Purple Strategies

What Purple Strategies does

Purple Strategies is a privately-held, bipartisan corporate reputation strategy firm headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia with a secondary office in Chicago. The firm was formed around 2012–2013 through the merger of two political consultancies — one Republican-aligned (Alex Castellanos) and one Democratic-aligned (Steve McMahon) — and today employs 51–100 professionals serving Fortune 500 companies, major brands, industry coalitions, associations, and nonprofits. Its service portfolio spans reputation management, brand transformation, crisis communications, issue advocacy, and brand trust, organized around three forces the firm says shape corporate reputation: policy, financial markets, and societal opinion.

The firm's core intellectual property is data-driven. Its proprietary Purple Pulse platform has fielded 111+ waves of a national survey of ~1,000 Informed Public adults since 2021, tracking opinion across hundreds of issue areas (healthcare, energy, AI, trade, labor, etc.) with a ±3.1% margin of error. Layered on top is the AI Perception Audit, a methodology that measures how frontier AI models (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) portray client companies across regulator, congressional, investor, journalist, and advocacy personas — a newer practice line responding to AI-mediated reputation risk. Futurecasting, a separately branded research property, rounds out the research portfolio. Output is monetized through a mix of bespoke consulting engagements and gated research reports (e.g., The New Health Populism).

Go-to-market is enterprise field sales into corporate affairs, communications, and policy functions at large companies, supported by content marketing (Purple Point newsletter, blog/insights library), earned media via firm leaders on national news, and an exclusive thought-leadership partnership with The CEO Forum Group. Pricing is not publicly disclosed; engagements are quote-based and customized. Marquee disclosed clients include McDonald's, Abbott, BP, Johnson & Johnson, and United for Cures, with practice areas mapped to those case studies (Reputation, Transformation, Crisis, Issue Advocacy, Brand Trust).

Name

Purple Strategies

Legal name

Purple Strategies, LLC

Website

https://purplestrategies.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Purple Strategies is a privately-held, bipartisan corporate reputation strategy firm serving Fortune 500 companies, associations, and nonprofits with crisis, brand trust, transformation, and issue advocacy consulting, supported by its proprietary Purple Pulse survey platform and AI Perception Audit service.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Corporate Reputation Strategy Consulting

NAICS

Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services (5418), Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910), Other Management Consulting Services (541618)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742), Services-Advertising (7310)

akta.pro primary industry

Brand & Portfolio Strategy Consulting (MPAAAFAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Reputation Measurement, Auditing & Sentiment Analytics (MPAAAOAO), Brand Consulting, Audits & Research (Brand Health, Equity, Competitive) (BPAFAEAJ), Reputation Management & Online PR (BPAFADAN)

Keywords

• Corporate reputation strategy
• Crisis communications consulting
• Public affairs research
• Brand transformation services
• Issue advocacy campaigns

Headquarters

HQ city

Alexandria

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Corporate Reputation Strategy Consulting: Professional consulting services for Fortune 500 companies, associations, nonprofits, and major brands. Services include reputation management, crisis communications, strategic positioning, and campaign-style communications.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Purple Strategies is an independent corporate reputation strategy firm that blends political campaign strategy with brand communications to help Fortune 500 companies, associations, and nonprofits address reputational challenges spanning policy, financial, and societal forces. The firm delivers reputation management, crisis communications, strategic positioning, brand transformation, and issue advocacy campaigns, supported by proprietary research platforms including the Purple Pulse bipartisan survey (111+ waves since 2021) and the AI Perception Audit methodology that measures how AI models portray clients.

