The Foundry hires Eulogy

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Visual effects software company The Foundry has brought Eulogy on board as its UK retained agency, following a competitive pitch.

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Former Culture Secretary John Whittingdale with The Foundry CEO Alex Mahon

The Foundry is a global developer of creative software used to deliver high-end visual effects and 3D content for the design, visualisation and entertainment industries.

Creators of the software behind movies such as Finding Dory, Star Wars and the James Bond franchise, The Foundry has briefed Eulogy to help enhance its position as a leader in the visual effects industry, with a particular focus on the increased demand for virtual reality (VR).

Eulogy will raise awareness of The Foundry’s VR expertise and wider software offering, as it looks to help companies “grapple with the opportunities that this exciting platform presents”.

Jodie Anderson, head of marketing at The Foundry, said: “Eulogy understood our needs from the start and came up with a creative programme that took us out of our comfort zone. They have creativity that matches our own passion and, as the creative industries continue to remain in the limelight, Eulogy is the perfect agency to ensure our message lands correctly.”

Phil Borge, director of business services at Eulogy, added: “The Foundry’s offering is impressive and we’re very proud to be its partner in the UK. It is already extremely well respected globally and is a prime example of a UK company that is leading in its field, from both creative and technological perspectives. We’re honoured to be working with the team and supporting their plans for growth.”

Bakkavor appoints Tulchan as retained comms adviser

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International fresh prepared foods manufacturer Bakkavor has appointed Tulchan as its retained financial and corporate communications adviser.

Tulchan’s work will begin today (December 1) and partner Susanna Voyle will lead the account.

Tamarin Bibow, Bakkavor’s head of external affairs, said: “We have been very impressed by both Tulchan’s deep sector expertise and their enthusiasm, and we look forward to working closely with the team.”

Voyle added: “We are hugely excited to have the opportunity to work with Bakkavor as the company continues its progress of recent years.”

Finalists named for the 2017 Creative Shootout

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BOTTLE, FleishmanHillard Fishburn, Hotwire, Mischief, Ready10, Text100 and Wire Media have been named as the finalists for the 2017 one-day creativity competition, The Creative Shootout.

Mischief1

Creative Shootout 2016 winner Mischief PR

The competition, which was created last year by Launch PR founder Johnny Pitt, will take place at the home of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in London’s Piccadilly on 19 January 2017.

On the day, the teams will receive a real brief in the morning from this year’s charity party, Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, and four hours later, will have 15 minutes each on the stage at BAFTA to pitch their creative idea back to a judging panel and an audience of 250 people. This year, the audience will also have a vote to help decide the winner.

Entries opened in September, with agencies asked to give the competition’s judges a ‘60 second’ submission (in whatever format they liked) on why they have the creative firepower for Mind and Rethink Mental Illness.

Pitt said: “We had a lot of clever entries, both physical and digital – and the judges had a tough job compiling the line-up. The Shootout is about celebrating and showcasing the best creative talent in the UK, live – and with our chosen finalists, we look well set for creative fireworks on the big day.”

The live final starts at 2.30pm on 19 January and follows into an evening after party (6pm), which will include the announcement of 1st, 2nd and 3rd winners.

The inaugural Creative Shootout final was won by Mischief, and the Engine Group-owned agency has two teams in the 2017 final as it bids to hold onto its crown. The full shortlisted finalists are:

BOTTLE
FleishmanHillard Fishburn
Hotwire
Mischief (two teams)
Ready10
Text100
Wire Media

Form more information, to see who’s on the judging panel and to buy tickets, visit creativeshootout.com.

eDiscovery firm Consilio appoints Rostrum

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Mark Houlding main

Mark Houlding

Rostrum has been appointed by global eDiscovery firm Consilio to assist its social media strategy.

Consilio is a global leader in eDiscovery – a form of legal information management, document review and legal consulting services. The company supports multinational law firms and corporations with its software and managed services.

Having acquired Proven Legal Technologies, which is also a Rostrum client,  in November 2015, Consilio has retained Rostrum’s services to assist with content creation and strategy across its social media channels. Rostrum will promote Consilio’s position as an active and present player in the eDiscovery market and build recognition in its target audiences.

