PR Week (UK) articles from July 2007

PR Week (UK) archives from July 2007

TUPE ruling puts industry on alert.
July 6, 2007... An employment tribunal has fired a 'legal warning shot' at the PR industry by ruling that agency PROs have the right to transfer to a rival firm following a client re-tender. The tribunal ruled that Karis Hunt, a former account manager at...

FSA proposes radical code for financial PR firms.
July 6, 2007... Financial PR firms will have to adhere to a code of practice by the end of the year, under radical plans unveiled this week by the Financial Service Authority. The code will be voluntary, but is expected to become almost compulsory for...

PR assault looms for smoking ban.
July 6, 2007... Nightclub owner Dave West, who hit the headlines by hiring barrister Cherie Blair last week to fight the smoking ban, is looking for a PR agency. The pink-suited multimillionaire has gained a wealth of publicity on the back of his quest to...

FSA comms chief set for top role at TfL.(Financial Service Authority)(appointment of Vernon Everitt at Transport for London)(Brief article)
July 6, 2007... The top PRO at the Financial Service Authority (FSA) is heading to Transport for London (TfL) to be its new MD of marketing and comms. Vernon Everitt, currently FSA director of retail themes and sector leader for consumers, will move in...

Illingworth cuts FD ties with Smith & Nephew.(Brief article)
July 6, 2007... FTSE 100 company Smith & Nephew has brought in Brunswick to replace FD, following a change of chief executive. The British medical devices firm has used FD for more than four years. But the exit of Christopher O'Donnell last month, and the...

Lambert takes Microsoft helm.
July 6, 2007... Microsoft has promoted UK director of government affairs Matt Lambert to corporate affairs director, responsible for all CSR issues. Lambert's new role will see him joining the software giant's UK board, reporting to UK MD Gordon Frazer....

Gem Diamonds secures Pelham for financial PR.
July 6, 2007... The firm responsible for the largest diamond discovery this decade has signed up Pelham PR as its retained financial PR agency. FTSE 250 firm Gem Diamonds listed earlier this year, using Merlin for its listing and major diamond sales. ...

Weber heads up McDonald's wing.
July 6, 2007... McDonald's Europe has promoted Caroline Weber to its top comms role, following VP of corporate relations Karen Van Bergen's move to Fleishman Hillard. Van Bergen has now been made Fleishman Hillard's regional director for the Netherlands...

Feel Good Drinks looks for agency.
July 6, 2007... Feel Good Drinks Company is looking for PR support to raise awareness of the brand. The 'healthy drinks company' was set up in 2002 and its products are currently sold in 19,000 UK outlets. It reported a 50 per cent growth year in 2006....

Met receives praise for crisis response.
July 6, 2007... The Metropolitan Police and the Government's comms efforts have vastly improved since the 7/7 terrorist bombings, according to the London Assembly emergency committee. The body's chair Richard Barnes praised comms staff at the Met,...

Rainbow strings.(appointment of Molly Hooper at Shoestring International)(Brief article)
July 6, 2007... Online travel business Shoestring International - which specialises in adventure holidays to locations including Peru - has appointed Slam PR as it gears up for a pan-European launch. The internet-only Dutch tour operator was acquired by Kuoni...

News Brief: Edelman poaches Gilbert.
July 6, 2007... AGENCY: Edelman has poached Weber Shandwick director Richard Gilbert to be a director in its own corporate division. Gilbert will work on the agency's Microsoft accounts as well as a new business remit

News Brief: Cohen joins Roche.
July 6, 2007... HEALTH: Manning Selvage & Lee Greater China MD Fiona Cohen has joined pharma giant Roche as global head of pharmaceutical communication. The company makes anti-flu drug Tamiflu

News Brief: GPlus Europe appointment.
July 6, 2007... CORPORATE: Brussels-based communications firm GPlus Europe has hired the former deputy director-general of the World Trade Organisation Roderick Abbott as an associate

News Brief: Rentokil appoints Brands2Life.
July 6, 2007... CONSUMER: Pest control company Rentokil has brought in Brands2Life to promote its consumer offering and handle its B2B comms programme. The campaign will promote the people behind the brand

News Brief: Tetra Strategy launch.
July 6, 2007... AGENCY: Former News of the World editor Phil Hall is to launch a new agency called Tetra Strategy, in partnership with former Good Relations lobbyist James O'Keefe. Tetra will have a 'strategic alliance' with Hall's 14-strong PR firm Phil Hall...

