TL;DR

A PR firm earns its fee in four ways. First, it builds earned media, the coverage Edelman's 2026 research says moves trust more than anything a brand pays for. Second, it protects reputation before a crisis, because Edelman's 2025 data shows most consumers read brand silence as a sign the brand is hiding something. Third, it feeds AI search: Muck Rack's December 2025 analysis found 94% of AI citations come from unpaid sources. Fourth, it saves time while marketing budgets sit flat at 7.7% of revenue, per Gartner's 2025 CMO Spend Survey.

This page covers ten reasons to hire a PR firm, five detailed Talent Resources case studies with results (Dunkin', Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, The Children's Place, tm:rw with Shaquille O'Neal, and AXE), a checklist for choosing a firm, ten FAQs, and ready to publish schema. Talent Resources was founded in 2007 and works from London, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New Jersey, New York, Florida, and Riyadh.

PR and Brand Communications Services

10 Reasons to Invest in a Public Relations Firm in 2026

In today's crowded, fast moving business landscape, a positive public image is not a luxury, and PR and brand communications services are how companies build and protect it. It is the thing that decides whether a customer picks you, a journalist returns your email, or an AI assistant mentions your name at all. Whether you are an established competitor defending your position or a startup trying to claim one, public relations (PR) gives you a way to earn attention instead of renting it.

Not everyone agrees. Some argue a small business can skip PR. Others argue no company grows without it. The data from 2025 and 2026 leans toward the second camp. Edelman's 2025 Trust Barometer special report found that trust now carries the same weight as price and quality in purchase decisions. Muck Rack's December 2025 What Is AI Reading? study found that earned media accounts for 82% of the citations AI tools use to answer questions. When your next customer asks ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity about your category, the answer is built largely from coverage somebody else wrote about you, or about your competitor.

That makes this the right moment to invest in PR. If you still need convincing, here are the top 10 reasons, followed by five real campaigns from Talent Resources that show what a PR firm does when the work is done well.

Why PR Matters More in 2026 Than It Did Two Years Ago

Three shifts changed the math for brand leaders.

Trust moved from institutions to brands. Edelman reported in 2025 that 80% of people trust the brands they use, compared with 54% for government and 55% for media. A brand that earns trust owns an asset most institutions have lost.

Consumers narrowed their circle. Edelman's 2026 special report, Brand Growth in an Insular World, surveyed 17,688 people across 15 nations between April 23 and May 11, 2026. It found two thirds of consumers hesitate or refuse to trust people with different values, information sources, or backgrounds. For those consumers, unpaid voices are five times more powerful than paid brand voices at driving trust, and 46% say unpaid voices have the biggest impact on their willingness to trust a brand.

AI search made coverage the raw material. In Muck Rack's December 2025 analysis, about 94% of AI citations came from unpaid sources, and the overlap between the journalists PR teams pitch most and the journalists AI engines cite most was only 2% on average. Most teams are still pitching the wrong people for the AI era.

Put those together and the case is plain. Trust is earned, earned coverage feeds AI answers, and the teams that know how to earn it are PR professionals.

10 Reasons for Investing in a Public Relations Firm

1. Elevated Brand Awareness

The key benefit of working with a public relations firm, whether you search for a public relations firm in Los Angeles or a partner in another market, is that it lifts your reach and builds awareness among the audiences that matter.

PR promotes your products and services by winning the attention of the media. Guest blogging, press releases, and newsjacking work together to build a durable digital footprint. A firm that does this well also ties awareness to a thought leadership position, so audiences do not just see your name. They understand what your brand stands for and start to connect with it.

The evidence on why this works is strong. Among insular consumers, Edelman's 2026 data shows unpaid voices outperform paid brand voices by a factor of five on trust. Awareness built through coverage arrives with credibility attached, which an ad cannot buy.

2. Reputation Management

A business's reputation is one of its most valuable assets. A PR firm manages and protects it, making sure the right message reaches your audience through positive media coverage and measured handling of negative press.

Silence is not safe. Edelman's 2025 special report found that most respondents assume a brand that stays silent on societal issues is doing nothing or hiding something. The same year, Axios reported on the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer and noted that 7 in 10 people believe government officials, business leaders, and journalists deliberately mislead them. Your audience arrives skeptical.