Kelly Struck, vice president, marketing at Consilio, said: “The Rostrum team has a wealth of experience in social media consultancy and content creation, and we are confident that its expertise and strategic approach will allow us to broaden our message to law firms and corporations across social channels.”

Mark Houlding, CEO at Rostrum, added: “Consilio is a respected leader in the eDiscovery industry and is committed to elevating its brand presence using social media. The Rostrum team has forged a great working relationship with Consilio, and we are well placed to support the firm with its digital marketing strategy.”

Channel 4 names PR leads for content and corporate

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Channel 4 has enhanced its press and publicity team with the internal appointments of Donna Mathews to group PR lead for content and programmes and Victoria Wawman to group PR lead for corporate and commercial.

Channel 4

Channel 4

Mathews is currently group publicity manager for Drama, Comedy and Acquisitions at Channel 4, and has led PR campaigns for TV dramas Humans and Utopia, as well as This is England, Homeland, Fresh Meat and Skins.

She was part of the launch PR team for E4 in 2001, and, before that, worked on the PR team for Big Brother, as well as factual entertainment programming.

In her new role, Mathews will oversee all of Channel 4’s programme and content PR campaigns, with the programme publicity and picture team reporting into her.

Wawman has worked on corporate comms at Channel 4 since 2012, leading PR for the corporation’s ad sales and commercial divisions, as well as its Indie and Commercial Growth Funds. Before moving to Channel 4, she was a senior publicist for the BBC.

In her new role, Wawman will oversee PR campaigns across Channel 4’s commercial and corporate business areas, with the corporate PR team reporting to her.

Both new roles will deputise for and report to Channel 4’s head of press and publicity, James MacLeod.

MacLeod said: “It’s a tribute to the strength of the Channel 4 press team that we’ve been able to make both of these appointments from within. Donna and Victoria have a huge amount of experience, creativity and strategic vision and I know they’ll make a great senior team.”

The appointments follow the departure of deputy head of press and publicity Sarah Booth, who left Channel 4 in September after nine years at the broadcaster to take up the role of UK director of comms at Endemol Shine Group.

Opinion: Influencer Marketing – it’s a case of PR evolving

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Last month, Good Relations’ Joe Friel revealed his top tips for PRs when approaching influencers for brand partnerships. Hannah Lynch, senior account director at Alfred, now argues that it isn’t just the approach that PRs should be thinking about – its the ideas and concepts, the core of what PR has to offer, that will lead to influencer marketing success.

Hannah Lynch Alfred

Hannah Lynch

The recent Gorkana News opinion piece, Seven deadly ways to approach an influencer, was a very interesting read for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, every point was absolutely valid and extremely important, when approaching influencers we need to be personal, relevant, honest and negotiate fairly, so that both our client and the influencer themselves get something out of the partnership.

It was interesting for a second reason too, there’s nothing radical about making sure pitches are relevant, the content of an email is correct and that we’re not offering something that we might then take a u-turn on. Aren’t these the same principles all good PRs are already applying to straight forward media relations?

The real skill behind influencer marketing isn’t in the way we approach the content creators. That should be a given based on our experience with all manner of tricky journalist. As agencies, our value is behind ideas and concepts we present to the influencers.

It’s about taking time to really understand their channels and working collaboratively to develop content which, yes, fits the client’s brief or hits it’s key messaging objective, but importantly feels natural and organic to the individual style of the influencer. That’s when we’ll reap the benefits of strong, genuine engagement.

The true expertise lies is developing a full influencer strategy, with multiple threads of content and themes that can be executed in different ways to fit within individual styles, but also come together as a cohesive campaign. It’s about working back from the desired outcome and finding the right influencers who can broadcast the right messaging to the right audience we need to reach.

But wait a minute, doesn’t this sound all too familiar again? This is the same approach as an integrated PR campaign, just shifting focus from media outlets to influencer channels. To make a truly successful campaign, influencer marketing should be viewed as one of those threads running through a wider comms campaign.

