PR · Manchester · 2026

PR agencies in Manchester: what the reviews and published work really show

Independent ranking: Sortlist does not rank itself, and agencies cannot pay for their position in this ranking.

By Nicolas Finet, Co-founder & CEO of Sortlist · Updated on October 9, 2026 · How we ranked

57 Manchester-area agencies are listed; almost none have reviews yet. Here is what can be verified, and how to check the rest.

The short version

Of the 90 PR providers listed on Sortlist, we evaluated the 88 most relevant profiles. 24 have at least 1 verified client reviews; 2 of them were set aside because they pay for a sponsored placement. Of the remaining 22, 3 agencies with a Manchester-area office and at least one verified client review that describes PR work were scored out of 100:

Reviews are scarce: of 57 agencies with a Manchester-area office on Sortlist, 53 have no review and none has ten, so we score only the 3 that have a review describing PR work – and say how thin the evidence is.
Published work is the next best proof: 3 local agencies publish PR projects, listed apart with their project counts and no score.
Judge PR on coverage you can open: ask for five recent pieces of coverage with links, and what each took to secure.
Cost: of 23 local agencies with a stated minimum budget, 21 start at €1,000 and 2 at €3,000 or more; retainers, media monitoring and events come on top.

Client rating – 50%average of verified reviews
Review volume – 30%how many clients back that rating
Published work – 20%PR projects you can check on Sortlist

Full methodology

Which PR agency in Manchester for which job?

With so few reviews, picks combine verified reviews, published work and agency size. Each line says which kind of evidence it rests on:

Best for fashion, beauty and lifestyle PR: Label PR – 4 verified reviews, all 5.0, from Bravissimo, Dare 2b and Regatta.
Best for a product launch across channels: RMS PR – a 51-person team and a verified review for a cereal brand launch.
Best for charities and community groups: Creation ADM – one verified review from a charity.
Best for digital PR and link-earning: Cedarwood Digital – 8 published projects, no reviews yet.
Best for press and influencer events: Carousel PR – a published Dyson launch event in Manchester, no reviews yet.
Best reviewed PR agency near Manchester: Prohibition PR (Leeds) – 6 reviews, 5.0, 3 describing campaign work.

What do PR companies do?

A PR company manages how an organisation is seen, mainly through the media and other people’s voices rather than paid advertising. Most agencies are stronger in one of these kinds of work – and several Manchester agencies describe theirs:

Types of PR work
Type	What it involves	Example in Manchester agencies’ own words
Consumer and lifestyle PR	Press outreach, product placement, influencer and ambassador programmes, events	Label PR: fashion, beauty and lifestyle; Carousel PR: festivals, retail, food and drink
Trade and B2B PR	Specialist and trade press, thought leadership, awards, conference speaking	Carousel PR: consumer and trade PR; RMS PR: internal and external communications
Digital PR	Earning links and mentions from news and industry sites to support SEO	Cedarwood Digital: SEO, paid and digital PR
Events and experiences	Launches, VIP and influencer events	Purple Riot, Carousel PR, Label PR
Reputation and crisis	Monitoring, statements, spokesperson training, issue management	Ask each agency for a case, as few publish them
Internal and corporate communications	Staff communication, change programmes, annual reports	RMS PR

How do PR companies work?

1
Onboarding and messaging
The agency interviews you, agrees the key messages, the audiences and the spokespeople, and builds a first list of target journalists and creators.
2
Stories, not announcements
It looks for angles editors care about: data, people, a local link, a launch with a visual. A press release is the container, not the story.
3
Pitching and relationships
Personal pitches to named journalists, creators and event guests; follow-up; managing interview requests and embargoes.
4
Events and content
Launch events, press days, influencer gifting and owned content, so that coverage has something to link to and share.
5
Reporting
A monthly or campaign report: coverage with links, the outlets and their relevance, referral traffic and enquiries.

