This week’s PR news in brief (13-17 November)
Here’s our round-up of essential PR news stories and features from the past week, including the winners of the CIPR Midlands PRide awards, account wins for Hills Balfour and Big Brand Ideas and Cision’s Abe Smith on how print media and television complement each other.
Opinion
Abe Smith, Cision’s president of EMIA, explores the combination of print and television media in the UK and how the two complement each other.
Danny Whatmough, head of social at Weber Shandwick and chair of the PRCA Digital Group, outlines the key takeaways from this year’s PRCA digital report.
Jon Meakin, Grayling’s global head of strategic services, discusses the findings of the agency’s Critical Conditions report into the online reputations of 50 international companies from the Fortune 500.
Interviews
Caroline Coskry, Oracle PR’s chief executive, talks about why she founded the specialist property consultancy, the role of niche agencies and the UK housing market.
Valérie Dana, editorial director at Revista LVR, discusses the Spanish lifestyle title’s audience of female cancer patients, its rebrand and what its community wants to read.
Account wins
Comprigo, Bauer Media Group’s online product comparison brand, has appointed Caliber to handle its digital marketing activity following a three-way pitch. The partnership will see Caliber manage comprigo’s online presence, including PR, SEO, design and digital marketing across Europe, Asia and North and South America.
Motor retail and aftersales group Lookers has appointed MHP Communications as its retained financial PR adviser following a competitive pitch process.
Cheshire law firm SAS Daniels has appointed Big Brand Ideas to fulfil all of its PR activity. The agency will support the firm’s in-house marketing team to develop a new strategy to complement its specialisms, as well as manage its general press office activity.
Globus has appointed Hills Balfour to promote its Cosmos and Avalon Waterways brands. Hills Balfour will work closely with UK consumer and trade travel media and raise awareness of the brands via traditional, digital and social media.
Agency news
Purple PR has signed American musician BØRNS as a new client in its talent division. The agency will represent the artist for his UK/EU publicity and global commercial representation.
People news
Iain Wright, the former UK government minister and Labour party heavyweight, has joined Hume Brophy as a senior adviser. He joins the consultancy’s international Brexit unit and will provide clients with insights regarding their corporate strategy, reputation and positioning.
Golin has appointed Jonny Bentwood as its global head of data and analytics. He will work with its data and analytics, digital and research experts to bring new global tools, technology and intellectual property to the business.
Public affairs and property comms specialist Remarkable Group has appointed Steve Summers as a director, as it looks to expand across the property, infrastructure, energy and transport sectors.
Influential has hired new members to its north-west PR, digital and creative teams following client wins. Experienced B2B PR consultant Eleanor Harms joins as an account manager, Ellie Riddy has been hired as a junior account executive and Doug Le Brocq has been appointed as marketing executive.
Awards news
WPR Agency, Loughborough University and West Midlands Police all won multiple prizes at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations’ Midlands PRide Awards last Friday.
A full list of winners can be found here.
PR events
Time is running out for you to sign up to Cision’s “Are niche consultancies disrupting the PR industry?” webinar, which takes place next week on Tuesday 21 November at 3pm.
Jason Nisse from The Nisse Consultancy and Munch’s Lizzie Earl will join Philip Smith, Cision’s head of content marketing and comms, to examine the role of niche, boutique and smaller agencies in the PR and comms industry.
Discover the opportunities and challenges of going it alone as Nisse and Earl discuss how to get a new agency off the ground, what benefits there are to working in different types of agency and the role they play in the wider industry.
You can sign up to the webinar by following this link.
