PR Week (UK) articles from April 2006

PR Week (UK) archives from April 2006

FH wins analogue switch-off work.
April 7, 2006... Fishburn Hedges has picked up the contract to promote the country's complete broadcast switchover from analogue to digital. Digital UK, the government-backed body previously known as SwitchCo, has handed FH a four-year combined PR and PA...

Body Shop to hit back in L'Oreal image battle.
April 7, 2006... The Body Shop is to bring in its first retained UK consumer PR agency as it battles to maintain its ethical image following last month's sale to L'Oreal. The firm, which last month completed a pounds 652m sale to the French cosmetics...

Diageo prepares global strategy shift for Smirnoff.
April 7, 2006... CONNECTICUT: Diageo is plotting to bring in international agency support to promote Smirnoff, the world's leading premium vodka brand. It wants to ensure Smirnoff retains its edge amid competition from the welter of less-well-resourced...

Chancellor gets new spokesman.(Chris Martin appointed)(Brief article)
April 7, 2006... The Treasury has installed Chris Martin as the Chancellor's official spokesman on economic and policy issues. His appointment comes as Gordon Brown bids to stave off any backlash against his handling of the economy that would scupper his...

Telco Kingston in review for fresh business drive.
April 7, 2006... Kingston Communications is reviewing its B2B support to boost its credentials as a UK-wide telecoms supplier to businesses. The Hull-based company has operated a telephone system, independent from BT, for the city's residents over more than...

Lottery rival Chariot nets Handley for launch drive.(Chariot UK appoints Stuart Handley )(Brief article)
April 7, 2006... Chariot UK, the soon-to-launch rival to the National Lottery, has brought in Stuart Handley as its first director of communications. The appointment comes in advance of the launch of the game, which will allow players to choose which...

Espresso brand to woo tired drivers.
April 7, 2006... The PR company behind Rocket Fuel - a coffee drink marketed as 'instant energy in a cup' - is demonstrating how the product can help tired drivers fight fatigue. The product, sold in self-heating cups, is owned by Food Brands Group. ...

Tech group Next Fifteen posts first-half profit lift.
April 7, 2006... Next Fifteen Communications Group this week revealed strong half-year figures, confirming the resurgence of the tech PR sector. Interim pre-tax profits were up two per cent to pounds 1.41m in the six months to 31 January. North America...

MoD to tender for Middle-East role.(Ministry of Defence to invite on tenders for advertising agencies)(Brief article)
April 7, 2006... The Ministry of Defence is on the hunt for an agency to carry out Middle East media monitoring work. The brief - created just a year ago - is currently being handled by the University of London, but the MoD is not necessarily seeking an...

Olympics crack down on guerrilla marketing.(law passed on for copyrights of olympics)
April 7, 2006... The 2012 Olympic Games in London will impose unprecedented restrictions on ambush marketing - heralding a plethora of opportunities for the PR industry, say leading consultants. The London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act was passed...

BBC's Payne exits for Henry's House.(Julian Payne)(Brief article)
April 7, 2006... The BBC is hunting two comms chiefs to oversee flagship shows such as EastEnders and Strictly Come Dancing after Julian Payne's exit for Henry's House. Payne led publicity for 18 months, promoting storylines and managing talent-related...

Sinclair prepares public for A-bike.(Sir Clive Sinclair of Sinclair Research Ltd. to market his folding bicycle)(Brief article)
April 7, 2006... Inventor Sir Clive Sinclair has brought in PR support to convince the public of his latest innovation, the A-bike. Weighing just 12lb, the A-bike is billed as the world's lightest cycle - said to fold up so small that it can be carried like...

News Brief: Publicis Groupe stake.
April 7, 2006... CORPORATE: Publicis Groupe has bought a controlling stake in Capital MS&L, Manning Selvage & Lee's financial PR arm. The firm now controls 51 per cent of the agency. Publicis Consultants' Nick Bastin has joined Capital MS&L as director.

News Brief: Wheeler acquires share.
April 7, 2006... AGENCY: Former GCI Europe chairman Adrian Wheeler is to acquire a minority share in PR management consultancy Gyroscope. He will help 'develop Gyroscope's international franchise'.

