PR Week (UK) articles from December 2008

PR Week (UK) archives from December 2008

Conservative Party plans to axe external relations team.
December 5, 2008... Financial pressures force party to cut jobs across comms and research departments. The Conservative Party is to effectively abolish its external relations department as part of a wider plan to slash up to 24 jobs in its London...

Philips starts global review.
December 5, 2008... Philips has triggered an agency scramble by putting its multi-million pound global PR account out to pitch. The account, currently held by Manning Selvage & Lee and Text 100, incorporates PR on all Philips consumer products, lighting,...

Credit crunch fillip for internal comms.(Brief article)
December 5, 2008... There is mounting evidence that internal comms is proving resilient to the economic turmoil that is beginning to hit other parts of the PR industry. PRWeek has seen figures showing that a major recruitment specialist is seeing more and...

Tulchan hires City lawyer.
December 5, 2008... Tulchan Communications has snared a top City lawyer to be its first independent chairman. Robert Sutton is a former senior partner of leading City law firm Macfarlanes, a position he held for nine years until April this year. In his...

Agencies set to party on.
December 5, 2008... Many of the UK's largest agencies are kicking against the credit crunch by spending the same as last year on Christmas. FD, Weber Shandwick, Citigate Dewe Rogerson and Ketchum will all be spending as much as last year on Christmas parties...

The Week.
December 5, 2008... EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou has called for agency help following a row with the board. Bell Pottinger Corporate and Financial will work with Haji-Ioannou on a project basis. NetJets, Europe's largest private jet company, has hired...

Rising star.
December 5, 2008... Actress Freema Agyeman has chosen celebrity shop Liz Matthews PR as her star continues to rise. The former Dr Who actress is filming for US spin-off TV series Law & Order: London and can currently be seen in BBC1 period drama Little Dorrit. ...

Concern over Tory lobbying plan.
December 5, 2008... Lobbyists' reaction Conservative proposal to end use of public affairs firms attacked by industry. Lobbyists are urging The Conservative Party to ditch a 'wrong-headed' plan to crack down on government bodies hiring public affairs firms....

Conservatives intend to 'follow example of the US'.
December 5, 2008... Paper reveals 'widespread expenditure on hiring public affairs firms to lobby government'. The Conservatives have said they will introduce new financial controls on lobbying as part of a wider plan to scale back 'Whitehall spin'. The...

Plan to study PR diversity.
December 5, 2008... A new study is set to lift the lid on the experiences of black and minority ethnic practitioners in the PR industry. Leeds Metropolitan University has been given pounds 43,000 from the Economic and Social Research Council to investigate the...

Indian tourist trade tackles terror fallout.
December 5, 2008... The Indian Tourism Office in the UK is considering launching a fresh PR campaign following the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last week. Director Jagdish Chander said the body was holding crisis talks with tour operators and hoteliers as...

BBC chief at April summit.
December 5, 2008... Ed Williams, the BBC's director of comms, will be the keynote speaker at PRWeek's Strategic Communications Summit next April. The two-day conference - to be chaired by London Business School's Andrew Gowers (former head of comms at Lehman...

Lexis to drive sign-up for WeightWatchers.
December 5, 2008... WeightWatchers has called in PR support as it plots a New Year campaign to get more people signed up to its dieting programme. Lexis PR saw off four rivals to land the account, believed to be worth six figures. The five-way pitch involved...

Boost for McBride as Stace quits No 10.(Nick Stace )(Brief article)
December 5, 2008... Downing Street strategic communications adviser Nick Stace is quitting after less than a year in post. As reported on prweek.com (1 December), Stace is moving to Australia where he will head a consumer group called Choice. Stace is...

Healthcare: On the Agenda - 'No effect' anti-ageing creams.
December 5, 2008... - In a nutshell. Antioxidants, the key ingredients in many anti-ageing products, have little or no effect according to a new study. Research undertaken by the University College of London has found that the molecular mechanism proposed to...

