Blue Prism chooses FTI Consulting

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Blue Prism Group plc, a UK-headquartered multinational software corporation, which enables blue-chip organisations to create a digital workforce powered by software robots, has hired FTI Consulting as its retained financial communications adviser.

Matt Dixon

Listed on AIM since March 2016, Blue Prism has executed over one billion transactions for its customers, which include Aegon, BNY Mellon, IBM, ING, Maersk, Nokia and Procter & Gamble.

Managing directors Matt Dixon and Dwight Burden will lead the FTI team.

New York luggage brand Away hires Aisle 8

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Aisle 8 has been chosen to lead the UK PR and comms for New York-based contemporary luggage brand Away, following a multiple agency pitch.

Away

Founded in New York by Steph Korey and Jen Rubio in 2015 following “hundreds of travel stories from friends and colleagues”, Away offers in-expensive luggage that it says is affordable, as well as functional.

Aisle 8 will manage the UK launch for the brand and all on-going consumer and trade PR activity for the brand, founders and product line.

Aisle 8 director Lauren Stevenson will lead the account, supported by Madalaine McCarthy, who heads up PR, events and sponsorship at the agency.

TVC Group wins third GrandFest brief

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TVC Group has been brought on board for the third year running to work on GrandFest, a one-day festival created by TVC and older people’s charity Royal Voluntary Service, to celebrate older people and the heritage skills they can share with the younger generation.

RVS GrandMakers from LtoR: Celia Dennis, Sandra Talmey, Myra Poyser and David Peglar

Designed to turn “outdated notions of older people on their heads” and connect the older generation and the digital generation, the 2015 and 2016 GrandFest festivals were sell outs and generated hundreds of pieces of coverage, helping change perceptions and getting Royal Voluntary Service noticed.

This year’s GrandFest is happening on Sunday 18 June and will once again take over museums, shops, restaurants and bars in and around Spitalfields to host a series of masterclasses led by talented ‘GrandMakers’, aged 70 and over, who will showcase craft skills, including knitting, wood turning and bread making.

TVC will deliver the 2017 event, with responsibility for creative development, content capture, asset creation, media strategy and outreach.

This week, TVC launched a pre-awareness media campaign with a research-based story which found that 63 per cent of over 70s are happier than they have ever been.

Fiona Longhurst, director of marketing and external comms at the Royal Voluntary Service, said: “Competing for space in the busy London event scene isn’t easy but GrandFest has really captured people’s imaginations and drives awareness and engagement which is both positive and empowering for older people.

“TVC has done an excellent job over the last two years securing stand out coverage pre, during and post the event, and we’re confident this year’s results will be even bigger and better.”

James Myers, group MD at TVC Group, added: “GrandFest is a dream campaign for us because it plays to all our strengths blending media relations, creative design, content production and events. The TVC team across all divisions are involved and engaged in making this a huge success.”

GrandFest was named Charity Campaign of the Year at the 2016 Drum Network Awards and was shortlisted for a 2016 PR Week Award.

Finn Partners expands into APAC through B2B firm acquisition

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Finn Partners has acquired Singapore-based B2B PR and marketing firm Ying Communications, which has a special focus on the tech sector.

Pictured left to right: Allan Tan, Peter Finn and Ying Chin Yeap

Through the purchase of holding company Ying Pte Ltd, Finn now also owns Ying Communication’s sister agency True Worth Consultants. Both agencies will be known as Ying Communications, a Finn Partners Company, and True Worth Consultants, a Finn Partners Company.

Ying’s founders, Allan Tan and Yin Ching Yeap, will serve as managing partners, and will report to Howard Solomon, one of the Finn Partners founding managing partners.

Peter Finn, founding partner of Finn Partners, said: “This is a very important first step for us into Asia Pacific and it makes perfect sense for this move to be focused on the tech sector.  Tech is our largest practice area and we are seeing great demand for marketing and communication support in Asia Pacific from our tech clients. Our plan is for our new Singapore office to serve as the hub and headquarters of our Asia Pacific operations.”

Ying Communications was founded 16 years ago by Tan and Yeap, who used to work at IBM, Shell and Singapore Airlines. Its clients include Airbus, Cisco Systems, Cognizant, Cloudera, HP Enterprise, HP Inc, MediaMath and Microsoft.