A PR firm prepares for that skepticism. It builds a crisis plan before you need one, trains spokespeople, and keeps your story consistent across every channel. Brands in major media markets often start with a PR agency in New York because proximity to national outlets speeds up response time when a story breaks. The result is a brand image that holds up under pressure, because your market position depends on your image.

3. Get Your Story Told

Strong relationships with media outlets and journalists are required if you want your story told. A PR firm already has those connections and knows how to pitch so stories resonate with the target audience.

The pitching environment is tougher than most executives realize. In Cision's 2025 State of the Media Report, a survey of more than 3,000 journalists across 19 markets, 72% said press releases are the most useful resource PR teams can offer. Muck Rack's State of Journalism 2026 found 86% of journalists say PR pitches inspire stories, yet 88% delete pitches that miss their beat. Relevance decides everything.

Muck Rack's 2026 State of PR adds the other side: 71% of PR professionals report low journalist response rates. A firm with established relationships and a clear sense of each reporter's beat clears that bar more often. When you partner with a PR firm, you secure coverage that raises your credibility and visibility and reaches a wider audience than you could reach alone. For brands whose story involves talent, a specialist like a celebrity PR agency in New York adds the access that makes a pitch hard to ignore.

4. Developing the Right Content

Today's world is content driven, so what you say and how you say it matter. A PR firm guides you in creating content that reflects your brand's values and objectives, from blog posts and press releases to newsletters and social updates, with messaging that stays consistent.

Journalists tell us what good looks like. In Muck Rack's State of Journalism 2026, the most valuable pitch elements were clear relevance, credible sources, original data, and strong visuals, and reporters prefer one to one emails under 200 words sent before noon with a single timely follow up. Muck Rack's State of PR 2026 found 80% of PR professionals already use generative AI, which raises the bar: anyone can produce a draft, so the value sits in judgment, original reporting, and a point of view.

A good firm edits for substance. Our own thinking on this is in our guide to modern PR strategies for consumer brands.

5. Developing and Preserving Trust

Trust is the foundation of any successful business. A PR firm helps you build and keep it by making sure your messaging is consistent, transparent, and aligned with your audience's values.

The payoff is measurable. Edelman's 2025 research reported that trust now sits level with price and quality as a purchase consideration for the first time, and 80% of people say they trust the brands they use. Edelman's 2026 special report adds that trust and relevance together nearly double consumers' willingness to support a brand as it expands to new audiences.

Continuous, strategic communication with customers and stakeholders builds loyalty and long term relationships. That is hard to do while running a business. A firm experienced with consumer brands, such as a public relations firm in New York built for consumer brands, does it every day.

6. Strategic Planning That Aligns PR With Business Objectives

A PR firm does not just react to what happens inside your organization. It plans communication around your business goals. If you are launching a product, rebranding, or entering a new market, the firm builds a communication strategy that supports that objective and moves you toward it.

Budget pressure makes this discipline more valuable. Gartner's 2025 CMO Spend Survey of 402 marketing leaders found budgets flat at 7.7% of company revenue for the second year, with 59% of CMOs saying they lack the budget to execute their strategy. Paid media took 30.6% of those budgets. When money is tight, every dollar needs a job, and a PR plan tied to a launch date, a sales target, or an entry into a new market gives earned coverage a clear job.

Looking ahead, Gartner's "Top Predictions to Inform 2026 Comms Strategies," as reported by Communicate Online, predicts that by 2027 mass adoption of public large language models as a replacement for traditional search will double PR and earned media budgets. Treat that as a forecast, not a fact. One PR commentator has questioned it noting that the path from insight to doubled budgets is far from certain. The direction, though, is consistent across sources: earned media is gaining strategic weight.

Launches are where planning pays off fastest. See how we approach them in our product launch campaigns work.

7. Navigate the Digital Landscape and Manage Social Media

Social media is the most powerful tool for engaging an audience, and it is also easy to get wrong. A PR firm brings the guidance to handle the platforms' complexity: creating compelling content, answering feedback, and keeping your presence consistent with your brand.

