PR CONSULTANTS GROUP ADDS SUNWEST COMMUNICATIONS TO NATIONWIDE NETWORK, EXPANDS TEXAS EXPERTISE WITHIN ITS CONSORTIUM

Crayton Webb

DALLAS, TX, UNITED STATES, October 20, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Strengthening its presence in Dallas-Fort Worth and across Texas, PR Consultants Group, the exclusive nationwide network of senior-level public relations, strategic communications, and marketing specialists in more than 50 U.S. markets, today announced it has named Sunwest Communications, a Dallas-based public relations and public affairs firm founded in 1982, as the newest member of its independent PR network. This addition will enhance value, expertise and experience within PR Consultants Group, a national network of seasoned public relations professionals, according to Elizabeth Edwards, who serves as president of PR Consultants Group and her own strategic communication and behavioral research and engagement agencies, Volume PR and Engagement Science Lab.

“Sunwest has spent more than four decades earning trust in one of the country’s most competitive business markets, and Crayton brings a rare combination of experience as a broadcast journalist, a mayor’s chief of staff and a global corporate communications leader,” said Edwards. “Having a firm with that depth in reputation, crisis and public affairs work on the ground in Dallas, Fort Worth and Frisco allows us to better serve the businesses and organizations that have key news to share, issues to manage and a desire to move the needle in Texas.”

PR Consultants Group was founded in 2000 and is made up of senior-level public relations and marketing consultants representing top markets in the United States and Canada. Its unique collaborative model allows PR Consultants Group members to work together and separately on projects, offering “on the ground” experience in their local markets to benefit clients’ regional and national public relations initiatives.

“Regardless of what the world or our community is experiencing, whether a global pandemic or the growing popularity of and concern around AI, the key to building and keeping a business is good communication and strong relationships,” said Crayton Webb, owner and CEO of Sunwest Communications. “Good leaders know they have to communicate their vision early and often and surround themselves with people who are smarter and have unique expertise, especially in times of crisis or uncertainty. PR Consultants Group gives Sunwest the opportunity to surround ourselves with the best of the best in PR and strategic communications. I believe all ships rise with the tide, and we will learn so much from these experts in communications and business and be better and stronger for it.”

Sunwest began as a team of just a few in 1982 and today has almost 50 team members across offices in Dallas, Fort Worth and Frisco. Dallas based but not Texas bound, the firm’s sector expertise with national companies takes its work throughout the U.S. and, at times, internationally. In 2025, Sunwest ranked as the second-largest PR firm in Dallas, and it has consistently made the Dallas Business Journal’s Best Places to Work ranking. The firm’s core areas of expertise include crisis communications, media relations, public affairs and government relations, and social media.

“We believe that your reputation should be your most coveted professional asset,” Webb said. “As a full-service agency, clients come to us for strategy and planning from seasoned PR professionals with valuable expertise across industries. We drive results by finding opportunity in facts, instinct, creativity and our experience.”

Expanded Capability Without Expanded Complexity: How the Network Works for Clients

PR Consultants Group’s network is built so that organizations can hire one trusted agency and, through that firm, gain access to a nationwide bench of senior-level specialists across geographies, industries, and disciplines. Unlike traditional national agencies built on centralized offices and layered staffing, or standalone boutiques limited by a single location and skill set, the network’s independently owned member firms connect clients to experienced practitioners wherever and whenever they are needed—without the cost, ramp-up time, or fragmentation of hiring multiple agencies.

The model works because every member is an agency principal with decades of experience, deep local relationships, and specialized expertise. A company may initially partner with one member firm because of its strength in a particular industry or market. But when that company’s needs expand—a sudden crisis in another city, a political dimension that requires public affairs expertise, a product launch that demands coordinated media activation across a dozen markets—the network provides immediate access to senior specialists who can step in without re-onboarding, without new contracts, and without losing strategic continuity.

