PR Week (UK) articles from January 2006

PR Week (UK) archives from January 2006

Asda prepares for new stores battle.
January 6, 2006... Asda has called in Euro RSCG Biss Lancaster to pave the way for an aggressive store-opening programme amid stiff competition from a resurgent Sainsbury's. Asda hopes to launch more new stores in 2006 than the 40 opened last year. But with...

Virgin Atlantic's Moore quits corp affairs post.
January 6, 2006... Virgin Atlantic's long-serving director of corporate affairs Paul Moore is to quit the long-haul carrier after eight and a half years. Moore said 'a like-for-like replacement' would be in place before his departure. The new postholder...

Audit Commission chief sets up agency.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... The Audit Commission is on the hunt for a PR chief following the exit of Richard Peel, its MD of comms and public reporting. Peel has left the body, which monitors spending by local government, health and fire and rescue services, after two...

DTI slams eClips cuttings service.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... The Department for Trade and Industry has threatened to investigate the Newspaper Licensing Agency's (NLA) planned digital cuttings database, eClips. The copyright watchdog's proposed service has attracted fierce criticism from senior...

Kraft restructures corporate affairs department.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Kraft Foods has made legal executive Jim McNasby its top PRO and renamed its global corporate affairs team as 'corporate and government affairs' to reflect the increased importance of stakeholder relations. McNasby has been promoted to V-P...

Hargreaves takes reins at Bite after Credo deal.
January 6, 2006... Bite Communications has acquired tech shop Credo Communications and installed its founder, David Hargreaves, as Bite MD. The move strengthens Bite's B2B offering but raises the possibility of a tender for Credo client Check Point Software...

Spam attempts to dispel 'joke' image.
January 6, 2006... The company behind American tinned meat Spam has hired fresh PR support as it strives for the brand to be 'taken seriously'. Food firm Hormel has parted company with seven-year incumbent Nexus Communications and called in Golley Slater PR...

Frank split puts 888.com account up for grabs.
January 6, 2006... Gambling firm 888.com is on the hunt for a UK consumer agency after splitting from three-year incumbent Frank PR. Owned by Cassava Enterprises, the Gibraltar-based site is one of the UK's biggest online casinos, and has a significant...

US cruise firm to target UK market.
January 6, 2006... American cruise operator Royal Caribbean Cruise Line is on the hunt for an agency to handle consumer PR in the UK and Ireland. The operator will launch its first route from the UK this year, encroaching on rival Carnival Cruise's territory....

Speedo poaches Adidas's Briggs.
January 6, 2006... Speedo has raided Adidas to fill its top global PR post. Alex Briggs started this week as head of PR, having been PR manager at Adidas, responsible for the latter's association with basketball and tennis. Speedo sponsors the International...

B-M's Rollinson quits for start-up.
January 6, 2006... Burson-Marsteller MD of brands and integrated marketing Mark Rollinson has quit after nine years to launch his own agency. He left on Christmas Eve and this week unveiled Brand Faith, 'a strategic branding consultancy'. It is already...

John Lewis snaps up Donovan for top post.
January 6, 2006... John Lewis Partnership has hired former Granada PR chief Susan Donovan to become its director of comms as it reports buoyant Christmas trading figures. She takes over from retiring director of comms Paul Burden on 25 January. Donovan...

M advises Virgin on NTL approach.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Virgin Group has drafted in M: Communications senior consultants Nick Fox and Tom Hampson as cable operator NTL considers whether to raise its bid for Virgin Mobile. Virgin Group corporate affairs director Will Whitehorn briefed M after...

News Brief: Nayyar quits Citigate.
January 6, 2006... PEOPLE: Citigate Public Affairs MD Simon Nayyar has quit after 16 years with the agency. It is not known whether Nayyar, thought to have left of his own accord, has another job to go to.

News Brief: RHM reviews account.
January 6, 2006... CORPORATE: RHM, the firm behind Hovis and Mr Kipling, is reviewing its UK corporate and crisis management account. Incumbent Financial Dynamics will not repitch but maintains control of RHM's financial PR.