The money is following attention. Influencer Marketing Hub's 2026 Benchmark Report puts the global influencer marketing industry at about $32.55 billion in 2025. In the same survey, 87.49% of brands expected to raise influencer budgets in 2026, and TikTok was the most selected platform for 2026 investment at 31% of respondents (figures as compiled by this 2026 statistics roundup). On the PR side, Muck Rack's State of PR 2026 found 60% of PR professionals call LinkedIn the most valuable social platform for their work, against 18% for Instagram.

Platform choice is a strategy decision, not a guess. A firm that runs PR and social together avoids the common failure where the press story says one thing and the feed says another. Talent Resources runs both through its social media management for consumer brands service and its combined PR and social media work.

8. Enhance Visibility Online With SEO and AI Search

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the work of earning a higher position in search results, which increases traffic and helps people find your website. PR contributes to it directly. Media relations, content creation, and social media all feed your brand's search profile, and a good firm earns high quality backlinks from credible sources while producing content that matches your audience.

In 2026 the same work also feeds AI search, sometimes called generative engine optimization (GEO). The numbers are hard to ignore:

• About 94% of AI citations come from non paid sources, and earned media alone accounts for 82%, according to Muck Rack's December 2025 What Is AI Reading? report.

• The overlap between the journalists PR teams pitch most and the journalists AI engines cite most is only 2% on average, per the same report.

• Nearly three quarters (73%) of PR professionals say GEO matters to their strategy, yet 29% say no one at their organization owns it, per Muck Rack's State of PR 2026.

• Gartner research, as cited by Communicate Online, reports that more than 95% of links in AI answers come from non paid content, with 27% originating directly from earned media. Different studies define "earned" differently, which is why Muck Rack's 82% and Gartner's 27% differ. Both point the same way.

The practical takeaway is simple. Coverage in outlets that AI engines read is now a search asset. A PR firm that understands which outlets matter, and keeps coverage fresh, helps you appear in the answers your buyers read.

9. Establish Your Brand as a Leader in Your Industry

Thought leadership means sharing ideas and expertise so people see you as an authority in your field. It sets your brand apart from competitors. With a PR firm you get there through bylined articles, features in industry publications, and speaking engagements.

The industry is leaning on the same tactics. In Muck Rack's State of PR 2026, 55% of respondents named securing coverage in high authority publications as their most common tactic, and half said they are producing more data driven content. LinkedIn's lead among PR platforms tracks the same rise in executive visibility work.

A firm helps you build influence by choosing the right topic, the right author, and the right outlet, then repeating the pattern until your name is attached to your subject. For brands that sit at the crossing of entertainment, sport, and consumer culture, a sports and entertainment marketing partner adds platforms most agencies cannot reach.

10. Efficiency in Time and Resources

Managing your reputation, your media relationships, and your content takes time, tools, and expertise. When you hire a PR firm, you spend less effort on those tasks than an in house team would need, and you can concentrate on what you do best, which is running your business. The firm brings industry knowledge, tools, and experience to deliver outcomes that are hard to reach alone.

The workload is real. Muck Rack's 2026 survey found 49% of PR professionals pitch more than 20 journalists per campaign, 61% point to smaller or shrinking media lists, and 66% rate their work stress as high. A specialist team carries that load daily.

To be fair, AI is changing in house economics too. In Gartner's 2025 survey, 22% of CMOs said generative AI has reduced their reliance on external agencies for creativity and strategy. That makes the choice of agency sharper, not smaller. The firms worth hiring are the ones with relationships, access, and judgment that software does not replicate.

When a business starts, building a positive image sits at the top of the to do list. Many founders rely on product quality and client relationships to create word of mouth. Those matter, but they rarely produce the reach, the credibility, or the AI visibility that a deliberate PR program does. Hiring a PR firm is an investment in the future of your brand.

Talent Resources Case Studies: What a PR Firm Does in Practice

Talent Resources has worked with more than 400 brands since 2007, from startup direct to consumer labels to global consumer companies, and from emerging creators to megastars. The five campaigns below show how PR, talent procurement, and social strategy work together. Each links to the full case study on our site. Campaign figures are Talent Resources reported results for the campaigns described.

Case Study 1: Dunkin' x The Big Game

Client: Dunkin' | Industry: Food and Beverage | Deliverable: Celebrity and Influencer Marketing, Media Relations Full case study: Dunkin' Super Bowl Campaign

The challenge. A Big Game broadcast is one of the most crowded advertising environments in the world, with dozens of national brands competing for the same audience on the same night. Dunkin' needed its spot to do more than air well. A strong ad alone rarely produces a story that lasts for weeks. It needs a celebrity pairing with real narrative value and a press strategy that keeps the campaign in circulation after the game ends.