Healthcare: Changes at H&K as healthcare MD quits.
December 5, 2008... Hill & Knowlton's healthcare MD is leaving the agency, prompting a major restructure of its senior healthcare team. Fiona Rollo is leaving at the end of the year to spend more time with her family and pursue other interests. She has been at...

Healthcare: The Week in Healthcare.
December 5, 2008... Roche calls in Ketchum. Roche has hired Ketchum to handle global PR for its blockbuster drug Pegasys. The drug has been indicated for the treatment of hepatitis B and C. Ketchum has also been hired to promote the company's wider hepatitis...

Public Affairs: New focus for Battersea.
December 5, 2008... Bell Pottinger Public Affairs (BPPA) is to replace Quatro Public Affairs as the agency responsible for pushing through plans to redevelop Battersea Power Station. BPPA has been called in by Treasury Holdings to manage all community...

Public Affairs: Redundancy fears hit FD lobbying arm.
December 5, 2008... All but one of FD's public affairs team are fighting for their jobs following last week's news that the agency intends to make 12 people redundant (PRWeek, 28 November). FD bosses last week confirmed that 'up to a dozen people' could be...

Public Affairs: Lobbying Target - Damian Green, shadow minister for immigration.
December 5, 2008... Green has become something of a household name after he was controversially arrested last week in connection with Home Office leaks. Ten-second biography A former journalist and Downing Street staffer, Green was elected to Parliament...

Public Affairs: The Week in Lobbying.
December 5, 2008... Weber Shandwick will find out in the next few days whether it has clung on to its lucrative public affairs account with Nestle. The firm is choosing between Weber Shandwick and Fishburn Hedges and a decision is imminent, according to...

City & Corporate: In the news ... RBS.(Royal Bank of Scotland PLC)(Brief article)
December 5, 2008... - Bring us up to speed. Investors have shunned an RBS rights issue for the second time this year, leaving the taxpayer to pick up the slack. The troubled bank announced this week that existing shareholders took up just 0.24 per cent of the...

City & Corporate: Siren quits crumbling MFI account.
December 5, 2008... An agency affected by the high street drama that saw MFI and Woolworths collapse last week has hit out at confused communication. Siren PR won a wide-ranging PR account with MFI in May this year and worked through its September management...

City & Corporate: The Week in City & Corporate.(Abu Dhabi Investment Company has appointed Stephen Bowey)(Insight Consultants' partnership with Citigate Dewe Rogerson Ltd.)(Headland Consultancy has appointed Maria Shum )
December 5, 2008... Abu Dhabi Investment Company appoints head of comms. Abu Dhabi Investment Company (ADIC) has appointed Stephen Bowey, formerly business development director at College Hill, as its head of comms. ADIC is the first investment company in Abu...

City & Corporate: Fund calls in Anderson.
December 5, 2008... A London listed development fund specialising in part-private, part state-backed investments has brought in Gavin Anderson as its retained financial PR agency. Babcock & Brown Public Partnerships (BBPP) is a FTSE 250 firm that primarily...

City & Corporate: Titanic BHP/Rio Tinto battle ends.
December 5, 2008... The collapse of the long-running attempt by the world's largest mining group, BHP, to buy the third largest, Rio Tinto, brought the curtain down on a deal that would have been the second largest takeover in history. It also brought to an...

Voluntary Sector: PR boost for 'legacy giving'.
December 5, 2008... Remember a Charity launches drive to change perception of charity donations in wills. A group representing 160 charities is launching a major campaign to shed misconceptions that people who leave money to charities in their wills are...

Voluntary Sector: Taking action ... Camp for Climate Action vs E.ON.
December 5, 2008... Target: E.ON Protesters: Camp for Climate Action Location: Nationwide Date: 28 November-1 December Camp for Climate Action organised several protests against E.ON's plans for a coal-fired power station in Kent. Members targeted the...

Voluntary Sector: The Week in Charities.
December 5, 2008... Primark's head of external affairs Geoff Lancaster pulled out of PRWeek's 'Taking the Drama Out of a Crisis' conference in London last week after Labour Behind the Label threatened to protest during his speech. Forster is running comms...