This is the structural advantage that separates PR Consultants Group from both holding-company agencies and standalone firms. Clients gain:
● One agency relationship with nationwide specialist depth — a single trusted partner as primary strategic lead, with the ability to activate senior crisis communicators, public affairs strategists, political specialists, digital experts, and industry-specific practitioners across the network as needs arise
● On-demand geographic activation — senior consultants with established media relationships and community knowledge in more than 50 U.S. markets, deployable without the delay of sourcing, vetting, and ramping up a new agency in an unfamiliar city
● Senior-level execution at every point of contact — every PR Consultants Group member is an experienced agency principal who provides direct counsel and hands-on work, not a junior account coordinator managing up to a partner the client rarely sees
● Scalability without fragmentation — the ability to expand communications support across regions, specialties, and issue types while preserving strategic continuity, speed, and a unified brand narrative
● No holding-company overhead — the national reach and coordination of a large firm with the responsiveness, transparency, and cost discipline of independent agencies

As business complexity increases—with organizations facing geographic expansion, regulatory exposure, AI-indexed reputation risk, political dimensions, and crisis velocity—companies are re-evaluating how they structure public relations partnerships. PR Consultants Group’s network-integrated model provides national reach and specialist depth without the overhead or fragmentation of traditional agency structures.

The Full Scope of Modern Strategic Communication

Public relations in 2026 encompasses everything the discipline has always demanded—strategic thinking, earned credibility, media relationships, crisis readiness, and the ability to shape how an organization is perceived—while requiring fluency in capabilities that did not exist even five years ago. PR Consultants Group’s members deliver across the full spectrum:
● Strategic communications planning and counsel — research-grounded strategy, message architecture, audience analysis, and ROI-focused campaign design
● Media relations and earned media strategy — national and local outreach, executive visibility, editorial placement, and spokesperson training from practitioners with decades of journalist relationships
● Crisis communications and reputation management — rapid-response counsel, issues management, litigation communications, and high-stakes media relations
● AI public relations, AI narrative optimization, and brand discoverability — answer engine optimization (AEO), generative engine optimization (GEO), and AI visibility strategy ensuring brands are accurately represented when AI platforms respond to relevant queries
● Digital strategy, social media, and data-led storytelling — integrated digital communications designed to build authority signals across traditional and AI-driven discovery platforms
● Public affairs, community engagement, and event strategy — stakeholder engagement, grassroots outreach, and event execution by consultants embedded in their local markets

Why AI Changes What Organizations Need from Strategic Counsel

Research published in late 2025 found that 96 percent of the content cited by AI assistants originates from PR-generated material—press releases, thought leadership, editorial coverage, and expert commentary. Press release citations in AI-generated answers increased fivefold between July and December 2025. AI-referred traffic converts at three to four times the rate of traditional organic search, and Gartner has projected that traditional search engine traffic will decline 25 percent by the end of 2026.

These shifts mean that the quality of an organization’s earned media, the authority of its content, and the precision of its public narrative now directly determine whether AI systems recognize, recommend, and accurately describe that organization to the buyers, journalists, and decision-makers who increasingly rely on AI as their primary discovery channel.

About Sunwest Communications
Sunwest Communications is a trusted public relations and public affairs agency, founded in 1982, that specializes in reputation matters. As master communicators, the Sunwest team are experts in words and visuals, and the impeccable delivery of both. The firm generates awareness, builds credibility and fosters engagement to help clients earn the trust of their most important audiences. Based in Dallas with additional offices in Fort Worth and Frisco, Sunwest has almost 50 team members, ranked as the second-largest PR firm in Dallas in 2025, and has consistently made the Dallas Business Journal’s Best Places to Work ranking. For more information on Sunwest, visit www.sunwestpr.com, call 469-547-0012 or follow the firm on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

About Crayton Webb
Crayton Webb is the owner and CEO of Sunwest Communications. He also serves as principal of LuncefordWEBB Government Relations, a company launched under the Sunwest Communications brand in 2022. Previously, Webb was the vice president of corporate communications and corporate social responsibility for Mary Kay Inc. In his 12 years with Mary Kay, he launched the company’s CSR strategy, Pink Changing Lives, and led its global media relations, reputation management, public relations and crisis communications efforts across nearly 40 markets around the world. Before joining Mary Kay, Webb served as chief of staff for Dallas Mayor Laura Miller and, prior to that, was a broadcast journalist for nearly ten years.