News Brief: Taylor Herring appointed.
July 6, 2007... CONSUMER: Magazine publisher Puzzler Media has appointed Taylor Herring PR to handle consumer and trade PR for its new Puzzler Brain Trainer magazine, which launches on 13 July. The agency will create the first ever 'National Brain Train...

News Brief: Garmin hires Mansell Agency.
July 6, 2007... CONSUMER: Garmin Ltd, designer and manufacturer of GPS, chart-plotting and radar systems, has hired Poole-based marine PR specialists The Mansell Agency to raise the profile of its product range

News Brief: 29 Under 29.
July 6, 2007... There is just one week left to nominate the UK's brightest young PR talent. Potential candidates must have been under 29 on 31 May, and can be nominated by emailing alex.black@haymarket.com with three reasons why they should be one of our '29...

Russell joins Egg as comms chief as merger settles.
July 6, 2007... Credit card company Egg has installed a new head of communications following its purchase by Citigroup in May. Adrian Russell's first task will be to rebuild the comms team which was decimated by a mass exit of mid-ranking staff last year....

Co-op hires PGK to boost high street awareness.(Co-operative Travel Trade Group)(PGK Advertising)(Brief article)
July 6, 2007... Co-operative Travel Trade Group (CTTG) has called in Yorkshire agency PGK to raise awareness of its high street travel agencies and fend off competition from online rivals. It has briefed the agency to target consumers through the national...

Mason Rose wins Ritz-Carlton task.(Ritz Carlton Hotel Company L.L.C.)(Brief article)
July 6, 2007... The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company has appointed Mason Rose as its first global PR agency to modernise the brand. The Ritz-Carlton brand owns luxury hotels in Europe, North and South American, the Middle-East and Asia. It is perhaps most famous...

Threepipe hypes up Turbo Tennis.
July 6, 2007... Online betting exchange Betfair has brought in Threepipe to promote its sponsorship of new tennis event 'Turbo Tennis'. The one-day event will see top players competing for a dollars 100,000 prize. Threepipe will use media relations,...

Whittle to head law firm's comms.
July 6, 2007... The former head of PR for media and editorial at Reuters has been appointed head of comms at a top law firm. Moira Whittle will oversee internal and external comms at 300-strong law firm Barlow Lyde & Gilbert LLP. The post had been...

First snatches India brief to increase tourist trade.
July 6, 2007... The Indian state that contains Mumbai has brought in its first agency to highlight the area's cultural diversity and position Mumbai as the 'gateway to India'. The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) has given the brief to...

Public Sector: Cabinet Office seeks to boost social enterprise.(Hanover to work with the Office of the Third Sector)(Brief article)
July 6, 2007... The Cabinet Office has brought in an agency for a three-year offensive to promote the concept of social enterprise. Hanover has been briefed to target the public, professionals, investors and the procurement industry to highlight the value...

Public Sector: LGA task for council director.(Local Government Association)(Brief article)
July 6, 2007... The Local Government Association has brought in Harrow Council director Paul Najsarek to oversee its corporate comms while Jenny Crighton is on maternity leave. Najsarek joins in August as interim director of corporate strategy and public...

Public Sector: Free seminar on minority groups.
July 6, 2007... Ethnic communications agency Rich Visions is offering public sector PROs a free seminar on engaging with hard-to-reach groups. PROs from organisations which aim to engage with black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) audiences can apply. One...

Public Sector: Better to be right than to be first.
July 6, 2007... Devastation from flooding and acts of terror have seen public services respond quickly and effectively over the last fortnight. But the coverage of these events raises some serious questions about the standards of rolling news media. In an...

Voluntary Sector: CharityComms receives thumbs-up from sector.(Brief article)
July 6, 2007... Senior figures in voluntary sector comms have welcomed a new charity communications body set to launch in the next few weeks. CharityComms aims to promote best practice, effectiveness and integration for not-for-profit communications...