What Talent Resources did. The agency led the celebrity strategy and secured national media coverage for Dunkin's commercial starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. Rather than treat the pairing as a one night cameo, the team built the campaign around the storyline already attached to the two stars: their real life marriage, and Affleck's earlier turn in a Dunkin' drive thru ad. That gave editors a reason to write about the commercial as a story, not just report it as an advertisement.

On the media relations side, Talent Resources worked the talent side of the partnership and drove press pickup across entertainment and marketing trade outlets before and after the air date. This is the part of the work that separates PR from media buying. Coverage before the game builds anticipation. Coverage after the game extends the life of the campaign well past its 60 seconds of airtime.

Results. Talent Resources reports that the campaign generated more than 2 billion impressions and more than $800 million in earned media value, became the number one trending topic during Big Game weekend, and sold out its campaign merchandise in 19 minutes.

Why it matters for a PR buyer. The Dunkin' work illustrates reasons 3 and 6 above. A story was told because the pitch had a real hook, and the plan was built around a business moment instead of a calendar date. It also shows the Edelman 2026 point in practice: the value came from what the press and the public said about the campaign, not from what the brand paid to place. A brand with one big moment each year can make that moment last for months when a firm treats the media plan as part of the creative idea.

Takeaway. If your brand has a tentpole moment, a launch, or a major partnership, plan the press story with the creative, not after it.

Case Study 2: Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves

Client: Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves | Industry: Gaming, Sports and Entertainment | Deliverable: Influencer and Creator Campaign Full case study: Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves

The challenge. Fatal Fury is a legendary fighting game franchise, and bringing it back meant winning attention from a generation that did not grow up with it. Gaming audiences are among the hardest to reach with traditional advertising. They spot forced promotion quickly, and they reward content that feels native to their community. The relaunch needed cultural relevance, not just reach.

What Talent Resources did. The agency ran a culture first campaign that connected gaming, sports, and entertainment. Talent Resources brought global creators KSI and IShowSpeed together for a cinematic game trailer, pairing two of the most recognizable names in creator culture around a franchise that needed a new audience.

The team then moved the story off the screen. Boxing activations in London and New York created real world moments, with head to head Fatal Fury experiences and high profile celebrity attendance that connected the game to sport and entertainment. A Times Square activation extended the reach further through creator participation, celebrity visibility, event content, and social media engagement.

This layered structure is classic integrated PR. Each moment gave journalists and creators something new to cover, and each one reinforced the same message: this franchise is back and it belongs in today's culture.

Results. Talent Resources reports more than 100 million social impressions for the campaign, with the activations drawing wide attention across gaming and entertainment audiences.

Why it matters for a PR buyer. The campaign shows reasons 1 and 9. Awareness was built through credible voices instead of banners, and the brand borrowed authority from creators its audience already trusts. It also matches Edelman's 2026 finding that insular audiences give far more weight to unpaid voices than to brand messaging. Note that the same Edelman report found insular consumers distrust celebrities in general, at 42%, which is why the match between talent and audience matters so much. KSI and IShowSpeed worked because they belong to the gaming conversation, not because they were famous.

How the PR thinking applies. A gaming relaunch lives or dies on credibility with the community. The agency's job was to make sure every touchpoint, from the trailer to the boxing events to Times Square, felt like something fans would choose to share. That means briefing creators on the franchise's history, giving them room to speak in their own voices, and timing each reveal so the conversation never went quiet between moments. Brands considering a similar launch can read more in our work on creator campaigns at scale and our experiential marketing and live events service.

Takeaway. Choose talent for fit with the community you want to reach, then build physical and digital moments around them so the story keeps moving.

Case Study 3: The Children's Place

Client: The Children's Place | Industry: Children's Specialty Apparel | Deliverable: Brand Awareness and Influencer Marketing Full case study: The Children's Place Case Study

The challenge. The Children's Place is the largest pure play children's specialty apparel retailer in North America. Every holiday season it promotes a matching family pajamas program, and the category is crowded with retailers fighting for the same shopper in the same weeks. The brand needed a voice that felt warm, family friendly, and credible to parents, delivered through channels where parents spend time.