What a PR report should show
Measure	What it tells you	Watch out for
Coverage with live links	Which outlets ran the story and what they said	Reports that list outlets without URLs
Outlet relevance to your buyers	Whether your customers read it	Counting every site equally, however small the audience
Referral traffic and enquiries	Whether coverage produced visits and leads	Vanity figures such as “reach” or advertising value equivalent
Share of voice versus competitors	Your visibility in your category over time	Comparing different time periods
Quality of mentions	Whether messages and the brand name appear	Passing mentions that do not name you

Mini-exercise before you sign: ask each agency for five pieces of coverage from the last year, with links, and for the story behind each one – how the angle was found, who it was pitched to and how long it took.

Manchester PR agencies with a verified PR review – independent ranking

Manchester PR agencies with a verified PR review – independent ranking
#	Agency	Score	Rating	Based in	From	Best for
1	Label PR	80/100	5.0 (4)	Manchester	€3,000	Fashion, beauty, outdoor and lifestyle brands that want PR, influencers and events together
2	Creation ADM	50/100	5.0 (1)	Manchester	€1,000	Charities and community organisations that need to raise their profile
3	RMS PR	50/100	5.0 (1)	Manchester	€1,000	FMCG and consumer brands launching a product across channels

3 Manchester agencies with a verified review that describes PR

Scored out of 100 with the same formula as all our rankings. Only 3 of the 57 Manchester-area agencies qualify, with between 1 and 4 reviews each: treat these as early signals, not a league table.

All three have a perfect 5.0, so the order is driven by review volume and published work, not by satisfaction. Speak to at least two references from any agency you consider.

1
Rank 1: Label PR
“LABEL PR is a leading 360° independent fashion, beauty and lifestyle PR Agency.”
80/100
- 5.0/5 (4 reviews)
- Manchester
- from €3,000
- 9 people
- English
- 0 published projects in this service
Best for: fashion, beauty, outdoor and lifestyle brands that want PR, influencers and events together
Label PR is a nine-person independent PR agency in Manchester specialising in fashion, beauty and lifestyle, fusing PR, content marketing and in-person experiences into digital campaigns. Its clients describe press outreach, TV features, influencer and ambassador programmes and collection launch events.
Why #1?
- A perfect 5.0 from 4 verified reviews, all of which describe PR work, from Bravissimo, Dare 2b and Regatta.
- Two of its clients have worked with it for three to five years – a sign of retention.
- Entry from €3,000.
Score breakdown: rating 100/100 · review volume 100/100 · published work 0/100
Less suited if you need a large team or a B2B and technology specialist – it has nine people and a consumer focus.
View Label PR’s profile
2
Rank 2: Creation ADM
“Making your communications matter”
50/100
- 5.0/5 (1 review)
- Manchester
- from €1,000
- 9 people
- English
- 0 published projects in this service
Best for: charities and community organisations that need to raise their profile
Creation ADM is a nine-person full-service digital, marketing, PR and design agency in Manchester city centre, mixing agency and client-side backgrounds to help organisations communicate their message better.
Why #2?
- A perfect 5.0; its one review, from a charity, praises its work in raising the organisation’s profile and public support.
- Entry from €1,000.
- PR, design and digital under one roof.
Score breakdown: rating 100/100 · review volume 0/100 · published work 0/100
Less suited if you want a track record – it has a single review on Sortlist.
View Creation ADM’s profile
3
Rank 3: RMS PR
“We are trusted by marketing teams and business leaders to deliver effective internal and external co”
50/100
- 5.0/5 (1 review)
- Manchester
- from €1,000
- 51 people
- English
- 0 published projects in this service
Best for: fMCG and consumer brands launching a product across channels
RMS PR is a 51-person agency in Manchester combining PR professionals, digital marketers, designers and web developers for internal and external communications. Its one review comes from a major breakfast cereal brand for a product launch campaign.
Why #3?
- A perfect 5.0; its one review praises a product launch campaign delivered on time and on budget, with all channels consistent in message and visual.
- The largest team among the three scored agencies.
- Entry from €1,000.
Score breakdown: rating 100/100 · review volume 0/100 · published work 0/100
Less suited if you want several references – it has a single review on Sortlist.
View RMS PR’s profile

Published PR work, but no reviews yet

These 3 Manchester-area agencies have published PR projects on Sortlist but no client review. We do not score them: a portfolio is what an agency chooses to show. It is still the best evidence available, and a reason to ask them for references.