Voluntary Sector: Ex-BBC journalist joins Papworth.
July 6, 2007... Disability charity The Papworth Trust has appointed former BBC journalist David Martin as director of strategy and marketing. Martin was previously the corporate communications manager for the East of England Development Agency. Heading up...

Voluntary Sector: CAFOD in ethical jewellery drive.(Brief article)
July 6, 2007... Cafod has persuaded supporters to send more than 2,000 e-mails to top executives at Argos and Goldsmiths, urging them to change the way they operate. The charity is campaigning to get UK companies to sign up to a sourcing policy to stop...

Voluntary Sector: Why third sector comms teams should aim high with stories.(media should focus on social aspects)(Viewpoint essay)
July 6, 2007... Steve Palmer on why a good story can arouse the interest of journalists and fall in with the 'fashion' of the day. Last week, the US TV news anchor Mika Brzezinski refused to read an item on Paris Hilton's release from jail, because she...

Public Affairs: Connect consultant and Tory adviser join AS Biss.
July 6, 2007... AS Biss has swelled its ranks with the hire of two senior consultants. The agency has poached Connect Public Affairs lobbyist Theo Blackwell and Conservative aide Bill Morgan. Blackwell started at AS Biss this week, after less than a year...

Public Affairs: Positive verdict on Brown cabinet.(Brief article)
July 6, 2007... Public affairs agencies were this week busy briefing clients on the implications of Gordon Brown's first cabinet, with Fleishman-Hillard one of the first off the mark. The agency responded swiftly to last Thursday's announcements by...

Public Affairs: APCO woos Murphy back from job at AstraZeneca.
July 6, 2007... APCO is bringing back Darren Murphy to head its UK public affairs operation following the resignation of UK MD Simon Miller. Miller is understood to have handed in his resignation last week, making him the fourth senior figure to quit the...

Public Affairs: PA chief opts to step down at WS.(appointment of Malcolm Gooderham at Weber Shandwick/GJW Public Affairs)(Brief article)
July 6, 2007... One of Weber Shandwick's top lobbyists is striking out on his own. Malcolm Gooderham, deputy MD of corporate comms and public affairs, handed in his resignation a few days ago. He would only say that he would be 'working as a consultant',...

Public Affairs: Edelman loses two more senior figures to Citigate.(Thierry Lebeaux)(John Mullin)(Edelman London)(Brief article)
July 6, 2007... Citigate Dewe Rogerson (CDR) has persuaded two more of Edelman's top lobbyists to help get its new PA shop off the ground. Edelman's vice-chair of Brussels PA Thierry Lebeaux will oversee a new Brussels office for CDR Public Policy, while...

Public Affairs: Pendragon wins charity account.
July 6, 2007... Luther Pendragon has won a four-way shoot-out to land an account with an influential cancer charity coalition. The agency was hired this week by The Cancer Campaigning Group, a coalition of UK charities that have joined forces to raise the...

Healthcare: Huntsworth Health fills senior positions.
July 6, 2007... Huntsworth Health has bolstered its PR and medical education businesses with two senior hires. The agency has brought in former Novartis comms manager Joanna Lem and former Burson-Marsteller director Sameena Mirza. Both report to...

Healthcare: Ruder Finn loses Von Ahlefeldt.(Tanya Von Ahlefeldt)
July 6, 2007... Ruder Finn has lost another senior practitioner with the client services director of the agency's health and wellbeing division quitting to join Porter Novelli. Tanya Von Ahlefeldt becomes co-director in charge of healthcare at Porter...

Healthcare: Shire Health hires Euro RSCG man.
July 6, 2007... Shire Health PR has appointed Satinder Phull as account manager. Previously a senior account exec at Euro RSCG, she will be working on Bayer Schering Pharma's contraception products and on oncology brands for both Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS)...

Healthcare: HCA launches web toolkit for PROs.
July 6, 2007... The Healthcare Communications Association (HCA) has launched an interactive web-based version of its evaluation toolkit. The toolkit is aimed at integrating evaluation of health comms campaigns into everyday work. Both in house and agency...