There’s a clear industry trend of agencies opening up influencer divisions and specific teams dedicated to the art of influencer marketing, but is there really a need for this? It’s clever agency PR and business strategy, but influencer marketing shouldn’t be seen a separate role or skill, it’s simply that our definition of ‘PR’ is evolving.

It’s the equivalent of the online and social agencies of 10 years ago, cropping up to fill in the elusive knowledge gap, when traditional PR agencies didn’t really know what to do with this thing called the internet. We’ve since seen many of those agencies wrapped back up into integrated teams or broadened out to PR and comms shops.

So what happens to these new influencer divisions and companies in a few years’ time, when influencer marketing is as ‘go to’ for PR people, as online coverage is to us now?

Perhaps as an industry, we should be more nimble and less worried about name tags, by all means selling influencer expertise to clients as a skill and capitalising on this is an exciting time of campaign testing and development, but all PRs, from interns to MDs, should be able to swiftly turn their hands to influencer marketing.

Whether it be on the basic level of treating your approach emails with the same thought and respect as a journalist pitch, through to the strategic thinking behind influencer activity and how it can support, or even lead a PR campaign, everyone should keep it front of mind.

Successful influencer marketing is at our finger-tips. All PRs have the ability and the knowledge to hand, but real skill is required to put the spin on the PR approach and change the way campaigns are executed.

  • Hannah Lynch is a senior account director at integrated comms agency Alfred.

Gorkana launched a Guide to Influencer Marketing White Paper last month, whGorksWP alertich seeks to find out how an “influencer” is defined, what impact they have on PR, whether an influencer campaign can really be determined as earned media and what PRs need to think about before trying to find the right person who can positively impact their brand.
Download your free copy here.

LEWIS opens New York office

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LEWIS has opened its 28th office in New York, as it expands its international network and the reach of its integrated offering.

New York is the agency’s fifth US site and will be located in Soho. The location is key as it complements LEWIS’ marketing services and research functions that are based out of Boston and Washington D.C.

The agency also has a West Coast presence with its US headquarters in San Francisco and a multidisciplinary office in San Diego.

Stephen Corsi, executive vice president of LEWIS US, said: “With clients increasingly engaging the agency on a global basis, expanding our US presence to New York was a natural next step.

He added: “It’s an exciting time at LEWIS. Establishing in-market presence in another top international city highlights our commitment to clients and staff. Celebrating innovation and diversity are at LEWIS’ core and New York City is a great representation of these values – not to mention the fact that it’s a hub for the industries that LEWIS has expertise in and wants to expand in.”

England Athletics calls in Promote PR

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England Athletics, the sport’s national governing body, has appointed Promote PR to increase public awareness and encourage more people of all ages to “enjoy the benefits of a regular run” in 2017.

Promote PR

England Athletics

Promote PR, which won the account following a three-way pitch, has been briefed to help England Athletics reach its goal of getting one million more people regularly participating in running and athletics by 2020.

Jenny O’Brien, marketing and campaigns manager for England Athletics, said: “It was clear from the outset that the whole team at Promote were passionate about our sport. They did a great job of demonstrating their vast experience of driving grassroots participation with creative PR campaigns, and we were particularly pleased to discover their agency values were so much aligned to ours, as seen throughout the pitch process.”

Promote PR MD Sue Anstiss added: “Running now ranks as the second most popular sport in England, fuelled in part by the huge reach of campaigns like This Girl Can campaign and England Athletics’ running specific extension of the campaign, This Girl Can Run.

“We’re thrilled to have been chosen by the team at England Athletics to deliver this exciting project in 2017.” 

Accenture buys Karmarama

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Accenture has acquired one of the UK’s largest independent creative agencies Karmarama, which owns Kaper, for an undisclosed sum.

Karmarama

Notable Karmarama clients include the BBC, Confused.com, Honda, Just Eat and Unilever

Based in London, Karmarama was founded in 2000 and received backing from Phoenix Equity Partners in 2011. With a 250-strong team made up of creatives, digital strategists and data practitioners, as well as the Kaper team, notable clients include the BBC, Confused.com, Honda, Just Eat and Unilever.

In 2010 the agency hired former Shine Communications director, Chris McCafferty to launch its PR arm, Kaper. This year, client wins for Kaper have included IKEA, Cancer Research UK and New Scientist.