Technology: Labour MP unveils personal TV channel.
December 5, 2008... An MP has launched her own digital TV channel in an attempt to reach constituents. Celia Barlow, Labour MP for Hove and Portslade, East Sussex, has collaborated with local company Global Digital Broadcast to create an internet protocol...

Technology: Chameleon names boss.
December 5, 2008... Consumer and technology agency Chameleon PR has hired Steve Loynes as head of its b2b technology practice in London. Loynes joins from Edelman where he was associate director and led the business IT and telecoms team. He has been in the b2b...

Technology: The Week in Technology.(Getronics UK's contract with Lewis PR)(Brief article)
December 5, 2008... Lewis wins six-figure IT account. Getronics UK and Ireland, a major IT firm that outsources storage and security services for companies, has handed a retained six-figure account to Lewis PR. The agency will be working on a social media...

Technology: Best of the tech blogs.
December 5, 2008... Maths behind PR? Posted by Andrew Bruce Smith escherman.wordpress.com 1 December - Have just finished reading senior Business Week writer Stephen Baker's book, The Numerati. In relation to the field of PR, it did remind me of something...

Public Sector: Campaign Breakdown - Know your limits in gyms.(Fishburn Hedges' campaign for Department of Health and Fitness Industry Association)(Brief article)
December 5, 2008... Agency: Fishburn Hedges Client: The Fitness Industry Association (FIA) and the Department of Health (DH) Timescale: December 2008 Budget: Undisclosed The FIA, working with the DH, has launched an initiative to deliver the...

Public Sector: Payback.(United Kingdom. Ministry of Justice)(Brief article)
December 5, 2008... The Ministry of Justice held a press conference in Slough on Monday to announce the introduction of 'vests of shame' - bright orange bibs to show that labourers on community service are being punished, not paid Offenders gave interviews to...

Public Sector: The Public Sector Week.(Border Agency's Debbie Porter )(stop-smoking campaign)(Brief article)
December 5, 2008... New PR chief for Border Agency, South Bristol launches stop-smoking drive. The UK Border Agency has appointed Debbie Porter as deputy director of communications. Until last week she was head of policy communications at the Department for...

Public Sector: Baby P case forces changes at councils.
December 5, 2008... Local government comms chiefs across the country are considering sweeping changes in the wake of the Baby P tragedy. As Ofsted this week issued a damning report into Haringey's handling of the case, council comms teams agreed that immediate...

Public Sector: 2009 is the year to rebuild trust.
December 5, 2008... Next year will be a defining year for Britain. The downturn means public services will be at the centre of the battle to mitigate recession and provide services to those in need. We've seen a litany of service and leadership failures in...

Media: Lonely Planet treads on Wanderlust's turf.
December 5, 2008... In the grey gloom of the global financial climate, is it blue skies for the travel industry? The launch of a new BBC travel magazine, Lonely Planet, on 28 November would suggest so. 'The UK travel industry is pretty resilient,' says...

Media: Hit or Miss - Nick Clegg is left red-faced after making comments about his colleagues in public.
December 5, 2008... Air head?: Nick Clegg was phoning senior colleagues this week after he was said to have listed their faults out loud on a crowded aircraft. The Sunday Mirror reported that the 'gaffe-prone' Liberal Democrat leader and his aide, Danny...

Media: Web Barons - Catflapfootball.com.(Brief article)
December 5, 2008... Strapline: 'It's not about cats, it's about football' Circulation: Too early for figures Staff: Seven Contact: alexis.james@madeupmedia.net Alexis James is editor of the new football website. He employs seven 'floating' staff. ...

Media: The Editor's Desk - Benedicte Pavoit, UK correspondent, France 24.
December 5, 2008... - What is France 24? France 24 is a 24-hour international news channel. It covers world news, business, sports, culture, science and weather. Offering a French perspective on world events, the channel broadcasts in French, English and...

