PR news round-up (25 February – 1 March)

Here’s a round-up of PR news over the past week, including the CisionMeets… About Timemedia briefing, insights on creativity from FleishmanHillard Fishburn’s Kev O’Sullivan and new wins for Munch, Frank and No Brainer.

CisionMeets… About Time

Join us on Tuesday 5 March for the first of our #CisionMeets series of 2019 to discover About Time‘s editorial strategy, its relationship with its readers and how you can work with the title to produce high quality content.

Using creativity to prove the value of PR

PR creatives rely on the work of research and measurement teams to prove their work is making an impact, FleishmanHillard Fishburn executive creative director Kev O’Sullivan discussed in Cision’s latest webinar.

“It is about how are you proving, demonstrating and measuring creativity,” he said. “Measurement enables us to show that our ideas have true value in the world and an authentic reason for being.”

You can read the full write up here and watch the webinar on-demand below.

Opinion

Thom Holliday, marketing manager at Edelman, discusses the findings from the agency’s latest Trust Barometer.

David Sykes, account manager at Carrington Communications, details how you should go about creating a crisis comms plan and what it needs to feature.

People news

Neil McGregor-Paterson

Ruder Finn has appointed Neil McGregor-Paterson as head of healthcare, overseeing the consultancy’s European healthcare business.

Reputation and political risk consultancy Lowick has appointed an associates group to advise on emerging trends and insights across the corporate and political world. The group will be chaired by former 10 Downing Street director of strategy Lord Livermore, with Caroline Edgar, Claire Kober and Owen Meredith forming the rest of the group.

Carrington Communications has hired Lauren Devlin as digital marketing manager. She will support the agency’s digital PR team and head up its SEO and PPC team.

Account wins

Picture credit: Daniel Lewis

Thorpe Park Resort has appointed Popcorn PR as its retained consumer PR agency. It will deliver an immersive campaign, based around “a year of unmissable events”, as a backdrop to the park’s 40th birthday celebrations.

Vauxhall Motors has appointed 33Seconds as its consumer PR and social media agency. The agency will handle social content creation, a lifestyle press office, community management, develop brand and product campaigns and lead on influencer relations.

Munch has announced two new client wins. The boutique agency will launch shared workspace firm HubHub’s first UK site in London and is set to support the launch of the third season of business podcast Secret Leaders.

Cheshire-based agency No Brainer has announced three new account wins. The agency will support second-hand retailer Cash Converters with its UK PR profile, assisting with integrated media, CSR and community relations alongside reputation management. The company will also handle PR and social media briefs for mobile accessories brand Tech Energi and management consultancy Imagile Professional Services Limited.

Manchester’s The Lowry Hotel has selected Brazen to handle consumer and trade PR. The agency will deliver a national and regional campaign to raise awareness of the hotel.

Pet food brand Royal Canin UK and Ireland has appointed Full Volume PR to help launch a its new “Canine Care” nutrition range.

Outernet Global has appointed Frank to launch its network of music and events venues following the successful launch of its Outernet London venue.

Merlin Entertainments has appointed Mongoose to assist its search for commercial partners for its attractions across Europe.

Global talent investor Entrepreneur First has selected Diffusion to handle its corporate PR in six markets across Europe and APAC.

Digital pharmaceutical company AeBeZe Labs has hired MWWPR to launch Moodrise, an app which ties into the company’s “digital nutrition” concept, in the UK and US. The agency is also tasked with raising awareness around “digital nutrition”.

Events company Human Race has appointed Macesport to carry out a targeted media relations programme to raise awareness of the 2019 Greater Manchester Marathon – the UK’s second largest marathon.

Online fitness membership company ClassPass has appointed Adhesive to handle consumer and trade media relations and influencer campaigns.

Small Beer Brew Co has appointed Clementine Communications to build the brand’s profile.

The Can Group is now representing The Only Way Is Essex and Celebrity Big Brother star Dan Osborne.

Legal resourcing platform F-LEX has appointed LexRex Communications as its retained agency. LexRex Communications will manage the platform’s strategic comms as the company looks to expand.

Speed Communications has selected Ablaze as its 2019 charity of the year. The agency will support the charity in its mission to deliver opportunity and accessibility for local children by providing PR and communications to drive awareness of its efforts.

Collagen boosting supplement brand Collagem has selected RKM Communications to manage its PR and media relations.

Cloud-based data and API integration platform SPINR has appointed Context Public Relations to deliver a PR campaign focusing on driving awareness of its offering across financial services, technology, ecommerce, healthcare and the public sector.

Agency news

Text100 and Bite have completed their merger, leading to the formation of new agency Archetype. The business aims to reimagine the agency model and set the standard for the next generation of global agencies.

Higginson Strategy has launched a new women’s practice named Empower. The practice will be chaired by former home secretary Jacqui Smith and will work with both organisations and individuals looked to accelerate female empowerment.

Jacqui Smith

MRM Group has taken a 50% stake in fintech B2B content marketing agency Foco. The move sees Foco founder Michael Taggart join MRM Group’s executive committee, while MRM Group CEO Andrew Appleyard joins Foco’s board as a director.

Pictured (l-r): Michael Taggart and Andrew Appleyard

CIPR news

The CIPR Greater London Group is once again hosting its annual quiz; one of the highlights of the PR networking calendar. Sponsored by Cision, the event is will raise money for the CIPR’s charity – iprovision – which supports CIPR members facing hardship.

The quiz will take place on Monday 11 March from 6pm-10pm at Holborn’s Sway Bar on Great Queen Street. Sign up for the quiz here.