Karmarama is the latest in a series of acquisitions Accenture has made. In April this year, Accenture acquired a majority stake in IMJ Corporation (IMJ), a full-service digital agency in Japan. Prior to that, Accenture bought AD.Dialeto, an independent Brazilian digital agency; Pacific Link, a set of independent digital agencies serving Hong Kong and Greater China; Chaotic Moon, an Austin, Texas-based creative technology studio; and Brightstep, a Swedish provider of digital content and commerce solutions.

Accenture said the acquisition of Karmarama would strengthen the capability of Accenture Interactive, part of Accenture Digital, to create and deliver integrated customer experiences to brands. It also will contribute to “the growth of Accenture Interactive’s UK team of marketing professionals and creatives.”

Ben Bilboul, CEO at Karmarama, said: “As part of Accenture Interactive, we will dramatically enhance our ability to offer best-in-class creativity and digital delivery. We look forward to extending our creative ideas across the entire customer experience, offering clients consistent and connected creativity.”

Brian Whipple, head of Accenture Interactive, said: “Acquiring a creative agency in London, where some of the world’s most iconic creative work is produced, will help us reshape how brands imagine, create, and deliver customer experiences.

“Karmarama will become part of the world’s largest digital agency, expanding our global capabilities across experience, marketing, content and commerce with excellence in creative and mobile. This will contribute to further differentiate Accenture Interactive as a new breed of agency – experience architects – which helps brands connect disconnected experiences and shares accountability with clients for their business outcomes.”

Clear objectives are key to PR mentoring success

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Mentors can be the external guiding hand that helps many meet a professional or personal challenge and develop their careers. But what’s the best way to find the support you need and take that extra step? Mentors from Women in PR, CharityComms, The Suzy Ferguson Spirit Award and NSPCC discuss.

Mentor schemes come in various shapes and sizes and can range from paid for programs to voluntary services. But, whether you choose a program from industry bodies such as PRCA or CIPR or focus groups such as Charity Comms and Women in PR, experts agree that the first step is to have a clear objective in mind.

Mary Whenman, president of Women in PR UK and a mentor in the PR Week Mentoring Project, told Gorkana that identifying a single objective is the best way to find a mentor and work towards personal progress year over year.

In the case of Women in PR’s work with PR Week Mentoring, Whenman says the goal is clear from the onset. It aims to reach out to mid-career women in comms, who often drop out after having children, and attempting to get them achieve board level roles. She says this approach should be taken whatever sector you work in.

Start to finish: how a clear objective works in action

James Barker, digital marketing manager at children’s charity NSPCC, has been both a mentee and mentor with CharityComms. He says he first joined the program with the objective of eventually becoming a line manager, in which he succeeded.

“Being a mentor helps you to grow your skills of giving advice, listening and mentoring people.  Great way to grow skills if you don’t line manage. Now I am a line manager of large team I realise how much I use those mentoring skills on an everyday basis,” says Barker.

He continues: “I have been a mentee and a mentor and I can safely say it been one of the best decisions I’ve made in my career. Having the opportunity to bounce ideas off of someone out of your organisation about your career is so useful.”

Lally Wentworth, CharityComms’ membership and mentoring manager, says Barker’s success is down to setting a “clear start and finish” – something she suggests everyone looking for a mentor should do.

Work with someone who cares about your goals

Henry Playfoot, strategy director at Claremont Communications and winner of the 2016 Suzy Ferguson Spirit Award for his work as a mentor, encourages that PRs not only seek to set a finish line but also find someone that cares about their goals.

“Only ask people who you feel you can trust and connect with – don’t head straight for the stars just because they’re flying high. A good mentor is someone who genuinely cares about you, so focus on working with and building those relationships.”

He adds: “If you don’t have access to good people in your current role my top tip is always make the effort to grow your network and be bold in asking for help. Most people are flattered by being asked, so don’t be shy!”

  • Have you had a good experience with a mentor? Nominate an inspiration for this year’s Suzy Spirit Inspiration Award, which aims to recognise those that go above and beyond their daily work to inspire those around them.