Manchester-area agencies with published PR projects and no reviews
Agency	Based in	Team	PR projects
Cedarwood Digital	Greater Manchester, United Kingdom	12	8
Open Partners	Manchester, United Kingdom	150	1
Carousel PR	Greater Manchester, United Kingdom	33	1

Cedarwood Digital describes itself as a performance marketing agency specialising in SEO, paid advertising and digital PR, with 8 published projects. Carousel PR is a 33-person consumer and trade PR, digital and events agency in the Northern Quarter, specialising in festivals and the arts, retail, FMCG, food and drink, and health and beauty.

Agencies outside Manchester with client reviews

The Manchester listing also shows 18 agencies without a Manchester-area office that do have reviews. They can work with Manchester clients remotely; the last column counts reviews that describe PR work.

Agencies without a Manchester office on the Manchester PR listing, with reviews
Agency	Based in	Rating	Reviews describing PR
Be-cause Integrated Communications	Cape Town, South Africa	★ 5.0 (25)	19 of 25
Probey Services	Noida, India	★ 5.0 (132)	4 of 78
Prohibition PR	West Yorkshire, United Kingdom	★ 5.0 (6)	3 of 6
Liberty Marketing	Cardiff, United Kingdom	★ 4.9 (3)	2 of 3
NinjaPromo	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	★ 5.0 (50)	1 of 50
SK	Earley, United Kingdom	★ 5.0 (2)	1 of 2
AGCS Works	London, United Kingdom	★ 4.82 (36)	0 of 36
Bullshark	Birkirkara, Malta	★ 4.71 (14)	0 of 14
novi.digital	Lancashire, United Kingdom	★ 4.92 (8)	0 of 8
CWA Ltd	Leicester, United Kingdom	★ 5.0 (6)	0 of 6
HUB	Calverley, United Kingdom	★ 5.0 (6)	0 of 6
The Cowgirls	City of Westminster, United Kingdom	★ 5.0 (4)	0 of 4
Growth Division	London, United Kingdom	★ 5.0 (3)	0 of 3
Creatisan	Market Harborough, United Kingdom	★ 5.0 (3)	0 of 3
Behaviour Digital	Glasgow City, United Kingdom	★ 5.0 (2)	0 of 2
Koozai	Fareham, United Kingdom	★ 5.0 (1)	0 of 1
TONG Global	London, United Kingdom	★ 5.0 (1)	0 of 1
Visuable	Bristol, United Kingdom	★ 5.0 (1)	0 of 1

Two stand out for PR evidence: Prohibition PR, a 28-person PR and social agency in Leeds, and Be-cause Integrated Communications, a Cape Town agency with 25 reviews, 19 of which describe PR work – but it has no UK presence, which matters for UK media relations.

All 57 Manchester-area agencies on the listing

Every agency with an office in Manchester, Salford, Stockport or the rest of Greater Manchester that appears on Sortlist’s PR listing, sorted by reviews, then published projects, then team size. It is a directory, not a ranking.

Manchester-area agencies on the PR listing
Agency	Area	Team	Reviews	PR projects	From
Label PR	Manchester	9	4	0	€3,000
RMS PR	Manchester	51	1	0	€1,000
Digital Media Stream	Manchester	12	1	0	€1,000
Creation ADM	Manchester	9	1	0	€1,000
Cedarwood Digital	Greater Manchester	12	0	8	€5,000
Open Partners	Manchester	150	0	1	€1,000
Carousel PR	Greater Manchester	33	0	1	on request
SMMart Media	Greater Manchester	747	0	0	on request
McCann Manchester	Manchester	359	0	0	€1,000
Smarter New Business	Stockport	348	0	0	€1,000
Worship	Manchester	131	0	0	on request
Ear to the Ground	Manchester	86	0	0	on request
Red Havas UK	Manchester	52	0	0	on request
Truth Ltd	Manchester	37	0	0	€1,000
Drumbeaters	Manchester	25	0	0	on request
elliotts	Manchester	24	0	0	€1,000
Creative Concern	Manchester	22	0	0	on request
Manchester Active	Manchester	22	0	0	€1,000
WDC Creative	Manchester	20	0	0	€1,000
Inboxx	Manchester	19	0	0	on request