Healthcare: At a Glance - Searchmedica bid to increase awareness.
July 6, 2007... WHAT'S NEW WITH SEARCHMEDICA? Medical search engine Searchmedica has launched a service for doctors which will allow them to make an online search specifically on drugs. It previously had three categories of information which doctors could...

City & Corporate: Brunswick holds the top spot for second month.
July 6, 2007... Brunswick has held on to the top spot in the Deal Watch chart for the second month in a row, following its work on AstraZeneca's purchase of MedImmune last month. The pounds 7.7bn deal sees Brunswick secure a third consecutive month in the...

City & Corporate: Holborn for B'ham FC deal.(Holborn PR)(Birmingham City Football Club)(Brief article)
July 6, 2007... The man who bought nearly 30 per cent of Birmingham City Football Club is using Holborn PR for the deal. Hong Kong billionaire Carson Yeung bought a 29.9 per cent stake in the quoted Premiership club. Holborn was brought in through its...

City & Corporate: Pounds 1bn sale for RBS in Canary Wharf.
July 6, 2007... The pounds 1bn sale of one of Canary Wharf's iconic buildings - Citigroup's European headquarters - has been handled by two agencies, both working for Irish acquiror Derek Quinlan. K Capital Source, working in Ireland, and Powerscourt,...

City & Corporate: Trick is to take the bad with the good.(technique used by public relations people)(Viewpoint essay)
July 6, 2007... I read a short story once in which an old master - a Rembrandt - was discovered in an attic and a huge argument ensued among experts about whether such an undiscovered treasure could possibly be genuine. Six months later, a second and identical...

Technology: Tiga hopes agencies can use Edinburgh effect.
July 6, 2007... Two agencies have been handed the task of aligning this summer's Edinburgh Interactive Festival with the better-known Edinburgh Festival and Fringe Festival. Gaming industry body Tiga has appointed specialist games agency Barrington Harvey...

Technology: Harvard grabs website accessibility account.
July 6, 2007... Harvard will champion the contentious issue of website accessibility for the disabled, after winning a brief from a 'usability' consultancy. The agency has been hired by Webcredible - a London-based outfit which advises on making websites...

Technology: Nelson Bostock poaches Aswani.(appointment of Aparna Aswani at Nelson Bostock Communications)(Brief article)
July 6, 2007... Nelson Bostock has lured Inferno associate director Aparna Aswani to head its mobile practice. Starting in September, Aswani will lead all of Nelson Bostock's mobile and telecoms accounts, including phone manufacturer HTC, games developer...

Technology: Catalysis to front key mobile brief.
July 6, 2007... Tech agency Catalysis has won a substantial contract to handle comms for Symbian, the mobile operating system behind the Sony Walkman phone, the Nokia Navigator and a host of other 'smartphones'. Catalysis pitched against the incumbent,...

Technology: Kudos gets contract for Qype review site launch.(Website overview)
July 6, 2007... Digital agency Kudos Integrated is to handle the UK launch of Qype - a new website set up by former Lastminute.com MD Stephan Uhrenbacher. Qype is billed as a 'recommendation portal' that allows users to review their favourite restaurants,...

Technology: FON hires agency for WiFi crusade.
July 6, 2007... The Media Foundry has beaten off rival agencies to launch free global WiFi network FON in the UK. Established in Spain last year, FON allows its customers to access WiFi for free rather than relying on paid WiFi. The Media Foundry, the...

Media Relations: What the Papers say - Smokers take in their last breath.
July 6, 2007... - The introduction of the smoking ban last weekend provided a news hook for many PROs. It wasn't just the inevitable health campaigners, pro-choice spokespeople and pub trade associations chipping in, but also analysts, insurance companies and...

Media Relations: Contact Book Update.(appoinment of Caroline Muspratt at Sunday Express Ltd. and Phillip Inman and Antoinette Odoi at Guardian Newspapers Ltd.)
July 6, 2007... PRESS Caroline Muspratt, insurance correspondent at The Daily Telegraph, is joining the Sunday Express where she will be a leisure reporter. Sophie Goodchild, formerly chief reporter at the Independent on Sunday is moving to the...