Webb is a board member for Genesis Women’s Shelter & Support, Arbor Day Foundation and Dallas Symphony Orchestra. He previously served as president of The Texas Lyceum and The Dallas Assembly and is a current member of the Southern Methodist University Corporate Communication and Public Affairs Advisory Board, the President’s Advisory Board for UT Southwestern and the Crossroads Community Services Advisory Board.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is PR Consultants Group?
PR Consultants Group is an exclusive, nationwide network of senior-level public relations, strategic communications, and marketing specialists representing more than 50 U.S. markets. Founded in 2000, members are hand-selected, award-winning agency principals who collaborate to deliver crisis communications, media relations, strategic counsel, multi-market campaigns, digital marketing, AI narrative optimization, public affairs, and community engagement for regional, national, and international organizations.

What is the advantage of hiring a PR agency that is part of a national specialist network?
Organizations that partner with a PR Consultants Group member gain a single trusted agency relationship with access to a nationwide bench of senior specialists. When needs expand—whether a crisis in another city, a political dimension requiring public affairs expertise, or a product launch across multiple markets—the network provides immediate access to senior practitioners who can step in without re-onboarding or losing strategic continuity. Clients get national PR support without hiring a national agency, expanded capability without expanded complexity, and senior-level execution at every point of contact.

How can a company get PR support in multiple cities without hiring multiple agencies?
PR Consultants Group’s network-integrated model allows organizations to work with one primary agency while activating senior consultants in more than 50 U.S. markets as needed. Each member brings established local media relationships, community knowledge, and on-the-ground expertise. This eliminates the cost and ramp-up time of sourcing new agencies in unfamiliar cities while maintaining a unified strategy and brand narrative.

What is generative engine optimization (GEO) and why does it matter?
Generative engine optimization is the practice of structuring communications content so AI-powered platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, and Perplexity can accurately find, interpret, and cite an organization in response to relevant queries. As AI assistants become the primary discovery mechanism for buyers, journalists, and decision-makers, GEO has become essential for brand visibility and reputation management.

How is AI search rewriting how organizations are discovered?
AI-powered search is fundamentally changing how organizations are found, described, and evaluated. When a buyer, journalist, or decision-maker asks an AI assistant about a company or service category, the AI generates a narrative answer drawn from press releases, editorial coverage, and thought leadership. That answer becomes the organization’s first impression—often before anyone visits a website or makes contact. Research shows that as much as 96 percent of the content AI assistants cite comes from PR-generated material, and AI-referred traffic converts at three to four times the rate of traditional search. Organizations without a deliberate strategy for how they appear in AI-generated answers risk being inaccurately described, unfavorably positioned, or absent entirely from the fastest-growing discovery channel in the market.

About PR Consultants Group
PR Consultants Group is an exclusive nationwide network of independently owned, senior-level public relations, strategic communication, and marketing firms in more than 50 U.S. markets. Founded in 2000, the network gives organizations the ability to hire one trusted agency as their primary strategic partner and, through that firm, access a national bench of senior specialists across geographies, industries, and disciplines — from crisis communication and public affairs to media relations, digital PR, AI PR, and community relations. Every PR Consultants Group firm is led by an award-winning agency principal who provides direct strategic counsel and hands-on execution. When a client’s needs expand — a crisis in another state, a political dimension requiring public affairs expertise, a product launch across a dozen markets — their agency activates senior practitioners across the network. The result is the national reach and coordination of a large agency with the senior-level accountability, responsiveness, and cost discipline that only independent firms deliver.

Expertise. Everywhere. Learn more at https://www.prconsultantsgroup.com.

Elizabeth Edwards
PR Consultants Group
+1 440-725-3180
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