Tan added: “For 16 years now, we’ve worked at becoming the best B2B communications agency in Asia. Joining Finn Partners will help take us to the next level because they’re already doing this on a global scale across more industries.”

SI Partners, global M&A adviser to creative and technology businesses, advised Ying Communications on the deal, identifying the optimum strategic growth partner and negotiating the transaction.

Cardew Group supports Integumen IPO

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Cardew Group is advising Integumen PLC as it makes its IPO on AIM today (April 5).

Shan Shan Willenbrock

Integumen is a personal health care company which develops technologies and products for the human integumentary system – which includes the skin – to improve  physical appearance, hygiene and general health.  The company’s expertise, and its range of applications, broadly focus on skincare, oral care and wound care.

Shan Shan Willenbrock, managing director at Cardew Group, said: “We are delighted to be working with Integumen on its IPO and aftermarket financial and corporate communications.  Integumen has assembled an impressive portfolio of products and technologies with exciting growth opportunities and forms a valued part of our growing life sciences client base.”

Shortlist Media hands retained PR brief to W

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Shortlist Media, which publishes free titles ShortList and Stylist, has appointed W as its retained agency, as it embarks on an editorial, commercial, digital and experiential expansion programme to build audiences and deepen engagement across all its platforms. 

ShortList Media titles

The full-time appointment of W’s Media Division follows the agency’s launch of “The Shortlist Media Family” in November 2016.

A creative content studio targeting the company’s “Met-Set” audience, Shortlist Media Family offers end-to-end services in video, print, events and web development – backed by the company’s stable of writers and editors, including Stylist‘s editor-in-chief, Lisa Smosarski, and Shortlist Media’s editorial director, Phil Hilton.

W‘s launch campaign positioned ShortList Media in media and marketing trades, as well as national consumer titles. In a series of set-piece interviews and profile features focusing on new CEO Ella Dolphin and her senior team, W highlighted the company’s leadership expertise, its rapid evolution, and its focus on digital transformation and branded content to increase revenue.

Events are also at the forefront of Shortlist Media’s expansion strategy, with more set to launch this year.

W now aims to further enhance Shortlist Media’s reputation as an editorial innovator, disruptor and pioneer, with a unique understanding of the “Met-Set” audience and content creation capabilities.

Becky Charles, head of media at W, said: “This is a really exciting time for Shortlist Media, as it enters its 10th year. With an industry-leading team and a slate of stand-out initiatives designed to take the business into the future, we can’t wait to continue our work with Ella and the company as they deepen their relationship with affluent, urban audiences across the UK.”

Ella Dolphin, CEO of Shortlist Media, said: “W impressed us throughout the launch project for Family, showing a dynamic and creative approach at every stage. Their team is the natural choice as we look to move our business ahead, and to tell our story here in the UK media industry.”

Other media clients at W include Johnston Press, the London Evening Standard, Business Insider, IBT Media and Haymarket.

  • At a Gorkana media briefing in January, both Dolphin and Hilton talked to an audience of PR professionals about how they should think about content for “Met Set” readers. Find out more here.

Cherish PR establishes international boutique agency network

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Cherish PR has today launched a new international network of boutique tech agencies called Over There, which aims to help digital brands create compelling international PR campaigns in Europe and beyond.

Rebecca Oatley – MD at Cherish PR

The Over There network is the result of a long-standing partnership between Cherish PR and HotDot, a Berlin-based consumer tech agency, in which UK and German teams have supported digital brands including Indiegogo, Kobo, Zynga, HotelTonight, and Wix.com.

With agency partners now in the UK, Germany, Ireland, France, Scandinavia, Italy, Spain, US, Canada and Australia, Over There says it has a spread of local knowledge. New partnerships in Benelux and the Far East are currently in development.

Rebecca Oatley (pictured), MD at Cherish PR, said: “Much of the world’s leading PR comes out of boutique, specialist firms but coordinating multiple agencies to deliver international programs is hard work.

“That’s why we decided to form a group of Europe’s independent, tech PR firms to respond. Our partners are smart, strategic, locally knowledgeable and well connected to the most influential local audiences, through media, through social, in print, on air or in person.”