Media Relations: 2 Minutes with... Charles Armstrong-Wilson, Editor, Racecar Engineering.(Interview)(Brief article)
July 6, 2007... Racecar Engineering has just undergone a redesign. Tell us what the magazine is about. Confusingly, Racecar Engineering does not write about motor racing or motor races. It deals with the engineering that underpins the sport. Put simply,...

Media Analysis: Country Life looks beyond the manor.
July 6, 2007... Country Life is trying to leave the 'posh' angle behind to embrace new readers. Suzy Bashford investigates. If all Country Life means to you is toffs in tweeds, then you need to take a closer look. Over the last year the magazine has...

News Analysis: How to challenge PE's rogue image.(private equity)
July 6, 2007... Public perceptions of the private equity industry are at an all-time low. Better employee comms would help, argues one financial PR specialist. Faces blown up to four-foot-wide posters and paraded around Glastonbury for the cameras and...

News Analysis: On the fast track to a greener future.
July 6, 2007... Eurostar is set to open a new station and switch to a high-speed line from St Pancras International, at the same time as pushing its new green agenda. Robert Gray looks at the challenge of communicating all the changes. This is a landmark...

Profile: No more lab coat - Jennifer Garratt, incoming MD, Burson-Marsteller healthcare practice.
July 6, 2007... Jennifer Garratt took a long time to realise that she did not want to be a scientist. Next month the Manning, Selvage & Lee director will become the managing director and chair of Burson-Marsteller's healthcare practice - but rewind a decade or...

Opinion: There goes liberty - up in a puff of smoke.
July 6, 2007... A number of fellow lifelong non-smokers recently lit up their first cigarettes. Their protest, spontaneous, unco-ordinated and not entirely comprising bolshy middle-aged men, was a sort of sulphurous 'cry freedom' moment from individuals...

Opinion: Brown makes liberal use of the 'c' word.
July 6, 2007... Gordon Brown - along with the rest of us - has been reminded of the iron law of politics: even the best-laid plans can be superseded by events. The narrowly averted terrorist outrages in London and Glasgow last weekend have, quite rightly,...

Editorial: Too early to drink to the UK's CR success.(25th Business in the Community Awards)(Editorial)(Brief article)(Conference notes)
July 6, 2007... A big mutual hug was enjoyed at the 25th Business in the Community Awards on Monday. Some 1,800 business people, royals and journalists packed into the Royal Albert Hall to laud UK plc's latest efforts in corporate responsibility. The...

Opinion: Letters - Civil servants are not exempt from ethics.(Letter to the editor)
July 6, 2007... I was surprised to read Charles Lewington's suggestion that government communicators are not governed by ethical standards (29 June). Members of the Government Communications Network (GCN), who work across the whole communications mix, are all...

Opinion: Letters - ...and, anyway, spin is all around us.(Letter to the editor)
July 6, 2007... Your debate about Tony Blair and 'spin' (June 29) is based on the false assumption that 'spin' is somehow a deliberate intervention in the 'normal' communications process. Yet spin is almost inherent in all communication, whether it is the...

Opinion: Letters - Financial sector has a few saints around.(Letter to the editor)
July 6, 2007... I was interested to read your recent stories about Virgin Media making 'fresh efforts to bolster its social and ethical reputation' (15 June) and about HSBC 'stepping up its efforts to be seen as one of the world's greenest businesses' (22...

Opinion: ViewPoint - Web 2.0 is a 'call to arms' for all good PROs.
July 6, 2007... Golin Harris joint MD Jonathan Hughes urges PROs to use social media and the 'changing communications landscape' to the industry's advantage. In this week's podcast - available at www.prweek.com/uk - Hughes issues a 'call to arms' to the...

Campaign: FoE makes 'Big Ask' of the Government - Voluntary sector.(Friends of the Earth)
July 6, 2007... Campaign: The Big Ask Client: Friends of the Earth PR team: In-house Timescale: Ongoing from May 2005 Budget: Approx pounds 150,000 to date This was designed to create certainty for the environment and UK business, and providing a...

Campaign: Vision Express sets its sights on young drivers - Consumer.
July 6, 2007... Campaign: Whoops, Somebody Needs an Eye Test Client: Vision Express PR team: Dig for Fire Timescale: September-November 2006 Budget: Undisclosed Taking government statistics that showed 28 per cent of all UK car accidents involve...