What Talent Resources did. The agency secured fun, family friendly celebrities to help promote the matching pajamas program, and it has done so across multiple consecutive holiday seasons. Talent Resources identified and negotiated with the talent, then supported the program through social content and publication coverage, so the partnerships reached families both on social feeds and in the press.

The long running nature of the relationship is itself a result worth noting. Seasonal retail is unforgiving, and brands only continue a program year after year when it earns its place. A repeated engagement also lets a firm refine the formula: learn which talent resonates with parents, which creative formats travel, and which moments in the season deserve the most attention.

Results. The case study reports millions of impressions through social media and publications across the program.

Why it matters for a PR buyer. This case speaks to reasons 5 and 10. Trust is built through consistency, and a family brand earns it by showing up in the same way each season. It also shows efficiency in practice: the retailer's marketing team focused on product and merchandising while the agency handled talent sourcing, negotiation, and press. It supports Edelman's 2025 finding that trust now ranks alongside price and quality. For a family purchase, a recognizable face that parents already like acts as a trust signal at the moment of decision.

How the PR thinking applies. Family brands carry a higher bar for tone. Parents notice when a partnership feels forced, so talent selection starts with a simple question: would this person plausibly appear in a family photo with the product? Talent Resources treats that screen as part of brand safety, alongside the usual checks on public record and audience fit. The same discipline applies to the press side. Publication coverage works best when the story gives editors something seasonal and useful, not a plain product announcement, which is why the agency pairs each celebrity with a clear family angle. Our thinking on this appears in our guide to celebrity partnerships and brand awareness.

Takeaway. For seasonal programs, treat the first year as the foundation. Repeat partnerships compound, and the second and third seasons are where a program starts to feel like a tradition.

Case Study 4: tm:rw x Shaquille O'Neal

Client: tm:rw | Industry: Innovation Retail and Retail Technology | Deliverable: Celebrity Partnership, Talent Procurement, PR and Earned Media Full case study: tm:rw x Shaquille O'Neal

The challenge. tm:rw is an innovation retail concept in Times Square. A new retail brand needs more than a grand opening. It needs a credible name attached to it, a story that business and consumer media will both cover, and visibility among consumers, investors, and industry stakeholders at the same time.

What Talent Resources did. The agency identified, secured, and negotiated a long term partnership between tm:rw and Shaquille O'Neal, structuring it so he joined as an Investor, Equity Partner, and Global Ambassador. This is celebrity procurement at the deal level: not a one off endorsement, but a structure that gives the talent a real stake in the outcome.

Talent Resources did not stop at the signature. The team developed and executed the full communications strategy around the announcement, securing coverage in Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, WWD, the New York Post, Entrepreneur, Access Hollywood, and other major outlets. That mix matters. Financial press validates the business. Fashion and retail trades speak to the industry. Entertainment and tabloid outlets reach consumers.

Results. Talent Resources reports more than 533 million media impressions and about $4.9 million in earned media value, which made tm:rw a category defining name and put Shaquille O'Neal at the center of the brand story.

Why it matters for a PR buyer. This is reason 3, getting your story told, and reason 9, building authority, in a single campaign. An equity partner gives journalists a genuine news angle that an ordinary sponsorship does not. It also shows why combining a talent agency's access with a PR agency's pitching in one team, as in our work on celebrity talent procurement and partnerships, shortens the path between the deal and the headline. The people who negotiate the partnership also know how to announce it.

How the PR thinking applies. The announcement was designed for several audiences at once. Investors want to see a credible partner and a clear business model. Industry trades want to understand what is new about the concept. Consumers want a reason to visit. By securing placements across financial, fashion, and entertainment media, the team spoke to each group in the outlet it already reads. Planning the outlet mix before the announcement, and giving each outlet an angle suited to its readers, is a core part of how Talent Resources runs launches. Related reading: best strategies for finding celebrity influencers for a product launch.

Takeaway. The structure of the deal shapes the story. Ask your PR partner to be in the room before the contract is signed, because the announcement is only as strong as the news inside it.