News Brief: Voca hires College Hill.
April 7, 2006... CORPORATE: Direct-debit group Voca has hired College Hill to its pounds 500,000 UK and European corporate comms brief after a review (PRWeek, 9 Dec 2005). The agency will aid Voca's expansion following its rebranding from Bacs (Bankers'...

News Brief: Taylor Herring account.
April 7, 2006... CONSUMER: Taylor Herring PR has seen off Resonate and Brave PR to hang on to its account for the Guinness World Records annual book launch and Guinness World Records Day. The business was put up for competitive pitch earlier this year.

News Brief: Gebbett appointed.
April 7, 2006... AGENCY: Consumer and B2B agency icas PR has brought in industry veteran Steve Gebbett as a creative consultant, while promoting account director Nicola Wise to creative director. Gebbett will continue part-time at Four Communications.

News Brief: Knowles appointed.
April 7, 2006... CONSUMER: Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines has appointed Andrea Knowles as UK & Ireland PR manager. She joins from an associate director role at travel agency BGB Communications.

News Brief: Experian recruits.
April 7, 2006... CORPORATE: Information company Experian has recruited James Taylor as corporate press relations manager. Taylor was formerly a senior account manager at Bite PR.

News Brief: East End appoints.
April 7, 2006... CONSUMER: Indian food maker East End Foods has brought in Golley Slater as its first retained agency.

Ofcom reshuffles as ban on ads for junk food looms.(Ofcom appoints Huw Rossiter as head of media relations )(Brief article)
April 7, 2006... Ofcom has created a head of broadcast relations post amid heightened media interest over its consultation on a proposed ban on junk-food advertising to kids. Head of media relations Huw Rossiter has taken up the post, reporting to director...

Asda hands drinks to Lee after marketing overhaul.
April 7, 2006... Asda has handed its beers, wines and spirits account to Lee Publicity, its food and non-food agency of 12 years, after a four-way pitch. The incumbent, drinks specialist Westbury Communications, held the brief for eight years. Asda PR...

Sorrell tops PRCA conference list.
April 7, 2006... Sir Martin Sorrell will be the keynote speaker at May's PRCA Annual Conference. It marks the WPP chief executive's first appearance at the event, where he will discuss the state of the PR market and detail his experience of growing a...

PR recruiter wins in trade awards.
April 7, 2006... Median Recruitment is claiming a coup, having become the first PR specialist recruiter to be named 'Best Media Recruitment Firm'. At last week's annual Recruiter Awards for Excellence in London's Grosvenor House, Median beat firms such as...

Beth Cooper snatches luxury resorts from JCPR.
April 7, 2006... Jackie Cooper PR has lost the UK account for the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas to similarly named - but unrelated - travel specialist Beth Cooper PR. Kerzner International, the US leisure group that owns Atlantis, has also handed JCPR's...

Live gets gong for London 2012 role.
April 7, 2006... London 2012's final presentation to the International Olympic Committee has bagged a top comms prize. Events company Live's presentation in Singapore - credited with playing a crucial role in the capital's bid - was hailed at the...

Peretti's McAvoy shifts to rival APR.(Aurelia Public Relations appoints Annabel McAvoy as managing partner at Peretti Communications)(Brief article)
April 7, 2006... Luxury goods agency APR - formerly Aurelia Public Relations - has poached Annabel McAvoy, managing partner at Peretti, to be MD Alix Robson's second in command. McAvoy joins as a director and takes equity in APR. She will handle accounts...

Nestle enlists Uproar for 'Caribbean' drink launch.(Nestle S.A. to market with launching flavoured milk drinks)(Brief article)
April 7, 2006... Nestle is to launch Supligen, a flavoured milk drink popular in the Caribbean, in the UK and has turned to 'cross-cultural' agency Uproar to promote it. Nestle is targeting Supligen at Afro-Caribbean communities in the UK, particularly 18...

Sherry and port to get image revamp.(Beam Global Spirits & Wine and Focus PR to advertise ports )(Brief article)
April 7, 2006... The company behind Harveys sherry and Cockburn's port is attempting to reposition the brands for drinkers in their 30s. Beam Global Spirits & Wine, which wants to scrap the image of sherry and port as the drinks of choice for the older...

