PR Snippets - the Latest News

22 October 2012

New appointments

• M&C Saatchi PR has been called in by Spotify to handle its UK corporate and b2b work.
• Blue Rubicon has been brought in by Deezer, the online music service, to look after its international comms.
• Video games retailer, Game, has recruited MHP Communications, as it moves on from an 11^th-hour post-administration takeover. Last July, Game and their sister company Gamestation, appointed The Red Consultancy as their PR agency. However, this contact was cancelled after the company went into administration.
• Focus PR have been called in by COCOSA, the online discount website, for the launch of its homeware department.
• Four bgb has been brought in for a 6 month contract by Visit County Durham, as it looks to boost the region’s tourism.

• Alex Woolfall, Porter Novelli’s head of corporate EMEA, has joined Coca-Cola Europe as a consultant.
• Tim Allan, the MD of Portland, has been named as chair of social innovation think-tank The Young Foundation.
• Ketchum UK CEO, Avril Lee, and APCO MD, James Acheson-Gray, have been appointed in the PRCA’s 2012-13 PR Council.
• Burson-Marsteller has named Patrick Ford as interim chair of its Asia-Pacific region to replace area CEO Bob Pickard. The firm is searching for a permanent Asia-Pacific CEO.
• Westminster City Council has made three appointments into its comms team.
• Deutsche Bank has hired Sebastian Howell as head of press and media relations in the UK for its market businesses.
• Weber Shandwick has appointed three PR and public affairs consultants (AM and 2xAEs) into their global energy team based in Aberdeen.
• Cicero Consulting has appointed Cameron Rae and Daniel Regan as associates in its UK public affairs team.
• Fleishman-Hillard has made a number of senior international appointments across Asia, India and Europe.
  • Asia: Don Anderson, former head of integrated ad sales for ESPN Star Sports, has joined as senior vp and head of strategic digital integration for the Asia-Pacific region.
  • India: Riitu Chugh, former senior vp of Digitas India, has joined as senior vp and digital strategist.
  • Europe: Michael Bartholomew, former director (11years) of European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association, has joined the Brussels team as a senior policy advisor.

• F-H has also brought in Sarah Jenkins, a former top Treasury consultant, to their public affairs team.
• Pegasus has made three hires to its pharma and life sciences team:
  • Simon Grist, formerly of Hill & Knowlton Strategies, joins as an Associate Director.
  • Darren Foan, who previously worked in medical events, joins as an Account Manager.
  • Joanna Hobbs, a biomedical science graduate, joins as a Junior Account Executive.

Leavers

• Coca-Cola have split from Portland after Pepsi client conflict.
• Four Communications has lost its flagship Etihad brief in the UK.

Also In the News...

• Waggener Edstrom’s former senior vp of global corporate comms, Kent Hollenbeck, has founded his own Oregon-based firm, The Hollenbeck Group, with mobile device manufacturer HTC as a launch client.
• Red Door Communications’ work for HIV charity, Body & Soul, has won the Community Partners Award at the Lord Mayor’s Dragon Awards, after they helped devise a comms strategy and promoted the campaign Life In My Shoes, which challenges fears about HIV.
• Edelman has plans to expand its global research work.
• The Home Retail Group has completed its comms reshuffle.

• Mark Borkowski, the founder and head of Borkowski PR on Red Bull’s skydive stunt:
  • “More often than not, the PR profession tends to be a low-risk business: happy to take the fee without disrupting the client. Red Bull’s stunt blows this apart spectacularly. High-risk, high-reward is the mantra here...
  • ... Baumgartner’s jump was by far the biggest risk Red Bull – or any other brand – has ever taken...
  • ... Failure would have wounded Red Bull’s reputation almost critically...
  • ... Red Bull has set a new high for bold, brilliant, risk-taking PR.”

• YouGov stats – Did You Know...?
  • 27% of Brits aged 18-24 have got their finger or thumb stuck in a bowling ball.
  • 21% of British women who have ever been ten pin bowling have accidently thrown their bowling ball backwards whilst bowling, compared to 10% of British men.