Show the 37 other agencies

Agency	Area	Team	From
Juicy Media	Salford	19	on request
The Neighbourhood	Manchester	18	on request
Vibe Studio	Manchester	17	on request
Hattrick	Sale	15	on request
K2L	Salford	14	on request
XYLO	Manchester	12	on request
Native Advertising Institute	Manchester	11	€1,000
YouLearnt	Manchester	11	€1,000
Boardwalk Studio	Manchester	8	on request
Forever Agency	Greater Manchester	8	€1,000
Intelligent Conversation	Manchester	8	on request
SKV Communications	Manchester	6	on request
Influx Digital	Manchester	5	€1,000
Wordsworks Ltd	Stockport	5	on request
WorldWidePR.net	Manchester	5	€1,000
Democracy	Manchester	4	on request
Galibier PR Ltd	Manchester	4	€1,000
Green Globe Media	Manchester	4	€1,000
Influential Agency	Greater Manchester	4	on request
Media Agency Group	Salford	4	on request
Red C Marketing	Salford	4	on request
Refresh PR	Greater Manchester	4	€1,000
Roland Dransfield	Greater Manchester	4	on request
Whale Marketing	Manchester	4	on request
Move It Marketing	Manchester	3	on request
Unhooked Communications	Manchester	3	on request
Winsoc digital	Manchester	3	€1,000
Buzzwords	Manchester	2	on request
Heavygate Marketing	Manchester	2	on request
HTP Digital	Manchester	2	on request
Infographics Designers	Greater Manchester	2	on request
SWP	Manchester	2	€1,000
T- sho Media	Manchester	2	€1,000
The Artlab Ltd.	Stretford	2	on request
CQ2 Creative Design & Digital	Manchester	1	on request
Digitally Brilliant Ltd	Manchester	1	on request
Young Creative	Manchester	1	on request

11 other agencies on the listing, outside Manchester and without reviews

Other agencies on the Manchester PR listing without a Manchester office and without reviews
Agency	Based in	Team	PR projects
Quatrième Jour	Paris, France	5	0
TRPR	London, United Kingdom	1	1
Manifest Group	London, United Kingdom	65	0
Summers-Inman	Kingston upon Thames, United Kingdom	122	0
Vision 2020 Group Canada	Toronto, Canada	99	2
The Everyday Agency	City of Westminster, United Kingdom	15	1
TLMT	Essex, United Kingdom	14	3
Amaze Realise	Greater London, United Kingdom	30	0
The Folk Group	United Kingdom, United Kingdom	10	0
connective3	West Yorkshire, United Kingdom	126	0
Internet Consultancy	Southampton, United Kingdom	57	0

Why almost no Manchester PR agency has reviews, and how to vet one without them

Many PR agencies work through word of mouth and keep client names private, so few ask clients to review them on a marketplace. Of 57 local agencies, 53 have none and 4 have between one and four.

Reviews of the 57 Manchester-area agencies on Sortlist’s PR listing

Number of agencies per number of verified client reviews on their Sortlist profile.

No review53
1 to 4 reviews4
5 or more reviews0

Show the data as a table

Category	Agencies
No review	53
1 to 4 reviews	4
5 or more reviews	0

Eight checks for an agency with no reviews

1
Ask for two references you can phone
Clients of at least a year, not only the logo wall. Ask what the agency did when something went wrong.
2
Open the coverage
Five recent pieces with links. Do the outlets match the audiences you want to reach?
3
Check the company
Search Companies House for the registered company: age, accounts filed on time, directors.
4
Look for industry membership
Membership of the PRCA or the CIPR shows a code of conduct and, for the CIPR, a route to chartered status – it is not a guarantee of quality.
5
Meet the people who will do the work
Not only the founder. Ask who writes pitches, who calls journalists and who reports.
6
Test the media list
Ask for ten target journalists for your sector and why each one. Vague answers mean a recycled list.
7
Start with a short project
A three-month trial or a single launch, with agreed deliverables and an exit.
8
Read the contract notice period
Retainers of twelve months with no break clause are the main risk.