Profile: Patricia Yates - Selling Britain to the world.(VisitBritain)(Interview)
December 5, 2008... VisitBritain's strategy director is bullish about the challenge of attracting tourists to the nation, finds Matt Cartmell. Patricia Yates is posing against a boardroom window in VisitBritain's west London offices, looking particularly...

Campaigns: Public sector - WRAP tells public to end food waste.(Trimedia's campaign for Waste and Resources Action Programme)
December 5, 2008... Campaign: Love Food, Hate Waste Client: WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) PR team: Trimedia and in-house Timescale: November 2007-June 2008 Budget: Undisclosed, but estimated to be around pounds 130,000 WRAP's solution was...

Campaigns: Not-for-profit - Crooks captured across the Costa.(Crimestoppers)(Brief article)
December 5, 2008... Campaign: Operation Captura 2 Client: Crimestoppers PR team: In-house Timescale: Ongoing from November Budget: pounds 10,000 Its predecessor - Operation Captura 1 (OP1) - focused on the Costa del Sol and resulted in 13 arrests. OP2...

Campaigns: B2B - Getty focuses lens on life in London.(Getty Images Inc.)(Bite Communications)(Brief article)
December 5, 2008... Campaign: Getty Images Gallery, London Through a Lens Client: Getty Images PR team: Bite Timescale: August-September 2008 Budget: c.pounds 10,000 Objectives - To target London listings press - To generate coverage around...

Opinion: Mixed messages for Xmas 2008.(impact of credit crunch on spending)(Viewpoint essay)
December 5, 2008... Can the Christmas message ever have been more confusing for comms or consumers? Most have long accepted the supplanting of the Nativity story by the dictates of a modern consumerist ideology urging endless seasonal spending. But in this...

Opinion: From the Editor - Changes in job market suggest new focus.(Editorial)
December 5, 2008... The PR jobs market has changed dramatically over the past 18 months. In the middle of 2007, most senior comms professionals were confiding that their two biggest management issues were retaining good staff and spiralling salary inflation. ...

Opinion: From our readers - Dispatches gave BA early right to reply.
December 5, 2008... Paul Marston's statement, (Media, 26 November) that British Airways was approached at a late stage for a response to allegations is incorrect. As with all Dispatches, in compliance with the Ofcom code and our own extremely stringent rules...

Opinion: From our readers - Training teaches PROs that hacks are rude.(Letter to the editor)
December 5, 2008... As journalists and PR trainers we were pleased to see your feature on the value of training (Features, 28 November). In our experience, training commitment varies hugely from company to company. What crops up repeatedly in our sessions is...

Opinion: From our readers - CSR should not be separated from PR.
December 5, 2008... With dismay, I agree with Danny Rogers' comments on organisations deliberately keeping comms people away from CSR policy (Opinion, 28 November). Media relations is wrongly being used as the primary PR tool. CSR is more likely to be...

Opinion: From our readers - Or is it CR? Either way, it is everyone's role.(Letter to the editor)
December 5, 2008... At the Reputation and Leadership Conference at Henley Business School last week, there seemed common agreement that the 'S' for social is probably now redundant and we should just refer to the issue as corporate responsibility. Ironic then...

Opinion: Green saga shows government holes.(Damian Green)(Viewpoint essay)
December 5, 2008... I had lunch last week with Damian Green the day before he was arrested. We discussed his plans for the next few weeks oblivious to what the following days were to hold. How Green, the Government, the opposition and the police reacted to...

View from the top: How I survived football's frenzy.(David Davies )(Interview)
December 5, 2008... David Davies was the man who built the FA's modern press function He spills the beans in a new book and spoke to PRWeek's Alex Black. David Davies, as confirmed by the spiel for his new tell-all book FA Confidential, is the only senior...

Scotland: Family values rule at The Sunday Post.(D.C. Thomson and Company Ltd.)
December 5, 2008... A Scottish institution since 1914, The Sunday Post is not your run of the mill Sunday newspaper. Owned by family firm DC Thomson & Co, it positions itself as 'a thoroughly decent read' and sits in the same stable as titles such as The Beano and...

