe.

• Fleishman Hillard

Fleishman Hillard St. Louis, Missouri is a PR and marketing agency. The company, which generated $680 million in revenue in 2021, was founded in 1946 by Alfred Fleishman and Robert E. Hillard. It is currently headquartered in Missouri, USA.

• Ketchum

Ketchum; is a global public relations firm that provides marketing, branding and corporate communications services in the corporate, healthcare, food & beverage and technology industries. Ketchum, which is on the list of the five largest PR agencies in the world with its revenue of $ 550 million in 2021, was founded by George Ketchum in 1923 as a Pittsburgh-based advertising company. Its headquarters are now located in New York.

PR agencies make money by charging their clients for the services they provide. Some may charge an annual fee as a registrar, a monthly fee as a service fee, or a per-project fee. Usually, a deal contract is signed between a business PR agency before the business starts.

The amount required to set up a PR agency and provide public relations support to individuals and businesses will of course vary depending on the type of PR agency, the services the agency intends to offer, and the location where the agency will be established. The initial cost of a PR agency considers equipment and materials expenses, fees to start a business, software expenses, office space expenses, employee and freelancer expenses, website costs, and advertising and marketing costs. It ranges from $20,000 to $50,000.

The amount companies have to pay to cooperate with PR agencies will vary from agency to agency, depending on the services requested and the size of the agencies. To say an average price, we can say that it is around 1,000-15,000 dollars per month.

PR agencies help their clients in many ways and provide expert service. These are as listed below.

Reputation management: One of the main services offered by PR agencies, this tactic may include email newsletters, social media management, responding to comments and engaging with followers.

Crisis Management: Most of today's companies may encounter some corporate crises at certain times. Therefore, asking a PR agency to prepare a crisis communication plan has become very common in collaboration with PR agencies.

Media Relations: The media is undoubtedly the best way for companies to build their reputation and make their name heard. PR agencies are firms that specialize in properly managing the relationship between media and companies. Tactics that PR agencies employ include writing offers to journalists and influencers to get more coverage in industry news and media.

Social Media: Social media platforms are the most important place where companies can communicate with their target audiences and play a critical role in brand reputation management. Expert PR agencies also offer the best service to companies in the correct use of social media.

Speech Writing: PR agencies are the best place to get help when companies need to speak at press conferences and events. All speeches made on behalf of the company should represent your brand as a whole. If anyone from your company needs to give a speech, you may want to consider hiring a PR agency to take over the strategic messaging.

Press Releases: PR agencies also take an active role in press releases that companies need to write to announce their new products, launches, campaigns or movements. A hashtag to launch on social media about a new product etc. PR agencies can share with you the most useful ideas for the movement.

As in every organization, there are many specialists with different abilities and job descriptions working in PR agencies. The teams of PR agencies are generally as follows:

Strategy Team: This team usually monitors the work, when a new client comes to the agency, this team examines the structure of the client company and creates appropriate strategies accordingly, and shares them with the relevant teams. They form a kind of roadmap.

Editorial Team: This team, which is responsible for the creation of texts to be used in relations with the press, has a good command of the rules of journalism. They produce the best texts by working meticulously on the reflectance of the brand language of the messages, their compliance with the language of journalism, spelling mistakes and expression disorders.

Media and Press Relations Team: This team, whose most important task is to establish strong relations with the press, ensures that the press releases from the editorial team are published in the right channels and reach the widest media organs it can reach. It is also the responsibility of this team to organize press lists and make updates when necessary.

Creative Team: This team, which manages the design part of the business, takes on creative roles such as supporting the projects with visuals. It is the duty of this team to make the designs to be shared with the press the most creative and interesting.

Customer Relations Team: It is the team that manages the relations of the agency with the companies and individuals it cooperates with, prepares studies taking into account the feedback received from the customers, and shares these studies with the relevant people.

Reporting Team: As every agency does, PR agencies present the results of their work to their clients through reports. The work of the reporting team guides the development of new strategies.

The tactics used by public relations departments in many parts of the world have traditionally been limited to media relations and event planning, and social media has become more popular lately. The aim is to win potential customers and try to protect the public image of the company.

Montreal has some different aspects from other places. Here, public relations are not limited to just providing visibility and helping to market products. It also includes strategies for building and improving a company's reputation.

Where PR agency staff are mostly confined to helping market products, PR professionals have a significantly lower status than Montreal, which has a broader role that includes corporate reputation strategy and management.

The top public relations position is usually an executive position that reports directly to the CEO Montreal.

The way to understand the difference between PR agencies and advertising agencies is to make the right distinction between the concepts of PR and advertising.

While PR serves the purpose of increasing the prestige, image and recognition of an institution or person, advertising aims to increase the sales of a good or service or to spread an idea. Therefore, these two concepts are separated from each other in terms of basic purposes.

Another important point that distinguishes the concepts of PR and advertising is the target audience. In PR, the target audience of the institution is the public, but in advertising, the target audience includes a limited audience in line with the area of ​​​​the goods or services to be sold.

The third difference between PR and advertising is their working time. Since there is a long-term image work or communication of an institution in PR, the studies are continuous and uninterrupted because creating the perception always requires a long process. On the contrary, in advertising, the work is intermittent and periodic due to certain periods when products or services come to the fore.

PR agencies with a wide range of services; strategically handle many communication processes such as reputation management, perception management, media relations, and crisis communication. The main purpose of PR agencies, which undertake the brand awareness and reputation management of the people and companies they work with, is to support these people in drawing a reliable image in the sector. It tries to prevent material and moral losses, thanks to the crisis communication plans that it carries out in advance or instantly against possible crises. It strengthens the foundations of the relationship with the target audience and the press, and increases brand awareness and brand loyalty, with many activities such as press release distribution, special news and interview studies, and TV program guests. PR agencies do all of these items in a professional and systematic way. PR agencies can also align PR and marketing goals, increasing your reputation as well as driving more sales.

In short, PR agencies help the people and companies they collaborate with to be more visible in the sector and make their voices heard by their target audience, thanks to their strong media relations.