Manchester PR names from other rankings

Other lists of Manchester PR firms name agencies we cannot assess for lack of reviews. We looked each one up on Sortlist:

How they look on Sortlist

These agencies have a Sortlist profile but no verified review that describes PR work, so we cannot score them:

PR Agency One (Chorlton-cum-Hardy) – Cited in Manchester rankings; 4 published projects on Sortlist, no reviews yet.
Purple Riot (Manchester) – Cited in Manchester rankings; 4 published event and brand projects, no reviews yet.
High-Rise Communications (Manchester) – Cited in Manchester rankings; no reviews or published projects on Sortlist yet.
Refresh PR (Manchester) – Cited in Manchester rankings; no reviews or published projects on Sortlist yet.
ITPR (London) – A UK PR agency named in Manchester lists; no reviews on Sortlist yet.
Web Tonic (Montréal) – A growth agency named in Manchester lists; 54 reviews (5.0) on Sortlist, but none describes PR and it has no UK office.

We could not find a Sortlist profile for Hendrix Rose PR, Smoking Gun, Zeus PR Agency, Brazen PR, Citypress, Renown, Fourth Day PR, I-COM, ICS-digital, Impression, Hot House Digital, The PHA Group or Journey Further, which also appear in other rankings. Without verified reviews on Sortlist, we cannot compare them fairly with the agencies above.

How we ranked the agencies

1. The sample

Sortlist lists 90 PR providers on this page. We evaluated the 88 agencies on both pages of the listing, in its relevance order. 24 of them have at least 1 verified client reviews – our threshold for a rating to be meaningful. 2 of those also pay for a sponsored placement and were set aside, leaving 22. Of these, 3 agencies with a Manchester-area office and at least one verified client review that describes PR work were ranked, with 6 verified reviews between them and an average rating of 5.00; the 19 others are listed separately.

2. The score

Scoring criteria
Criterion	Weight	How it is measured
Client rating	50%	Average of verified reviews, placed on a scale from the lowest (5.0) to the highest (5.0) rating in the ranked group
Review volume	30%	Number of verified reviews on a logarithmic scale, up to the most reviewed agency (4 reviews)
Published work	20%	PR projects published on Sortlist, on the same logarithmic scale, up to the highest count (0 projects)

3. Independence

Sortlist is a marketplace, not an agency: it does not appear in its own ranking.
Agencies cannot pay to enter the ranking or to move up. Agencies with a sponsored placement on this listing are excluded from scoring and shown separately.
The order of the listing page, subscriptions and badges play no part in the score – only the three criteria above.

4. Limits

Reviews reflect each agency’s work across all its services, and agencies with few reviews may be excellent but are not yet scored. That is why every entry says what it is best for – and when another agency would suit you better. The ranking is updated regularly.

How much do PR companies charge?

PR agencies rarely publish prices. On Sortlist, 23 of the 57 Manchester-area agencies state a minimum project budget: 21 start at €1,000, 0 lower, 0 between €1,001 and €2,999, 1 between €3,000 and €4,999 and 1 at €5,000 or more. Label PR starts at €3,000; RMS PR and Creation ADM at €1,000.

Minimum project budget of 23 Manchester-area PR agencies

Number of agencies per stated minimum project budget on their Sortlist profiles (agencies without a stated budget excluded).

0Under €1,000
21€1,000
0€1,001–2,999
1€3,000–4,999
1€5,000+

Show the data as a table

Category	Agencies
Under €1,000	0
€1,000	21
€1,001–2,999	0
€3,000–4,999	1
€5,000+	1

How PR agencies bill
Model	How it works	Ask before signing
Monthly retainer	A set number of hours or deliverables each month, usually with a minimum term	Hours per month, who works on the account, and the notice period
Project fee	A launch, an event or a campaign for a fixed fee	What is included in media outreach and what is charged on top
Hourly or day rate	Advice, media training, crisis support	The senior rate and the cap
Performance element	A bonus tied to coverage or leads	How “coverage” is defined – ask for links and relevance rules

Costs outside the agency fee

Media monitoring and databases: some agencies pass on the cost of tools used to find journalists and track coverage.
Events and product: venue, catering, samples and gifted products for creators are rarely in the retainer.
Creators and influencers: fees and gifts are paid on top; ask who negotiates them and who owns the content afterwards.
Production: photography, video and design for press kits and campaigns.