News Brief: PR Office acquires The Seven Partnership.
January 6, 2006... AGENCY: The PR Office has acquired The Seven Partnership. The move reunites two former Chime stalwarts - Seven founder Howard de Souza, who joins as a director, and PR Office chairman Shimon Cohen.

News Brief: Seal Communications merger.
January 6, 2006... AGENCY: Birmingham-based Seal Communications is merging with Spirit Marketing. Spirit will be re-branded Seal, and the 40-strong firm now has offices in Birmingham and London. Clients include Kumala Wines and Punch Taverns.

News Brief: Brando kicks off campaign for Wanadoo.
January 6, 2006... CONSUMER: Band & Brown Communications' events arm Brando has kicked off a three-month campaign for Wanadoo, seeing off Companycare Communications for the brief.

News Brief: GEM Group ranames European arm.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... AGENCY: The European arm of sports marcoms agency GEM Group is renaming as brandRapport. Formerly Craigie Taylor, it was bought by CSS Stellar and turned into GEM Europe, before completing an MBO this month. The agency has 50 staff in the UK...

News Brief: Affiliation for Hill & Knowlton.
January 6, 2006... AGENCY: Hill & Knowlton has entered Morocco via an affiliation with Casablanca-based minnow PR Media. The 16-month-old agency also has representation in Tunisia and Algeria.

Freuds promotes One Earth Concert.
January 6, 2006... The One Earth Concert, a live music event urging Europeans to switch to renewable energy, is being promoted by Freud Communications - the agency that worked on Live8. The concert, backed by the Eden Project, promises performances from The...

Colman Getty set for Olivier Awards.(publicity for Laurence Olivier Awards)(Society of London Theatre)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Next month's Laurence Olivier Awards will be publicised by Colman Getty following the resignation of nine-year incumbent Townhouse Publicity. The Society of London Theatre gongs are presented on 26 February at the London Hilton in Park...

Agencies enter new year with tempered optimism.(public relations firms)(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)
January 6, 2006... Optimism at PR agencies declined in the final quarter of 2005, according to the PRCA's Trends Barometer. Only 25 per cent of respondents said their optimism for the industry had increased, a drop from 54 per cent in Q2 and 42 per cent in...

Compagnon to make Cubitt departure.(Bernard Compagnon, Cubitt Consulting)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Cubitt Consulting has been hit by the resignation of co-head of IR Bernard Compagnon. Compagnon, who joined Cubitt from international IR firm Taylor Rafferty in December 2004, is believed to have resigned formally from Cubitt in November...

Eidos prepares for Lara Croft birthday.
January 6, 2006... Video game maker Eidos has hired Taylor Herring to mark the tenth anniversary of its flagship Lara Croft title. The monster-battling archaeologist made her debut in 1996's Tomb Raider. Taylor Herring will promote the spring launch of...

Memorex calls in Pleon for Europe.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Memorex has brought in Pleon to launch its 2006 range of data storage products in Europe. The London-based campaign could also involve sponsorship promotion as Memorex expands into digital media. Sponsorship in the US has seen Memorex...

Lockstone lands Edelman City job.(Paul Lockstone)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Edelman has poached Merlin director and former Alliance & Leicester director of corporate comms Paul Lockstone in a bid to rebuild its City practice. Lockstone joined the agency last month as director of financial, plugging the gap left by...

Kia consults icas to build female lifestyle appeal.
January 6, 2006... Kia has ushered in fresh agency support as it tries to become a top ten car manufacturer by 2010. Icas PR has become the South Korean firm's UK consumer and corporate agency. Kia wants to shed its niche positioning as a rival to Daewoo and...

O'Sullivan calls in agency support.(snooker star Ronnie O'Sullivan)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Flamboyant snooker star Ronnie O'Sullivan has sought PR advice to help boost his off-table earnings. Frank PR joint MD Frankie Burstin - who has worked with boxer Prince Naseem Hamed, a close friend of O'Sullivan - said the brief was to...