Public Sector: East Sussex's Inglefield to take top Camden role.
April 7, 2006... Camden Council has lined up East Sussex County Council communications and marketing manager Paul Inglefield to take over its top comms role. Inglefield will join on 15 May after the local elections. According to research revealed this...

Public Sector: Lancs seeks new shell-fishing law.(Lancaster City Council)(Brief article)
April 7, 2006... Lancaster City Council is lobbying for a review of marine regulation following the conviction of a Chinese cockling gangmaster. The council has called for a national licensing scheme, which it claims would control conditions and minimise...

Public Sector: Malkin in U-turn to stay at Staffs.(Staffordshire Connects)(Charles Malkin decides to stay back at Staffordshire Connects)(Brief article)
April 7, 2006... Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council is hunting a comms manager after incoming postholder Charles Malkin reversed his decision to take the job. Malkin has chosen to stay at e-service delivery group Staffordshire Connects, for which he is...

Public Sector: Northern councils urged to promote greater inclusion.(Grant Riches Communications's director Carol Grant speaks on promoting northern councils)(Brief article)
April 7, 2006... Councils must do more to promote community cohesion, Grant Riches Communications Consultants director Carol Grant has urged. Speaking at a two-day conference last week organised by the Home Office, councils in the North were warned to...

Public Sector: Northants in comms staff cuts.
April 7, 2006... Northamptonshire County Council is to axe nearly half of its comms team as it grapples with cuts in funding from central government. The 16-strong team will be reduced to nine as part of a council-wide effort to curb spending to keep...

Public Sector: London beggars.(Westminster Council yo launch a campaign to aware commuters against giving money to beggars)(Brief article)
April 7, 2006... Westminster Council has launched a campaign to stop commuters giving money to beggars. 'Killing with Kindness' will see former beggars at Victoria station encouraging passers-by to throw change onto an outline of a murder victim. The...

Public Sector: CRE highlights race cause ahead of equality merger.
April 7, 2006... The Commission for Racial Equality is preparing a campaign to demonstrate the progress the body has made - and the issues still being faced - ahead of its dissolution in 2009. The drive centres around the 30th anniversary of the Race...

Public Sector: Salford in global triathlon event bid.
April 7, 2006... Salford City Council is supporting its bid to host the 2010 World Triathlon Championships with a campaign to ensure its own existing national event is successful. The council has brought in Nottingham-based Perfect Motion to promote the...

Public Sector: Aylesbury targets business.
April 7, 2006... Aylesbury Vale District Council is spearheading a campaign to encourage business investment into the Buckinghamshire area. It plans to lure start-up firms and encourage established businesses to relocate to the district as part of a drive...

Public Sector: CPA measures can shake out the lies.
April 7, 2006... Local authorities occasionally exaggerate, and sometimes just plain lie, when presenting results. I have seen it first hand when judging industry awards, and this tendency to present Soviet-style statistics diminishes our profession. ...

Voluntary Sector: BHF urges public to 'get real' over heart attacks.
April 7, 2006... The British Heart Foundation is planning a consumer campaign to make people more aware of the symptoms of a heart attack. The charity is keen to dispel the myth of the 'soap opera heart attack' - in this Friday's episode of Coronation...

Voluntary Sector: Bowel Cancer UK in e-clock stunt.
April 7, 2006... Bowel Cancer UK has put a 'Clock of Shame' on its website in a bid to up the pressure on the Government to honour its pledge for a national screening programme for the disease. The clock - at www.bowelcanceruk.org.uk - started on 1 April....

Voluntary Sector: Disability charity nets comms chief.
April 7, 2006... I Can, a charity which provides therapy and education for disabled children, has installed Anita Kerwin-Nye as its first director of comms. Joining from marketing agency NotDeadFish, Kerwin-Nye will oversee promotion of a programme to...

Voluntary Sector: Alzheimer Scotland promotes preventative action.
April 7, 2006... Alzheimer Scotland is promoting good diet, exercise and mental stimulation as preventers of the condition. 'We'll be encouraging 45 to 65-year-olds to eat oily fish three times a week, which makes you up to 60 per cent less likely to...