Case Study 5: AXE

Client: AXE (Unilever) | Industry: Men's Grooming and Consumer Products | Deliverable: Talent Procurement, Celebrity and Influencer Activations, Experiential Events Full case study: Talent Resources x AXE Case Study

The challenge. AXE had a perception problem. A once dominant brand had lost cultural relevance, and a new advertisement would not repair that. The brand needed to be seen in the right rooms, with the right people, over a sustained period, so that editors, influencers, creators, and entertainment personalities began to associate it with something current.

What Talent Resources did. The agency ran a multi year program of high impact talent procurement and experiential activations. Over the three year campaign period, it produced PR and social moments across three Super Bowls, two Sundance Film Festivals, and three consecutive summers in the Hamptons. Each setting reached a different audience: sports fans, film and culture tastemakers, and the summer social crowd in the Northeast.

Repetition was a deliberate strength. A one time event is a news item. A program that shows up year after year, with fresh talent and fresh content, changes how a brand is perceived. The activations connected AXE with editors, influencers, creators, and entertainment figures, and generated sustained social and press exposure instead of a single spike.

Results. According to the case study, the strategy contributed to AXE returning to growth during the three year campaign period. Talent Resources attributes that return to growth to the sustained effort and does not claim it as the only cause.

Why it matters for a PR buyer. AXE is the clearest example of reason 2, reputation management, because the problem was perception and the solution was patient, consistent communication. It also reflects the 2025 and 2026 Edelman guidance that brands win trust through action, not declarations. Edelman's 2026 data says that in an insular world, brands do not get a license to declare they are relevant. They have to prove it through experience. Three summers of showing up is how a brand does that.

How the PR thinking applies. Rebuilding perception takes discipline about where a brand appears. Each setting in the AXE program was chosen because it put the brand in front of a specific group of tastemakers: sports and entertainment audiences at the Super Bowl, film and culture figures at Sundance, and summer lifestyle audiences in the Hamptons. The agency used talent procurement to place the right people at each event, then turned the moments into social content and press opportunities. Brands facing a similar challenge can explore our Super Bowl and award show activation work and our large brand activations capabilities.

Takeaway. Reputation repair is a multi season project. Set the expectation early, pick recurring moments, and measure change over the full period instead of month to month.

What the Five Campaigns Have in Common

Across the five campaigns, the same pattern appears.

• A real hook. Dunkin' had a married couple and a prior ad. tm:rw had an equity partner. Fatal Fury had two creators at the center of gaming culture.

• Talent that fits the audience. The talent in each case belongs to the conversation the brand wanted to join.

• PR and talent work as one system. The people sourcing and negotiating with talent also shape the press story.

• Moments, not messages. Each program produced events, trailers, activations, or announcements that gave journalists and fans something to react to.

• Time. The Children's Place and AXE show that repeated engagements compound.

If you want a team that has done this across more than 400 brands, see our full case study library or start a conversation with our team.

How to Choose a PR Firm

Choosing a firm is a business decision, so treat it like one. Use this checklist.

1. Define the outcome first. Write down the business goal, such as a launch, a reputation repair, or entry into a new market. A firm cannot be judged against a goal you have not set.

2. Ask for relevant case studies with named results. Look for brands in your category or with a similar problem, and for figures that can be checked. Our guide to choosing a PR agency in New York lists the questions to ask.

3. Test their media relationships. Ask which outlets they have placed stories in during the last year and who made the introduction. Cision's 2025 data shows relationships still lead, with 85% of journalists saying the best way to build one is to introduce yourself by email, even without a story to pitch.

4. Check the measurement plan. Ask how they report coverage, message pull through, and AI visibility. Muck Rack found 39% of PR professionals are not measuring GEO success at all.

5. Confirm the team. Meet the people who will do the daily work, not just the person who sells the contract.

6. Look for integration. If your story involves talent, creators, or events, a firm that handles PR, talent, and social together avoids handoffs. See our evaluation guide for entertainment PR services and our overview of PR and brand communications.

7. Ask about crisis readiness. A firm should show you a crisis process before you hire it, not after something goes wrong.

8. Be wary of guarantees. No honest firm can guarantee coverage in a specific outlet.

Why Brands Choose Talent Resources

Talent Resources was founded in 2007 by Michael Heller and began with a single conviction: relationships matter more than databases. What started as talent procurement grew into a full service agency covering PR, social media strategy, and paid amplification. The firm is headquartered in New York and works with A list talent across film, television, music, sports, and the creator economy.