Campaign: SolihullActive mounts coach potato offensive - Public sector.
July 6, 2007... Campaign: SolihullActive Client: Solihull Council PR team: In-house Timescale: April 2005-March 2006 Budget: Undisclosed The borough-wide campaign aims to get more people more active, more often. At the heart of the scheme is an...

View from the Top.(opinion of Piers Morgan)
July 6, 2007... Everyone loves a panto villain and Piers Morgan - the uber-confident former showbiz hack, ex-tabloid editor, author and now TV talent show judge - can play that role down to a T. When he recalls his recent experience as a judge on ITV1's TV...

Summer Reading: My most influential book.(Recommended readings)
July 6, 2007... Piers Morgan's bestseller aside, which other tomes should be on your shelf? Six PR gurus talk Hannah Marriott through their recommended read. THE PRINCE - BY NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI Machiavelli was actually better at theorising about power...

Diary: Edelman pair show remarkable flair.(Edelman London)(Brief article)
July 6, 2007... Edelman UK has impressed one or two junior (and senior) PROs in the past with the proximity of its headquarters to premier pulling palace and all-round money disposal unit Tiger Tiger. On the flipside, last week's worrying terrorism scare...

Diary: Can FD hack it in the United States?
July 6, 2007... With the great financial clout of American owners comes great responsibility. At least in terms of US post-Enron regulation Sarbanes-Oxley it does. Take FD (nee Financial Dynamics) for example, which tech-savvy firm FTI Consulting recently...

Diary: Excellence - with plenty of noise.(London Communcations Agency got Chartered Institute of Public Relations Excellence Award )(Brief article)
July 6, 2007... This week's CIPR Excellence Awards event was the scene of some raucous celebrations - not least from PROs representing the Royal British Legion. The legion may not normally be associated with boisterous booze-ups, but host BBC's Stephen...

Diary: Finally, a product you can trust.(development of Liquid Trust)(Brief article)
July 6, 2007... The PR community is probably not buckling under the weight of public trust. Not least because, even in its own debates, it concludes that bending the truth is perfectly acceptable practice (PRWeek, 2 March). But for those wishing to be...

Diary: Hit or Miss... Water, water everywhere.(Brief article)
July 6, 2007... The Church of England is keen to appear friendly, understanding and modern. But its PR gameplan backfired spectacularly this week as a bench of Bishops insulted virtually the entire nation. Blaming recent floods of almost Biblical proportions...

Diary: Let's meet at - Red Fort.(Brief article)
July 6, 2007... Reviewed by Veronique Attas, client services partner, The Media Foundry. We are privileged to be so well catered for in London, and in our line of work this means we get to eat some of the best food the world has to offer, right here on...

CPRE shocked by new homes plan.
July 13, 2007... The comms team at the Campaign to Protect Rural England was caught on the back foot this week when housing rocketed to the top of the political agenda. On Tuesday, communities secretary Hazel Blears shocked campaigners by saying: 'I think...

M: to assist embattled private equity firms.
July 13, 2007... The trade body representing private equity firms, the British Venture Capital Association (BVCA), has brought in an agency to manage media coverage around an independent report that it has funded. M:Communications is advising on next week's...

Vero, Edelman win Olympic job.(Vero Communications )(Brief article)
July 13, 2007... Edelman and Vero Communications have landed a joint brief to help ensure the 2012 Olympics encourages popular involvement in sport. Sport England, the government body responsible for getting more people involved in sport, has called in the...

Spinoza rejects newspaper attack on campaign.
July 13, 2007... A Manchester agency has lashed out at the Manchester Evening News after the paper accused it of 'misleading motorists'. Spinoza Kennedy Vesey was named and shamed in a story about a congestion charge leaflet sent to 2.5 million homes in...

Vodafone lures Gordon from rival Telefonica.
July 13, 2007... O2's head of media relations is to move to rival Vodafone in August. Simon Gordon, who has seen O2 through its devolution from BT through to its sale last year to Spanish firm Telefonica, will join Vodafone as senior media relations...