Voluntary Sector: RNID victory over iPod noise limit.
April 7, 2006... Deafness charity RNID - in the midst of its Don't Lose The Music campaign - has welcomed Apple's decision to limit the volume on iPods. Owners of the devices can now download a free volume limiter, 'delighting' the charity, said senior...

Voluntary Sector: Bird flu fears tackled.
April 7, 2006... The RSPB has joined forces with the British Trust for Ornithology and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust to ease fears about bird flu as the breeding season arrives. The triumvirate is advising people not to destroy nests, and urging good hygiene...

Voluntary Sector: Clarification.(correction notice for photograph published)(Correction notice)
April 7, 2006... In an article on 24 March headlined 'Baby charity hits out at Body Shop', we published a photograph and accompanying caption that referenced Nestle. The implication from the caption was that the photograph related to Nestle. We are happy to put...

Public Affairs: Lansons acquires PA firm The Jackson Consultancy.
April 7, 2006... Lansons Communications has strengthened its fledgling public affairs business with the acquisition of The Jackson Consultancy for an undisclosed sum. The deal brings Lansons pounds 400,000 in fee income and four staff including founder...

Public Affairs: Whitbread's Kerr in move to PPS.(PPS group appoints Mark Kerr, Will Hansom and Danny Langley)(Brief article)
April 7, 2006... Planning public affairs specialist PPS group has hired Mark Kerr, PA director at leisure group Whitbread, as a director in its London office. He heads a spate of arrivals at PPS and joins after ten years at Whitbread, where he handled...

Public Affairs: BPI snaps up Mollet for music copyright battle.
April 7, 2006... Record company trade body the British Phonographic Industry has recruited Richard Mollet as director of PA as it steps up its fight against illegal filesharing. Mollet reports to BPI chairman Peter Jamieson and will build an in-house PA...

Public Affairs: Practical learning body ups the ante.(Edge appoints Nicholas Heslop )(Brief article)
April 7, 2006... Edge, a charitable foundation that campaigns for 'practical learning', has appointed Nicholas Heslop as its first public affairs manager. His brief is to raise the profile and status of vocational training and practical learning to the...

Public Affairs: Wates briefs Media Strategy to win housing kudos.
April 7, 2006... Construction company Wates has appointed Media Strategy to position it as a 'thought leader' on sustainable development and affordable housing. It is aiming to increase its influence with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the...

Healthcare: Ketchum bags global bone brief for Actonel.
April 7, 2006... US group Procter & Gamble and Paris-listed Sanofi-Aventis have brought in Ketchum on a global brief to promote their brittle-bone treatment Actonel. The move comes at a crucial time for Actonel. Merck's Fosamax - the product's...

Healthcare: Edelman team in ABPI code exams.
April 7, 2006... Edelman is putting all its senior UK healthcare staff through ABPI exams as it bids to ensure it always operates within the body's code of conduct. In what is thought to be an unprecedented move, all ten staff at account-director level and...

Healthcare: Biss hires trio to boost healthcare.(Biss Lancaster appoints)(Brief article)
April 7, 2006... Euro RSCG Biss Lancaster has appointed a trio of staff as it grows its small healthcare team under the aegis of recently promoted head Cressida Robson. Claire Turner has joined as senior account manager on Bayer's impotence drug Levitra...

Healthcare: GSK adds allergies to TLC's remit.
April 7, 2006... GlaxoSmithKline has appointed Tonic Life Communications (TLC) to handle global product comms within its growing portfolio of allergy products. The move, made following a competitive pitch, marks the third occasion that GSK has awarded...

Healthcare: At a Glance - Servier osteoporosis drug in survey fillip.
April 7, 2006... What's the name of the treatment? We're talking about Protelos (strontium ranelate). French pharma group Servier says a report, published last month, demonstrates that its drug reduces women's long-term risk of bone fractures by a third....

City & Corporate: Maitland enjoys bumper month with O2 and BOC.
April 7, 2006... Completion of the pounds 17.7bn acquisition of O2 by Telefonica propelled Maitland and Hudson Sandler to the top of March's Deal Watch. Maitland's involvement in the month's third-biggest deal, representing gas producer BOC Group over an...