HotDot MD Anja Weinhold added: “We take the best bits of small agencies, their passion, their commitment, the quality of service and results and we bring them together in one team, with one account lead and one simple process and with a flexible approach, scaling up or down based on the international requirements of our often fast-evolving client base.”

Nissan Europe hires Microsoft’s Jesse Verstraete

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Nissan has hired Jesse Verstraete, currently director of corporate communications for Microsoft Asia, as its new general manager of corporate communications and CSR for Europe.

Jesse Verstraete

Verstraete will report directly to Stuart Jackson, VP communications, Nissan Europe, and will be responsible for all corporate communications across the region including issues and crisis management, corporate profiling, thought leadership and corporate and social responsibility. He will address a corporate audience primarily.

Jackson said: “With Nissan leading the development of future technologies that will shape our world, Jesse joins us at a time when our business and brand are growing into new areas, with new stories to tell new audiences.”

Verstraete has worked for Microsoft as its Asia corporate communications leader based in Singapore for four years. Prior to that he was the company’s senior EU corporate communications manager based in Brussels.

Joining Nissan on 1 June, Verstraete will be based at the company’s European headquarters in Montigny le Bretonneux, south of Paris. He replaces Katherine Zachary, who has been appointed as general manager at LCV global communications for the Renault/Nissan Alliance.

 

Cision features nine times on AMEC Awards shortlist

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Cision features nine times on the shortlist for the AMEC Awards 2017, which has just been announced.

The winners will be announced in May at the AMEC International Measurement Summit in Bangkok.

Entries, featuring Cision’s work for Samsung, Slimming World, the Stroke Association, Museum of London, TD Bank and more, have all made the shortlist for a range of categories including Best measurement of a consumer campaign and Best use of integrated communication measurement/research.

Cision has three entries in the Best use of a measurement framework category as its work for the Best Practice Framework, Museum of London and Slimming World has all featured.

The full shortlist, featuring 18 categories overall, can be found on the AMEC website.

Paul Hender, head of insight at Gorkana, said: “We are thrilled Cision has been shortlisted nine times in the awards this year. There’s lots of competition for an AMEC Award and 2017 is no exception, so we are really pleased to be represented so heavily as the awards and annual summit gear up to make their debut in Asia.”

Barry Leggetter, CEO of AMEC, added: “We were delighted to receive a record number of entries for the AMEC Awards this year. Being shortlisted is a win in its own right because it shows that the work is outstanding on an truly international level.”

The AMEC Awards presentation event takes place in Bangkok, during the AMEC Global Summit, on the evening of Wednesday 17 May.

 

davies tanner wins PR brief to launch ICC Wales

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Specialist travel, tourism and events PR agency davies tanner has secured a three-year contract to launch the forthcoming £83.7 million ICC Wales venue, following a five-way pitch.

ICC Wales

Opening in 2019, the new ICC (International Convention Centre) Wales is a 26,000 sqm venue located within the grounds of the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport and a joint venture between the owners of the Celtic Manor Resort and Welsh Government.

The multi-purpose events space, including a 4,000sqm main exhibition hall and a 1,500 tiered seating auditorium, will be able to accommodate 5,000-delegates at a time, providing global event planners with a convention centre on an international scale for the first time in Wales.

davies tanner has been briefed to use its influencer networks and industry connections, both in the UK and overseas, to build a progressive launch campaign designed to reach a global audience of event planners and organisers of large-scale conventions.

Ian Edwards, ICC Wales’ chief executive, said: “davies tanner has a proven track record in the successful launch and promotion of world-class venues in addition to having solid destination marketing credentials.

“Its experience and influential connections in the business tourism industry, as well as having a passion and ambition that mirrors our own, makes it a natural partner and we’re delighted to be working with davies tanner to launch this fantastic venue to the events industry.”

Robert Wright, MD at davies tanner, added: “We are thrilled to be working with the expert team at the ICC Wales to launch the venue to the global events industry. It’s convenient location just off the M4 at the gateway to Wales, coupled with a range of exceptional facilities to host large-scale conferences, exhibitions and conventions never before seen in Wales, will position the venue at the forefront of international business tourism destinations. It’s an incredibly exciting development and a project we’re immensely proud to be working on.”