Manchester’s media landscape: what a local agency should know

A local PR agency earns its fee if it knows the North West’s editors and creators personally. Test that knowledge with specific questions:

Regional news and broadcast: the Manchester Evening News, and the BBC and ITV teams working from MediaCityUK in Salford. Ask which reporters the agency has placed stories with, and when.
Sector and business press: regional business titles and the trade press for your industry. For B2B, the national trade title often matters more than the local paper.
Creators and events: Manchester’s fashion, food, music and sport scenes drive much consumer PR. Ask for the creators the agency works with regularly and how it chooses them.
North West beyond the city: if you serve Liverpool, Lancashire or Cheshire too, check that the agency has contacts there. The listing includes agencies as far as Lancashire and Yorkshire, such as novi.digital and Prohibition PR.

If your audience is national, a Manchester address matters less than the agency’s national media contacts; if your customers are local, it matters a great deal.

About the author

About the author: Nicolas Finet

Co-founder and CEO of Sortlist. An entrepreneur passionate about B2B marketing and about helping companies grow, he has been connecting companies with the right marketing agencies across Europe since 2014. His focus: digital strategy, business development and scaling B2B marketplaces. He oversees this methodology and the data behind every Sortlist ranking.

LinkedIn · X (@nifinet)

PR projects published on Sortlist

Work published by Manchester-area agencies and the North West’s nearest neighbours:

VIP Press and Influencer Event Dyson

Carousel PR · for Dyson · Consumer electronics

A VIP influencer and press event in Manchester to build excitement and social coverage around the launch of the Dyson Zone headphones.

Creative Launch Event for Beauty Bay

Purple Riot · for Beauty Bay · Beauty retail

A creative influencer and VIP launch event for the retailer’s own eyeshadow range; the agency reports the products sold out the next day.

Digital PR / Product Placements for Loop Cashmere

Cedarwood Digital · for Loop Cashmere · Luxury fashion e-commerce

A digital PR campaign to land product placements for a young ethical cashmere brand, aimed at raising awareness and sales.

SEO and Digital PR Campaign for Zendbox

Cedarwood Digital · for Zendbox · Logistics

An integrated SEO and digital PR strategy to increase online visibility and B2B lead generation for a UK fulfilment centre.

Be Happy - Kurt Geiger Group

Prohibition PR · for Kurt Geiger Group · Fashion retail, Leeds

The launch of a footwear brand’s first boutique outside London and a relocated store, aimed at a Leeds consumer audience, alongside a new consumer website.

The Breath Inn – Black Sheep Brewery

Prohibition PR · for Black Sheep Brewery · Drinks, Yorkshire

The launch of a carbon neutral cask beer designed to appeal to consumers who care about sustainability rather than the traditional cask drinker.

Frequently asked questions

How to get free PR packages from companies?

PR packages are products brands send to journalists and creators in the hope of coverage. To be considered, build a consistent presence in one niche, prepare a short media kit (audience, demographics, examples of work), apply to brand ambassador programmes and pitch the brand’s PR or influencer team with a specific content idea. In the UK, if a brand gifts you a product and has any control over what you post, the post must be clearly labelled as an advertisement under the advertising rules, and failing to do so can lead to action by the ASA.

How to reach out to companies for PR?

Find the right person – a brand’s PR or communications lead, or its agency – rather than a generic address. Write five lines: who you are, what you offer, one proof point, what you ask for and a link to your work. Follow up once after about a week. If you are pitching a story to a company, lead with what is new and why its audience would care.

Should a Manchester business pick a Manchester PR agency?

It helps when your customers, media or events are in the North West: local agencies know the editors and creators. For national or specialist trade coverage, judge agencies on their contacts in your sector instead of their address, and consider the Leeds, London or remote agencies also on the listing.

How long does PR take to show results?

Expect the first coverage within one to three months for a news-led launch, and three to six months for a steady stream of coverage. Digital PR for SEO takes longer because links influence rankings gradually. Agree on early measures such as pitches sent and meetings with journalists, and on the first coverage target date.

How do I find a PR agency in Manchester on Sortlist?

Start with agencies that have a review describing PR work, then add those with published PR projects, then vet each with the eight checks above. You can also post your project for free and get matched with qualified agencies.