City & Corporate: FD secures Greek bank brief.
April 7, 2006... National Bank of Greece (NBG) has brought in Financial Dynamics for its bid to acquire a controlling stake in Turkey's Finansbank. The proposed pounds 3.8bn deal will create a banking firm with around pounds 50bn of assets, and is the...

City & Corporate: Cubitt returns for Nettec buyout bid.(Cubitt Consulting signed)(Brief article)
April 7, 2006... Cash shell Nettec has reappointed Cubitt Consulting, five years after it ditched the agency in the wake of its flotation. Cubitt will advise Nettec as it bids to complete a reverse takeover of luxury resort firm Newfound, creating a new...

City & Corporate: At least get the basics right, guys.(promotional activities)
April 7, 2006... Throughout my working life as a journalist I have always taken it as read that press releases were accurate. Perhaps this was born of necessity and was a result of having to deal with around six mailbags of releases a day. Now we receive...

Technology: Computer Warehouse in two-pronged campaign.
April 7, 2006... Jonathan Cole, the entrepreneur behind the UK's largest Apple reseller, Computer Warehouse, has brought in its first retained agency. Traditionally a Mac seller, the firm is preparing to sell PCs. Cole also wants to raise the profile of...

Technology: Johnson King nets IT security work.
April 7, 2006... US data security firm PGP has appointed Johnson King to boost its profile in Europe after a four-way pitch. The provider of IT encryption products has not retained an agency for European work before. A campaign will centre around the...

Technology: H&K's Groty takes over EMEA technology office.(Amanda Groty appointed as client developer at EMEA technology )(Brief article)
April 7, 2006... Amanda Groty has succeeded Sally Costerton as head of Hill & Knowlton's EMEA technology practice. Philadelphia-born Groty, currently EMEA V-P for client development, hopes to expand the firm's eastern European business, and aid growth of...

Technology: Custard snaps up mobile dating job.
April 7, 2006... Mobile content provider Mobestar has given Custard PR a brief to help launch its dating software, mDate. The product, which offers anonymous live video and voice calls to willing receivers, was unveiled at February's 3GSM World Congress in...

Technology: Casino software firm hands Chameleon global remit.
April 7, 2006... The firm behind much of the world's online poker and casino software has briefed Chameleon PR to handle global comms. The PR account is believed to be worth around pounds 100,000. Microgaming, which previously worked only with US-based...

Technology: VoIP firm calls in Insight for drive.
April 7, 2006... Voice4IP is trying to stand out from the myriad other providers of voice-over-IP technology with a comms strategy through Insight, part of the Bell Pottinger Group. It will stress that once Voice4IP has connected a company with multiple...

Media Relations: What The Papers Say - Estimates mount at Millionaire sale.
April 7, 2006... Expect a scrum at this week's Cannes TV festival as executives fight over the worldwide rights to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, created by Ulsterman Paul Smith and co-owned by comedian Jasper Carrott. Credited with 'transforming the...

Media Relations: Contact Book Update.
April 7, 2006... PRESS Marcus Wright has been appointed senior editor for EMEA at Dow Jones Newswires. Currently senior editor in Singapore, he will swap with London-based Gabriella Stern in August. Mel Hunter, feature writer at The Sun, is to join...

Media Relations: 2 Minutes with... , editor, The Spectator.(Matthew d'Ancona being interviwed on media relations)(Interview)
April 7, 2006... What has changed since last month, when you became editor? The Spectator has become more information-rich -more news, mischief, gossip and revelations - not arid facts. I want to ensure readers get great scoops and informed opinions that...

News Analysis: Film merger gets a good reception.(Premier Public Relations acquires McDonald & Rutter)
April 7, 2006... Film publicist Premier Public Relations last week acquired rival McDonald & Rutter. Ian Hall gauges reaction to the deal in this tight-knit industry sector. Handling publicity for Hollywood blockbusters, A-list stars and even art-house...

Reputation Check: Leaks scupper Thames Water image.(RWE Thames Water PLC)
April 7, 2006... The supplier has failed to escape culpability for the region's hosepipe ban. David Quainton reports. Utility companies are a bit like football referees - they tend to be performing well if you don't notice them. So the fact that...