Public Sector: Highlands agency in green energy drive.
January 6, 2006... Economic development agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise is to trumpet the benefits of renewable energy with a year-long campaign in 2006. The agency - based in northern Scotland - wants to counter negative perceptions of renewable...

Public Sector: Islington lures Camden's Marinos to aid recovery.(Emma Marinos hired for public relations post at Islington Council)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Islington Council has poached the head of comms at neighbouring Camden Council to take its top PR post in February. Emma Marinos leaves the north London borough of Camden after two and a half years to become assistant director of comms and...

Public Sector: RDA Secretariat names comms director.
January 6, 2006... The national champion of regional development has hired former Hill & Knowlton senior account director Alison Culshaw to its beefed-up top comms post. The public affairs specialist joins the Regional Development Agency National Secretariat...

Public Sector: Honesty is the best policy for the Met.(Metropolitan Police Office, London, England)
January 6, 2006... We British have a contrary attitude to policing. Broadly, we trust the service to stand between us and those who would take our money, drive like lunatics, or blow us up. But while we want policemen, we don't like being policed. We want to...

Voluntary Sector: British Heart Foundation plans Valentine's walk.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... The British Heart Foundation is to stage a 'flirt walk' through London's Hyde Park in an effort to reach a younger audience. The event will take place on 12 February to cash in on the visibility of 'love heart' imagery around Valentine's...

Voluntary Sector: Sail 4 Cancer calls in F-H for events.
January 6, 2006... A cancer charity has taken on Fleishman-Hillard to help secure more coverage of its sailing events. Sail 4 Cancer raises funds for research and treatment and provides sailing experiences for cancer patients and their families. Its main...

Voluntary Sector: Substance abuse group enlists Baker for rebrand.
January 6, 2006... Drug and alcohol abuse charity Phoenix House has hired mental health and drug abuse specialist Sue Baker ahead of a possible rebrand. Baker, who oversaw mental health charity Mind's rebrand five years ago, has taken up the newly created...

Voluntary Sector: RNID destigmatises hearing aids.
January 6, 2006... Deafness charity RNID plans to 'make wearing hearing aids as desirable and acceptable as wearing glasses' via a combined advertising and PR campaign. Last year the charity brought in former Cancer Research UK comms chief Susan Osborne to...

Voluntary Sector: Cancer Research is 'biggest brand'.
January 6, 2006... Being voted 'the UK's most valuable charity brand' is a fillip when it comes to attracting volunteers and corporate cash, according to 2005 winner Cancer Research UK. Analyst Intangible Business calculated brand value from forecast revenue...

Voluntary Sector: Thompson helps ActionAid.
January 6, 2006... Actress Emma Thompson has been unveiled as head of ActionAid's 'ambassador network' - the charity's major donor club. Thompson, who has represented the charity on trips to Africa, is set to return to the continent this year. Her diary of the...

Public Affairs: Bell Pottinger appoints former New Labour aides.(Bell Pottinger Public Affairs)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Bell Pottinger Public Affairs has made a brace of senior appointments but lost the services of director Fiona Mason, who quit last month. The agency has hired David Blunkett's former special adviser Sophie Linden as a director and...

Public Affairs: Wag Ed unveils Brussels PA office.
January 6, 2006... BRUSSELS: Waggener Edstrom has opened a Brussels public affairs practice and appointed independent consultant Christina Kaul to lead it. The agency counts Microsoft and Mastercard among its worldwide PA clients. Kaul previously ran her...

Public Affairs: Green Issues sells pounds 2m stake to Isis.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Green Issues Communications has received a pounds 2m injection from private equity house Isis Equity Partners to hasten its growth plans in return for a minority stake. Founded in 1998, the firm helps developers win planning permissions by...