Product overview

Purple Strategies is an independent, fully integrated corporate reputation strategy firm that blends the creativity of brand communications with the speed and strategy of political campaigns. The firm offers a portfolio of proprietary research services (Purple Pulse surveys, AI Perception Audits), gated research reports (The New Health Populism Report, Washington\'s New Normal), and core consulting services organized around three forces shaping reputation: Policy, Financial, and Societal. The company serves Fortune 500 companies, coalitions, associations, non-profits, and major brands worldwide, offering services across reputation, transformation, crisis, issue advocacy, and brand trust practice areas.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Purple Pulse: Purple Strategies' proprietary national survey of the U.S. Informed Public, tracking public opinion on issues that matter to companies and organizations. Conducted since 2021 with approximately 1,000 adults per wave and margin of error of ±3.1%.
• Futurecasting

Products and services

• Reputation Strategy Consulting Bipartisan corporate reputation strategy consulting services helping organizations address tough challenges. Practice areas include Reputation (McDonald's), Transformation (Abbott), Crisis (BP), Issue Advocacy (United for Cures), and Brand Trust (Johnson & Johnson). Delivered to Fortune 500 companies, associations, and major brands.
• Purple Pulse Research Platform Proprietary bipartisan national survey tracking opinion among news-following Americans who shape corporate reputation and public affairs. Fields surveys of approximately 1,000 Informed Public adults per wave with margin of error of ±3.1%, covering topics including healthcare, energy, financial services, brand reputation, labor, politics, AI, trade, food, and education. Over 111 waves conducted since 2021.
• AI Perception Audit

Quantifiable outcome

• 60% of Americans actively working around traditional healthcare system using new technologies and OTC medicines
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability2 records

Feature2 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• The CEO Forum GroupcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2021Purple Strategies serves as the exclusive thought leadership and polling partner for The CEO Forum Group and its Transformative CEO Summit series. The partnership involves conducting proprietary research and surveys of CEOs on pressing business challenges, which Purple then publishes as thought leadership content. Purple has partnered with The CEO Forum for over 12 years.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Kekst CNC: Global corporate reputation and strategic communications advisory serving Fortune 500 CEOs on M&A, crisis, activism and transformation. Closest direct comparable to Purple Strategies given its similar focus on senior-level counsel, research-driven insights, and bipartisan-style cross-stakeholder positioning.
• Brunswick Group: Specialist corporate reputation and critical-issues advisory firm serving large-cap and multinational clients on M&A, crisis and public affairs. Highly comparable to Purple's reputation-strategy model, though typically larger and more global in footprint.
• SKDKnickerbocker: Public affairs and political-style communications firm blending campaign strategy with corporate and crisis communications for Fortune 500 clients. Directly comparable to Purple in its bipartisan-style positioning and political-to-corporate crossover model.
• ROKK Solutions: Boutique public-affairs and strategic communications firm serving Fortune 500 clients with senior-led teams on crisis, brand and policy-driven reputation work. Closely comparable in scale, model and target buyer to Purple.
• Public Strategies: Texas-headquartered strategic advisory and public-affairs firm with a long history of corporate reputation, crisis and stakeholder engagement work for major enterprises. Comparable in practice mix and senior-counsel model to Purple.

Broad incumbents

• FTI Consulting (Strategic Communications): Global advisory firm with a large Strategic Communications segment covering public affairs, crisis and corporate reputation, often activated alongside M&A and restructuring work. Comparable in service mix but operates as part of a much broader consulting portfolio.
• BCW (Burson Cohn & Wolfe): One of the largest global communications agencies, offering corporate reputation, public affairs, crisis and brand work for multinational clients. Overlaps with Purple's practice areas but competes at much greater scale across more geographies.
• Edelman: World's largest PR firm with deep corporate reputation, public affairs and research capabilities (e.g., Edelman Trust Barometer) for global brands. A broad incumbent competitor offering overlapping but much wider services than Purple.
• Teneo (Communications / Strategy): Global advisory firm with political, communications and strategy segments serving CEOs on reputation, crisis and stakeholder issues. Overlaps with Purple's CEO-level reputation work but operates within a broader management consulting and capital-markets platform.

Emerging players

• Beacon Global Strategies: Boutique strategic advisory firm focused on national security, technology and public-affairs clients with bipartisan leadership. An emerging peer addressing a narrower policy-and-reputation niche that overlaps with Purple's stakeholder and policy-driven engagements.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks2 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/purplestrats
• Facebookfacebook.com/purplestrategies
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/purple-strategies-llc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles14 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Purple Strategies