PR Agency Edelman, New York

Edelman is a global public relations firm with consumer, finance, healthcare, technology and industrial practices. It employs over 3,100 people in 51 offices around the globe. Edelman was founded in 1952 by Daniel J. Edelman and is today led by his son President & CEO Richard Edelman. The firm is known for remaining private, despite an industry-wide trend towards consolidation, making it the largest private PR firm that exists today. It’s estimated that 40 percent of the company’s business is outside of the US.

Founding of Edelman

Edelman founder Daniel J. Edelman was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1920. At the age of five, Daniel had already shown a strong interest in writing. While he was quarantined to his room with the mumps, he typed notes to his mother on what he’d prefer to eat. He also created a neighborhood newsletter at a very young age after his family had moved to Manhattan. As he grew older, Daniel excelled academically. He graduated high school at 15, then enrolled at Columbia University.

During World War II, Daniel Edelman had been drafted into the army, where he analyzed German propaganda. Following the war, he held a job at CBS, then at a record company called Musicraft. During his time at Musicraft, Toni, a hair care company, was sponsoring weekly radio spots for their product. Edelman packaged a Mel Tormé record to look like one of Toni’s hair care products. The record made a strong impression on radio personalities who promoted the product on their shows because of the unique packaging. After the campaign’s success Toni decided to hire Daniel on to their own PR staff in Chicago. During his time there, Toni hired six sets of twins to travel to 75 cities across the country where consumers could compare the twin with professional salon hair and the one that used Toni’s at-home products.

Daniel Edelman worked at Toni for three years before, in 1952, Daniel told his boss he was planning to go into business for himself and was immediately fired. Soon after, Toni became a client of Daniel J. Edelman’s new firm.

Early Beginnings & Growth of Edelman

Edelman was founded with a team of three during the postwar boom. Their early clients included Sara Lee Co., ReaLemon, and other consumer brands. By 1960, the firm had about 25 accounts, including the country of Finland. The firm established offices in New York City (1960), Los Angeles (1967), London (1968), Frankfurt (1970), Montreal (1972) and Toronto (1972). By 1979, Edelman had a revenue of approximately $6 million. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Edelman grew aggressively internationally with new offices in Kuala Lampur, Beijing, Hong Kong, Sydney, Paris, Singapore, Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Madrid, Brussels, and Buenos Aires. They also expanded domestically in Silicon Valley, Sacramento, Atlanta, Miami, and Seattle.

In the 1990s the firm created several internal specialty groups:

• An in-house research firm called StrategyOne
• Started its interactive services division
• Created BioScience Communications for medical education and publishing services

During the same time period they also acquired:

• Issues advertising firm called Blue
• First&42nd, a management consulting and corporate social responsibility firm
• MATTER, an entertainment marketing and content firm

Daniel J. Edelman retired as CEO in 1996 at the age of 76. His son and current CEO Richard Edelman continued in his father’s footsteps. Daniel’s other children John and Renee also held high positions in the company. In 1997, Richard made it public that they had received purchasing offers from two of the company’s biggest competitors, and that they turned them down. Edelman would remain the only private firm amongst the top ten by revenue.

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