July 2026 / zeron remains among the top 60 in the PR ranking
Gerhard A. Pfeffer’s latest PR ranking has been published: zeron is ranked 60th this year. This means the Düsseldorf-based PR agency remains in the top 60, even though it has dropped six places compared with last year.
“Of course, the drop in the rankings is frustrating,” says Vivian Stürmann, founder and managing director of zeron. “But the result reflects what many agencies are currently experiencing: the market has become significantly more challenging financially. And that’s not leaving us entirely unscathed either.”
At the same time, zeron managed to increase its per capita income by 13 per cent, which pleases agency head Stürmann: “That is precisely what we worked hard on last year: becoming more productive, working in a more focused way, and developing services and service packages that are even better suited to what companies need.”
For the Düsseldorf-based PR specialists, the ranking also provides an opportunity to reflect on just how much the world of PR is changing. According to Vivian Stürmann, the biggest changes facing PR departments and agencies today are as follows:
1. Traditional media relations remain important, but are by no means the only pillar of PR any more. 2. Content needs to be approached in an even more integrated and cross-channel way. 3. AI is increasing the pressure to improve efficiency — both in agencies and within companies. 4. Traditional PR is increasingly shifting from media relations to influencer relations and community relations.
The key question is therefore no longer simply one of visibility in the media. The key question is how and where brands and companies need to establish a presence in order to remain visible, credible and relevant — amongst journalists, on social media, within communities and, increasingly, in AI systems.