What sets the agency apart for PR buyers:

• Talent and PR under one roof. The team that negotiates the partnership shapes the announcement, as in the tm:rw and Shaquille O'Neal deal.

• Case studies across categories. Food and beverage, gaming, retail, consumer products, and innovation retail, with named talent and reported results.

• Experience across more than 400 brands. From startups to global consumer companies.

• Moment marketing. Experience building campaigns around Big Game weekends, film festivals, and cultural tentpoles.

• A global footprint. Offices in London, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New Jersey, New York, Florida, and Riyadh.

• An independent position. The agency represents the full range of talent instead of a closed roster, which means recommendations start from your brand's needs.

For brands that want a firm built around celebrity led communications, Talent Resources is the strongest fit we know of, and we say that with the obvious caveat that this page was written by Talent Resources. Judge us by the case studies, and ask us for references.

Talent Resources Office Locations

• New York (headquarters)

• Los Angeles

• San Francisco

• Atlanta

• New Jersey

• Florida

• London

• Riyadh

Ready to Invest in PR?

Book a consultation to talk through your goals with the team. Prefer to start smaller? Request a strategy session and we will outline where earned media, talent, and social can move your numbers. Already know what you need? Get a custom proposal. You can also browse our full range of services or read more on The Source blog.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What does a PR firm do for a business?

A PR firm earns media coverage, shapes your messaging, manages your reputation, and prepares you for crises. It pitches journalists, writes press materials, trains spokespeople, and tracks results. In 2026 it also helps your brand appear in AI search answers, since earned media supplies most of the sources those tools cite.

2. Is it worth hiring a PR firm for a small business?

Yes, when you have a clear goal such as a launch, a funding round, or entry into a new market. A small business has less brand recognition, so third party coverage carries extra weight. Start with a focused scope, one story and a few target outlets, then expand as results come in.

3. How much does a PR firm cost?

Cost depends on scope, market, and the seniority of the team. Most firms charge a monthly retainer, a project fee, or both, and celebrity talent fees are separate. Ask for a written scope, the named team, and the metrics you will receive before you sign. Talent Resources provides custom proposals after a strategy call.

4. How long does it take to see results from PR?

Expect early signals such as media conversations and pitched stories within the first one to three months. Meaningful coverage and reputation change usually take longer, often two to three quarters. Brand repair is slower still. The AXE program ran three years, and Dunkin's Big Game campaign built its results around one fixed moment.

5. Why does earned media matter for AI search?

AI tools build answers from sources they judge credible. Muck Rack's December 2025 study found about 94% of AI citations came from non paid sources and 82% from earned media. Coverage in respected outlets therefore improves the chance an AI assistant mentions and describes your brand accurately when buyers ask questions.

6. What is the difference between PR and advertising?

Advertising is paid placement you control. PR earns coverage from journalists and creators who decide independently what to publish. Edelman's 2026 research found unpaid voices are five times more powerful than paid brand voices at building trust among insular consumers. Most brands need both, with PR supplying credibility that ads cannot buy.

7. How do you measure PR results?

Measure coverage in target outlets, message pull through, share of voice, social reach, referral traffic, and AI visibility. Tie them to a business goal such as sales, sign ups, or investor interest. Muck Rack reports that 39% of PR teams do not yet measure GEO success, so ask any firm how they track it.

8. What should I look for when choosing a PR firm?

Look for relevant case studies with named results, direct relationships with the outlets you need, a clear measurement plan, and a team you will actually work with. Check whether the firm can handle talent, social, and crisis work under one roof. Ask for references and avoid firms that promise guaranteed coverage.

9. Why do brands hire Talent Resources for PR?

Talent Resources combines PR, celebrity talent procurement, and social strategy in one team. Founded in 2007, it has worked with more than 400 brands and delivered campaigns for Dunkin', AXE, tm:rw with Shaquille O'Neal, Fatal Fury, and The Children's Place. The same people who secure talent also shape the press story.

10. Where are the Talent Resources offices?

Talent Resources is headquartered in New York and has offices in London, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New Jersey, Florida, and Riyadh. The agency works with brands across the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. Contact the team through the Talent Resources website to find the office closest to your market.