Scotland: Beating the credit crunch.(The BIG Partnership Group Ltd.)(Weber Shandwick International)
December 5, 2008... The BIG Partnership and WS Scotland are optimistic about growth despite the downturn. THE BIG PARTNERSHIP Now Scotland's largest PR agency and the UK's number one ranked consultancy outside London, The BIG Partnership continues to live...

Scotland: CIPR PRIDE Awards - Scottish superstars.(Awards list)
December 5, 2008... PRide Award winners in Scotland include Weber Shandwick and VisitScotland. NOT FOR PROFIT Whistling Ban by Tricker PR Tricker had just pounds 500 to promote the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival, an annual community event in...

Flack: The Week.
December 5, 2008... Tory comms chief Andy Coulson took decisive PR action last week - advising David Cameron not to attend a secret party thrown by multi-millionaire Michael Hintze. Our insider reveals that the entire Conservative Party front bench attended...

Flack.
December 5, 2008... 1. Earlier this week Bragster - the website for daring and bragging, apparently - dared Londoners to find the giant credit card that was projected on to London monuments. Skywrite Communications' idea led to one cheeky chap spending pounds 665...

Flack: (Saving) on expenses - Vinoteca, London EC1.(Restaurant review)(Brief article)
December 5, 2008... Reviewer: Pam Sharpless, director, USP Content. - What is it good for? Prices are ideal for those wishing to save their expense account without scrimping on great cuisine. There is also a huge selection of wines in the European wine...

Howard-Allen to leave M&S as high street slump looms.(Marks and Spencer)(Hill and Knowlton UK has appointed Flic Howard-Allen )
December 12, 2008... Marks & Spencer's top communicator rejoins Hill & Knowlton after seven-year absence. Marks & Spencer's top communicator Flic Howard-Allen is quitting after seven years to return to the agency world. As the UK's retailers prepare for a...

Agencies vie for Microsoft.
December 12, 2008... Hill & Knowlton and 3 Monkeys Communications are fighting it out for a major retainer with Microsoft. The two agencies are believed to be frontrunners to land the seven-figure consumer account, currently held by The Red Consultancy. ...

Tories make Hunt online election guru.
December 12, 2008... The Conservative Party has put frontbench MP Jeremy Hunt in charge of its online campaigning as it gears up to fight the next election over the web. Hunt will go head-to-head with Derek Draper, who is driving the Labour Party's efforts to...

PR rethink for Camelot.
December 12, 2008... Camelot Group is hunting for regional agencies to handle PR for the National Lottery as it puts a six-figure account out to pitch. The lottery operator has used Paratus Communications since 2004 but is looking to bring in an unspecified...

Fight for pounds 1m Orange brief.
December 12, 2008... Mobile phone firm Orange is reviewing its PR strategy in what is believed to be an attempt to improve efficiency and cut costs. GolinHarris and Edelman are set to fight it out for the wide-ranging account, understood to be worth more than...

The Week.
December 12, 2008... - The Liberal Democrats have appointed Chris Fox as director of policy and comms. Fox is comms director at technology firm Smiths Group and was previously at Tate & Lyle. - Network Rail has signed up former BAA head of corporate affairs...

Auld Lang Syne.(3X1)
December 12, 2008... Scottish agency 3x1 PR is promoting Glasgow's Christmas celebrations, which got under way earlier this month. The agency is publicising attractions including an ice rink in the town centre and the Glasgow Hogmanay featuring singer Paolo Nutini....

Climate campaign 'could be huge'.
December 12, 2008... Climate change PR industry and campaigners back Ed Miliband's call for global mobilisation. A former Make Poverty History press chief has said Environment Secretary Ed Miliband's proposed global campaign against climate change 'could be...

Celebrities don't help the cause, say protesters.
December 12, 2008... Stansted protest - Plane Stupid wants grassroots movement to drive mass mobilisation The protesters who disrupted Stansted Airport this week say the Government should not rely on celebrities to head any major climate change campaign. ...

