The person who pitched you runs the account.
Ask who will be on your weekly call in month six. If the answer is a name you have not met, the senior attention ends at the proposal.
Alternatives / Edelman
Edelman alternatives for companies that want a partner on the account.
Edelman is the largest PR firm in the world and the right call for many global mandates. If you are a venture-backed company or an established brand that wants senior people doing the work, and PR integrated with brand, messaging, and AI search, here are five agencies built differently. One is ours.
Client coverage includes
The pattern
Why growth companies look beyond a global network.
The reasons are rarely about quality. Edelman does excellent work. They are about who does the work, and whether press, brand, and search are run as one program.
- The senior team that won the pitch handed the account to a junior team within a quarter.
- Onboarding took six weeks before a single reporter received a pitch.
- The quarterly review measured impressions, not named stories the CEO could share with the board.
- PR, brand, and digital sat in separate practices with separate scopes and separate reports.
- AEO and GEO work was on a capabilities slide, not in the account plan.
The criteria
What to look for in an alternative.
Press targets, not impressions.
The proposal should list specific outlets, specific beat reporters, and the angles being pitched. "Share of voice" and "media equivalent value" are not deliverables.
AI Overview and LLM citation work.
Coverage is the input. If the agency cannot connect it to schema, llms.txt, and citation tracking in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini, you are paying for half the result.
PR at the center of brand and messaging.
Positioning, messaging, and executive voice should be built to survive a reporter's first question, by the same team that pitches the story.
Relationships, not a database.
Ask how the agency reaches independent journalists, newsletter writers, and creators your buyers follow, and how that coverage is disclosed.
A shared board, not a monthly slide.
A live workspace where you see the pitch list, sends, replies, and placements as they happen. If the only artifact is a monthly deck, you are paying for the deck.
The list
Top alternatives to Edelman.
Four independent firms plus ourselves. Capabilities and pricing for other firms are estimated from public client lists, trade-press reporting, and practitioner interviews. We are first only because we wrote the page.
1. Digitize (that is us)
A PR-led brand and marketing agency. Senior-only core team, every engagement led by a partner, backed by a vetted network of 200+ independent journalists, contributors, and creators. Tier-one PR sits at the center, with brand strategy, messaging, executive thought leadership, digital, and AEO/GEO built to compound it. Client coverage includes USA Today, Bloomberg, Forbes, Business Insider, and TechCrunch.
Strengths: partner-led senior attention, PR integrated with brand and AI search visibility, independent journalist and creator network.
Limits: not built for Fortune 500 investor relations, global crisis command, or simultaneous programs in 30 markets.
Price: Authority Retainer from $15,000 per month (6-month minimum), Tier-One Launch from $25,000 per project, Enterprise Program from $30,000 per month.
Best for: Series A and later companies, established consumer brands, enterprise and multi-location brands, executives building a public profile.
Request a proposal2. Bospar
Independent US B2B tech firm, founder-led, known in its own marketing as "politely pushy." Senior-heavy staffing, strong analyst relations, and a track record placing enterprise-software leaders in WSJ, Forbes, and Fortune. Excellent on classic media relations for B2B.
Strengths: senior operators, B2B tech depth, analyst relationships, crisis experience on tech accounts.
Limits: limited explicit AEO/GEO practice, less suited to consumer brands.
Price: Industry estimates suggest $10,000 to $20,000 per month.
Best for: Series B+ B2B SaaS, cybersecurity, enterprise infrastructure.
3. Mission North
Independent firm focused on tech, climate, and impact categories. Strong editorial instincts, tier-one placements across NYT, WSJ, and Bloomberg, and a reputation for sharp writing. A good fit for a climate-tech or AI-infrastructure company with a real story.
Strengths: editorial craft, tech and climate beat relationships, strong writing.
Limits: narrower category focus, less suited to consumer or multi-location brands.
Price: Industry estimates $15,000 to $30,000 per month.
Best for: Series B+ climate-tech, AI infrastructure, enterprise software.
4. Inkhouse
Independent US agency with offices in Boston, San Francisco, and New York. Covers B2B tech, consumer, and financial services. A middle-ground option between a global network and a specialist: more practice breadth, still independently owned. Their consumer practice has placed brands in Allure, Vogue, and The Strategist.
Strengths: multi-practice capacity, solid B2B and consumer beats, independent ownership.
Limits: explicit AEO/GEO work is not a headline practice.
Price: Industry estimates $12,000 to $25,000 per month.
Best for: Series B+ B2B, mid-market consumer brands, combined PR and content needs.
5. Highwire PR
Tech-focused independent firm with deep benches in enterprise infrastructure, cybersecurity, and fintech. Known for analyst relations work (Gartner, Forrester) alongside media relations. A fit for a later-stage software company that wants a recognized tech-PR name without a global network.
Strengths: enterprise tech depth, analyst relations, strong in cybersecurity.
Limits: less suited to consumer or multi-location brands.
Price: Industry estimates $15,000 to $35,000 per month.
Best for: Series C+ B2B enterprise software, cybersecurity, fintech.
Head to head
Side by side: Digitize vs Edelman.
