Pioneer thinking means making one's own judgments.

Edelman is the only independent global PR firm. We service clients, not Wall Street. No one owns us, so we are free to think. Independently. To listen, question and evaluate with an open mind unrestrained by conventional wisdom - and then decide for ourselves.

This is what sets Edelman apart.

For more than half a century we have been a creative and thought leader. We were the first firm to apply public relations to building consumer brands. We invented the media tour; created litigation and environmental PR; we’re the first to use a toll-free consumer hotline, and the first to employ the Web in crisis management. That\'s just the beginning. Today we\'re on a mission: to make public relations the lead discipline in the communications mix, because only public relations has the immediacy and transparency to build credibility and trust.

Today, we\'ve entered the era of mass personalization. People expect far greater participation in their favorite brands and companies. They also want news and information when they want it and how they want it, and are increasingly skeptical and distrusting of those in positions of authority. They cherry-pick who and what they believe, and with unprecedented access to information will create their own webs of trust. Employees at all levels are increasingly activated and demanding a more transparent relationship with their employer. We believe that the traditional model of top-down communications, where 90%+ of a marketing budget is spent on advertising to talk at people, is simply no longer effective.

We build relationships for our clients with multiple stakeholders through dialogue, credible sources of information and relevant experiences. We engage traditional critics like NGOs because they bring a dedicated constituency to each issue. We enlist today\'s most credible spokespersons - average people, friends and families, everyday employees, as well as recognized experts - to build brands from the bottom up. We engage micro-media - bloggers and online conversationalists - who appoint themselves leaders of a category and passionately communicate their real understanding of it. We measure the depth of impressions and strength of stakeholder relationships, not just message frequency and recall.

To learn more about Edelman, visit their website at http://www.edelman.com