Media Analysis: Opportunities in new-look drivetime.(for public relation officers)
April 7, 2006... As Chris Evans prepares to slip into the Radio 2 hotseat vacated by Johnny Walker, Alex Black tunes in to the drivetime radio shows to discover who they are aimed at and how PROs can get their clients involved. Drivetime radio shows have...

Profile: Diverse thinker - Zena Martin, managing director, Acknowledge Communications.(Biography)
April 7, 2006... I don't like beans on toast and I don't drink tons of tea,' says Zena Martin. 'But I consider myself a Londoner now. This is home.' As a US national, Martin is a natural champion of the outsider. And her business, Acknowledge...

Opinion: Celebrities can make 'going green' sexy.
April 7, 2006... It's hard not to be cynical with so many celebs in search of a cause these days. And I confess to a sense of deja vu over Thandie Newton's conversion from SUV driver to climate campaigner. The British star of the Oscar-winning Crash has...

Opinion: Will Brown find courage to end the soap?(Gordon Brown)(Column)
April 7, 2006... Tony Blair referred to the ongoing feud with his Chancellor as a soap opera earlier this week, mainly because soaps are popular Unfortunately splits at the heart of governments are not. Of course I once had a minor part in this soap opera....

Editorial: Impact of reputation becomes less elusive.
April 7, 2006... The PR industry remains insecure about what it does, and unnecessarily so. Things have improved in the years since this writer was a PR consultant, but too often conversations with top practitioners still return to defining and measuring PR....

Opinion: Letter - ABPI took proactive steps on drugs trial.
April 7, 2006... Contrary to what Kate Nicholas thinks (24 March), some of us were extremely active in the catastrophic Northwick Park drugs trial. During the three days from when the story broke, the ABPI undertook nearly 40 broadcast interviews and...

Opinion: Letter - Recruiters: evidence of poor ethics mounts.(Anthony Taylor, PR manager of General Medical Council on his appointments)(Brief article)
April 7, 2006... Further to your interesting articles on recruitment ethics, my personal experience suggests a growing amount of unethical behaviour and a need for a code of practice. I applied for my present job through one company, which, after weeks of...

Opinion: Letter - B-rolls are stations' guilty little secret.(news stations to use b-rolls technology to record news)(Brief article)
April 7, 2006... RIP B-rolls? (24 March). Far from it. There is a huge appetite in TV newsrooms for well-produced material with a couldn't-shoot-it-yourself element. The argument that PR-filmed material is out of fashion is flawed. There are more live...

Opinion: Letter - Network Rail's debt is no cause for alarm.(Network Rail)(Brief article)
April 7, 2006... We at Network Rail were slightly bemused to see the normal practice of reviewing our financial PR support (31 March) presented as evidence of some sort of company crisis. We have a large amount of debt because we have been a largely...

Opinion: My Best Hire - Claire Williams.(of Lastminute.com PLC)(Brief article)(Column)
April 7, 2006... Jane Richards, a director of Brighter Group, on the 'industrious' Claire Williams. 'When I interviewed Claire in 1990 for an account executive role at Compass Communications - where I was managing director - she was clearly frustrated by...

Campaign: Sky Travel finds the facts behind 'sickies' - Consumer.(British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC. Sky Travel, Taylor/Herring Co.)
April 7, 2006... Campaign: National Sickie Day Client: Sky Travel PR team: Taylor Herring Timescale: January -February 2006 Budget: pounds 5,000 It called in Taylor Herring at the end of last year to help boost sales in the important period around...

Campaign: City art gallery soothes workers with collection - Public Sector.
April 7, 2006... Campaign: Guildhall Art Gallery Stress Study Client: The City of London Corporation PR team: In-house and Rain Communications UK Timescale: March 2005-January 2006 Budget: pounds 2,000 Aware that its gallery enjoys less recognition...

Campaign: Liverpool targets kids to clean up urban streets - Community Relations.
April 7, 2006... Campaign: The way to a brighter future Client: Jigsaw North Liverpool PR team: In-house Timescale: March-December 2005 Budget: pounds 10,000 Despite the project contributing to a pounds 160,000 saving for the city in its first six...