The full comparison is on the vs page. The short version is here. Numbers for Edelman are estimates from publicly reported sources.
| Dimension | Digitize | Edelman |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $15,000/mo or $25,000/project | ~$15,000+/mo (industry estimate) |
| Who runs the account | A partner, every engagement | Account team, seniority varies by account size |
| Team model | Senior-only core team plus 200+ independent journalists, contributors, and creators | 6,000+ employees globally |
| PR, brand, and AEO/GEO | One integrated program | Separate practices, scoped separately |
| Named AEO/GEO practice | Yes, core discipline | Digital practice, GEO varies by team |
| Contract | 6-month minimum on retainers | Typically annual |
| Onboarding | Narrative and pitch plan in two weeks | 4 to 6 weeks typical |
| Crisis comms at Fortune 500 scale | Not our core; we partner or refer | Industry-leading |
| Investor relations | No | Yes, core practice |
| Global footprint | US-led, international via partners | 60+ offices worldwide |
| Workflow visibility | Live shared board | Monthly or quarterly review |
The transition
How to move from Edelman to Digitize.
Six steps, 30 to 60 days, no coverage gap if you run the overlap.
-
Audit what the current program delivered.
Pull the last six months of placements, pitches sent, and meetings held. Separate named stories from impressions and share-of-voice reporting. That is your real baseline.
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Name the outcomes you still want.
List the outlets, beat reporters, and AI search queries that matter to your buyers. We build the plan around these, not a generic tier-one list.
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Check notice terms.
Most enterprise retainers run annually with 30 to 90 day notice clauses. A clear notice and a courteous call preserve the relationship. You may want them back for a specific mandate later.
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Transfer reporter context and past pitches.
Request the pitch documents, reporter tracker, and media database notes in writing. It saves weeks of research, and you already paid for it.
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Run a two-week overlap.
Keep the outgoing retainer active while we build the narrative and draft the first pitches. No coverage gap, and the new team starts with context.
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Reset the reporting cadence.
Agree in writing on what counts: named placements, beat relationships, AI citation share. Put the metrics on the first page of the shared board. Review at day 60.
When Edelman is the better fit
Some mandates need a global network.
If your situation is on this list, Edelman or a peer is the right call, and we will tell you so on the first conversation.
- Public-company crisis: a recall, an activist investor, or a regulatory investigation.
- Investor relations and earnings-cycle financial communications.
- Coordinated campaigns across 10 or more markets with local teams in each.
- Public affairs and policy work in multiple jurisdictions.
- Budgets under $15,000 per month or $25,000 per project. At that level, neither of us is the right partner.
Common questions
What leadership teams ask before switching.
Is Edelman the wrong choice for a growth-stage company?
Not wrong, often mismatched. Edelman is built for Fortune 500 and public-company mandates where scale is the product. A Series B company or a $50M consumer brand can buy into that model, but the senior people who win the pitch are rarely the people running the account day to day. The question is not size. It is who does the work.
What does Edelman charge?
Edelman does not publish pricing. Trade-press reporting and practitioner interviews suggest retainers typically start around $15,000 per month and frequently run $25,000 to $50,000 or more for full-service accounts. Treat these as estimates.
How does Digitize pricing compare?
Our Authority Retainer starts at $15,000 per month with a 6-month minimum, and a Tier-One Launch starts at $25,000 per project. Enterprise Programs start at $30,000 per month. The entry points are comparable to a large network. The difference is what the budget buys: partner-led senior attention and PR integrated with brand, messaging, digital, and AEO/GEO, rather than a layered account team.
When is Edelman the better fit?
Hire Edelman if you are a public company handling a crisis, a Fortune 500 brand running integrated campaigns in 10 or more markets, or a regulated enterprise with complex stakeholder communications across investors, policymakers, employees, and press. For those mandates, global scale is the product and we will say so.
Will a partner-led agency get less press than a global network?
Not in our experience. Beat relationships and the quality of the story drive coverage, not headcount. A partner who has worked with the same Bloomberg or TechCrunch reporters for years, backed by a vetted network of 200+ independent journalists, contributors, and creators, often places more than a layered team working from a database. Ask any agency for named beat relationships, not firm-wide headcount.
Can we keep Edelman for crisis and use Digitize for proactive PR?
Yes. A common setup is a proactive program with us (tier-one PR, executive thought leadership, AEO/GEO) and a separate crisis or financial communications relationship with a global firm. Each does what it is built for, and the scopes do not overlap.
Does Edelman do AEO and GEO work?
Edelman has digital and search practices. Explicit AEO and GEO programs (AI Overview citation, llms.txt, LLM-citation measurement) are newer industry-wide and vary by account team. If AI search visibility is central to your plan, ask the specific team for a sample deliverable, not a capabilities deck.
How long does a transition off Edelman take?
Plan 30 to 60 days end to end. Contract notice is usually 30 to 90 days. Reporter-context handoff takes about a week. We need roughly two weeks to build the narrative and pitch plan before outreach begins. A clean transition has no coverage gap because you run an overlap.
VS
Digitize vs Edelman
The full head-to-head for venture-backed companies and established brands.
PRICING
Digitize pricing
Engagement types and published starting points.
FOR VENTURE-BACKED COMPANIES
Launches, raises, and category leadership
Tier-one PR, executive voice, and AEO/GEO for Series A and later.