EU to limit work week.
December 12, 2008... The PR industry is set to be hit by EU-wide legislation limiting the working week to 48 hours, according to agency bosses and legal experts. The EU Parliament is expected to drop the UK's 'opt-out' when it votes on 17 December. This comes...

Scotland picks six for agency roster.(Brief article)
December 12, 2008... Consolidated PR has come out top in confidential rankings drawn up by the Scottish Government and seen by PRWeek. The scores were compiled by the Scottish Government as part of the process for deciding on its new PR roster, which was...

Race row cop turns to PHA.
December 12, 2008... Tarique Ghaffur, previously Britain's former most senior Asian policeman, has brought in PR support to combat a swathe of negative press since leaving the force. He has called in PHA Media, headed by former News of the World editor Phil...

Healthcare: GCI Health loses MD after C&W merger.
December 12, 2008... WPP has merged its Cohn & Wolfe (C&W) health team with its recently launched GCI Health offering. The move has prompted the departure of GCI Health MD Paul Keirnan, whose role has been made redundant as a result of the merger. The GCI...

Healthcare: The Week in Healthcare.
December 12, 2008... GSK brings in agency - GlaxoSmithKline has awarded the UK PR contract for its asthma treatment to Fleishman-Hillard. The agency has been brought on board following a competitive pitch to handle comms support for Seretide, GSK's asthma and...

Healthcare: On the Agenda - Prescription-less drugs on internet.
December 12, 2008... - In a nutshell Websites are selling prescription-only painkillers to UK customers without asking for a prescription, a new study has found. A team at Edinburgh University found that out of 100 websites 35 were offering strong painkillers....

Public Affairs: Lilly hunts for PA help.(Eli Lilly Group Ltd.)(Brief article)
December 12, 2008... Pharma firm Lilly is holding a pitch for its UK public affairs account. The firm's entire public affairs activity is up for grabs and pitches have been taking place this week. A decision is expected in the New Year. Lilly currently...

Public Affairs: Nestle spurns WS for Fishburn Hedges.(Brief article)
December 12, 2008... Weber Shandwick's public affairs division is set to lose a key client after Nestle this week called time on a major account. The confectioner will move its six-figure brief to Fishburn Hedges in January 2009, following a lengthy pitch...

Public Affairs: The week in Lobbying.
December 12, 2008... - Sainsbury's has drawn up a shortlist of six agencies as it reviews its public affairs account. The list is believed to include incumbent Fishburn Hedges. PRWeek revealed the account was going out to pitch two weeks ago (28 November). -...

Public Affairs: Lobbying target - John Healey, minister for local government.
December 12, 2008... Healey is seen by many as the real driving force behind local government policy and reform. - Ten-second biography Healey entered the Commons in 1997 and was made parliamentary private secretary to Gordon Brown, then Chancellor of the...

City & Corporate: In the news ... BA merger mess.
December 12, 2008... - Bring us up to speed Following the controversial link-up with American Airlines and Spanish carrier Iberia, British Airways has set its sights on a merger with Australian carrier Qantas. The news, which broke last week, shocked Iberia...

City & Corporate: Agencies vie for real estate briefs.
December 12, 2008... Two lucrative real estate accounts are up for grabs, despite the commercial property market slump. One of the world's largest commercial property investors, GE Real Estate, has put its pan-European financial PR account out to pitch. At the...

City & Corporate: The Week in City & Corporate.
December 12, 2008... Aon hires UK comms director, Cohn & Wolfe opens Middle East office Aon has appointed Charles Willy as UK comms director. Willy has worked at the insurance giant for more than five years and was previously head of internal comms. His new...

City & Corporate: Capital MS&L wins UAE job.
December 12, 2008... Capital MS&L has won an investor relations and PR brief with the Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, known as 'du'. The account will see the agency provide international and domestic IR and financial PR services following a...

City & Corporate: Business news not taken seriously.
December 12, 2008... When a former editor of the Financial Times, Richard Lambert (in his current role as director general of the CBI), attacks the way the press have handled the credit crunch it is surely time to take notice. There are structural reasons why...