Public Affairs: News Int hires ex-Howard spokesman to head PA.
January 6, 2006... Britain's most powerful national newspaper group has hired the former director of anti-European integration think-tank the Bruges Group as its head of public affairs. Jonathan Collett steps into the post at Rupert Murdoch's News...

Public Affairs: FD adds Dittus to acquisition list.
January 6, 2006... NEW YORK: Financial Dynamics has bolstered its PA credentials following July's acquisition of LLM Communications with the purchase of Washington DC-based Dittus Communications. Dittus founder and CEO Gloria Dittus will continue to head the...

Public Affairs: Lehal exits Edelman to launch start-up Insight.
January 6, 2006... John Lehal has quit his post as a director in Edelman's PA practice to launch Insight Public Affairs, and lured British Retail Consortium public affairs manager James Tyrell to join him. Insight will aim to offer strategic counsel to...

City & Corporate: Aloof CEO harms ambitions of RBS.
January 6, 2006... Global PR firm Burson-Marsteller has done a lot of work over the years to establish and quantify the extent to which the reputation of a company derives from, and depends on, the reputation of its CEO. Surveys of opinion formers and...

City & Corporate: Pelham names Berens to lead tech bid.(Pelham Public Relations)(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Pelham Public Relations has poached ICIS director Archie Berens in a bid to move into the telecoms, media and technology (TMT) sector. Berens, who had been with ICIS for two and a half years, joined Pelham on 12 December as a director...

City & Corporate: M&C Hotels hires FD prior to 9/11 compensation bid.
January 6, 2006... Millennium & Copthorne Hotels has terminated a ten-year relationship with Brunswick as it launches a pounds 25m lawsuit against its insurance broker. Financial Dynamics took over as M&C's retained adviser since 1 January, following a...

City & Corporate: JPMorgan AM reviews corporate brief.
January 6, 2006... JPMorgan Asset Management has held talks with agencies to handle its corporate PR following a revamp of its public affairs support. The fund manager has moved retained agency Fishburn Hedges to a pure PA brief, putting the original PR...

Healthcare: At a glance - Novartis launches Prexige into tough Cox-2 market.
January 6, 2006... Is this the drug that gained UK approval last month? Indeed. Prexige (lumiracoxib), along with the entire Cox-2 inhibitor class of drugs, has been through a lengthy safety review by the European Medicines Agency (EMEA), which delayed its...

Healthcare: Packer Forbes snaps up Remicade account.
January 6, 2006... Packer Forbes Communications is to promote Schering-Plough's Remicade brand in the UK this year. The drug is one of Schering-Plough UK's most important and can treat a growing number of ailments, ranging from rheumatoid arthritis - its...

Healthcare: GSK in global review of respiratory brief.
January 6, 2006... GlaxoSmithKline has held talks with agencies over a contract to handle comms for its respiratory portfolio worldwide. Respiratory drugs make up GSK's largest single franchise and include flagship brand Advair - known in Europe as Seretide....

Healthcare: Freshwater plans healthcare move.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Freshwater UK, the rapidly expanding PR and marketing group, has set its sights on acquiring a healthcare PR agency within 18 months. 'We want to create a regional network with all major specialisms in PR - health is a growing sector,' said...

Healthcare: Eisai seeks consultancy for UK expansion plan.
January 6, 2006... Japanese drugs company Eisai is considering bringing in agency support to bolster its comms in Europe. Various London-based firms are understood to have been approached about potential work, believed to focus on promoting Eisai's ambitions...

Media Relations: What the papers say.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Tube strike fails to curb party spirits Despite hailing New Year's Eve's Tube strike 'a success' (bbc.co.uk, 1 January), the RMT union must have been disappointed by its limited impact on the celebrations. Rather than the predicted...

Media Relations: Contact book update.
January 6, 2006... PRESS The Observer is to relaunch this Sunday, switching in size from broadsheet to the Berliner format. The paper will have a full-colour main news section and a new features section, called 7 Days. Business & Media will be combined with...

Media Relations: 2 Minutes with ... John Casey, deputy head of news, CNBC Europe.
January 6, 2006... CNBC Europe has launched business news programme Worldwide Exchange. What makes it stand out? It is broadcast simultaneously across the world and is the first CNBC programme to be produced jointly by three regional channels. ...

Media Analysis: The BBC is still open for business.
January 6, 2006... As the BBC prepares to welcome in Robert Peston to replace Jeff Randall as the face of its business output, Tom Williams takes a look at the corporation's evolving attitude towards the business world. The BBC has replaced its first-ever...

News Analysis: Cancer groups in message rethink.
January 6, 2006... One in three Britons will at some time be diagnosed with cancer. Alex Black looks at the latest media strategies from major charities to combat the disease. More than a quarter of a million people in the UK contract some form of cancer...

News Analysis: Morrisons finds it grim down south.
January 6, 2006... Morrisons' reputation was the worst of any company in 2005. Hannah Marriott examines the factors behind the supermarket chain's fall from favour and asks what it needs to do to recover some credibility. How Morrisons must have longed for...

Profile: After the tsunami.
January 6, 2006... Phil Talbot, director of communications, British Red Cross Phil Talbot says one of his claims to fame is that he persuaded his former boss Anita Roddick to enjoy horseracing. By the end of a charity race night, he recalls, the animal rights...

Opinion: Paul Murphy - Reputation reveals its monetary value.
January 6, 2006... I can't pretend to have much time for those brand evaluation surveys that tend to pop up at this time of year - the oh-so-predictable X Corp takes over Y Plc in Global Top Ten; British firms claim just two places in Mega 20, etc. But...

Opinion: Charlie Whelan - The Sun no longer shines over Cameron.
January 6, 2006... Most politicians spent the long winter break trying to think about anything but politics. This is why we had headlines about missing penguins, Wayne Rooney being 'more famous than Jesus', and Tom Jones being knighted. However, we saw...

Opinion: Leader - Despite the dark days optimists will prevail.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... At this time of the year it's traditional to gauge the temperature of the industry and make predictions for the year ahead. And it is tempting for the commentator to be gloomy. Certainly a scan of the business pages in recent days is enough to...

Opinion: My best hire.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Jill Coomber, founding partner of Chocolate Communications, on the 'inspiring' Samantha Allen. 'Samantha joined the then GBC team in 1996 as head of our consumer division. We were attracted to Samantha by her feisty personality,...

Letter: 2006 - it's time to embrace your faults.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... In 2005 many consumers nurtured a snarling hostility to almost anything resembling marketing or corporate insincerity. The target was vague, yet we all knew what it was: the bullshit and spin highlighted in the Christmas bestseller Is It Just...

Letter: Free pitches are just a waste of our time.
January 6, 2006... Your recent feature 'End this practice' (2 December 2005) highlighted a very important issue - one that won't go away until the PR industry as a whole is brave enough to say ditch the pitch. Ironically the worst area at the moment in terms...

Letter: More to Amnesty poll than bid for coverage.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... Surveys provide a relatively easy route to getting mentions for a product or brand ('Do surveys still cut it?', 9 December 2005), but getting Amnesty International's name into print wasn't our primary objective when we published the results of...

Campaign: Finance - 'Divorcee mortgage' creates debate.
January 6, 2006... Campaign: Divorce - who survives best? Client: Yorkshire Building Society PR team: The Wriglesworth Consultancy Timescale: June - September 2005 Budget: pounds 32,000 The Wriglesworth Consultancy won a three-way pitch. ...

Campaigns: Consumer - National Meetings Week wins consumer pick-up.
January 6, 2006... Campaign National Meetings Week 2005 Client Meetings & Incentive Travel PR team Davies Tanner Timescale July-October 2005 Budget Under pounds 30,000. Meetings & Incentive Travel magazine launched National Meetings Week in 2001 and wanted...

Campaigns: Issues management - York farm boosts sales of goats' milk produce.
January 6, 2006... Campaign: Thank Goodness For Goats! Client: St Helen's Farm PR team: MTJ Associates Timescale: January-September 2005 Budget: pounds 10,000-pounds 15,000 The farm is owned and managed by Angus and Kathleen Wielkopolski, who have...

Careers: How to banish the new year blues.
January 6, 2006... As casualties of the holiday season stumble back into work, Maja Pawinska Sims asks how PROs can make the new year a more manageable proposition. Be honest. How many of you were genuinely beating a path to your office this week? Are you...

CSR: From the inside out.
January 6, 2006... Companies are finding that CSR is best promoted in co-ordination with internal comms, says Peter Crush. Barclays external comms officer for CSR Michael O'Toole sits just yards away from his colleagues in internal communications. It is a...

Let's do lunch.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... YO! Sushi Reviewed by Nick Ede, director, Eden Lifestyle I have a rule about lunch meetings with clients or new business - I like them to be short and sharp. I do not think eating a meal is conducive to winning clients, so the perfect...

Diary: Selfridges finds Asda way to do it.
January 6, 2006... It's not often that top-end department store Selfridges and bottom-slapping supermarket Asda are mentioned in the same sentence. But Diary can reveal Selfridges now has former Asda comms staff running both its in-house and external PR teams....

Diary: Lonely hearts find comfort at Virgin.
January 6, 2006... Virgin Mobile's current advertising campaign, showing atlas-sized female bodybuilders, has created a headache for its press office. A welter of lonely hearts looking for muscular comfort has inundated Virgin with phone calls asking for...

Diary: Press releases in divine intervention.(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... PR has been described as many things in its time, but rarely the path to divine enlightenment. But now Canada-based WDC Media, which describes itself as an 'industry leader in Christian media relations', is aiming to change that by...

Diary: Hit or miss ..(Brief Article)
January 6, 2006... A day in the life... Tony Blair took another leaf out of George W. Bush's book this week by releasing a three-minute film about his life on the Number 10 website. Its depiction of long hours and stress-filled days attracted cynicism. The Daily...

Gaydamak calls in Higgins for advice.(Alexandre Gaydamak)(Stuart Higgins )(Brief Article)
January 13, 2006... The controversial new co-owner of Portsmouth FC, Alexandre Gaydamak, is using former Sun editor Stuart Higgins to present himself positively to the media. Gaydamak - the Franco-Russian described by one paper last Saturday as 'suave but...

Ogilvy hands EMEA role to FedEx global chief.
January 13, 2006... Ogilvy PR Worldwide has turned to Martin Liptrot, a former Labour Party PR man, to run the agency in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Liptrot, who has also been a lobbyist for Philip Morris, joins on 30 January from a US-based role at...

Eurostar's Charles defects to Virgin.(Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. appoints Paul Charles )(Brief Article)
January 13, 2006... Virgin Atlantic has poached Eurostar comms director Paul Charles to fill the role vacated by Paul Moore. Charles this week signed a contract to become the airline's director of corporate communications. Moore is quitting to take a career...

AirMiles drafts in Lexis for 'greater engagement'.
January 13, 2006... The AirMiles Travel Company is planning a major marketing push in 2006, and has briefed Lexis PR to handle consumer/corporate comms. AirMiles remains best known as a loyalty scheme, despite relaunching as a full-service travel company two...

Orange and T-Mobile hire for hi-tech phone battle.(Brief Article)
January 13, 2006... Two of the biggest mobile networks - Orange and T-Mobile - have strengthened their PR armoury at the start of a year in which phones are expected to challenge iPod's MP3 supremacy, with 3G also finally becoming a staple medium. Golin...

Petplan account goes up for grabs.(following the resignation of five-year incumbent Nelson Bostock Communications)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2006... Petplan, the UK's biggest pet insurance brand, is on the hunt for a consumer agency following the resignation of five-year incumbent Nelson Bostock Communications. Petplan animal health PR and events marketing manager Fiona Pinkney said...