Bottle supports Dallaglio Foundation

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Bottle has partnered with the Dallaglio Foundation, an initiative founded by former pro rugby player Lawrence Dallaglio to provide a skills development programme based on the values of rugby, on a pro bono basis to bolster the charity’s PR and content offering.

Lawrence Dallaglio on a visit to Oakfield school in Newcastle.

The Dallaglio Foundation’s RugbyWorks initiative delivers a long-term intensive skills development programme, based on the values of rugby, to 14-17 year olds who are outside of mainstream education to ensure they achieve sustained education, employment or training.

Bottle has agreed to dedicate £50,000 worth of complimentary fees, as well as additional volunteering, to the charity following feedback from Bottle employees that this was a charity they would all be proud to be official partners with.

Bottle’s MD, Natasha Hill, and editor, Liz Beswick, will lead the brief who both have in-house charity experience from working at Cancer Research UK and Teenage Cancer Trust respectively.

Rachel Roxburgh, CEO of Dallaglio Foundation, said: “In July we embarked on our partnership with Bottle and are really excited to see how the partnership develops. We already have a creative new strapline that derived from a planning session lead by Bottle and are confident the good work will continue. Bottle has really got under the skin of our brand following an intensive immersion session with not only our comms team but by also spending time with our coaches and the young people we help.”

Hill added: “There’s not a week that goes by where ‘purposeful’ brands, campaigns and innovations aren’t mentioned in marketing press. There are many reasons: societal, academic, altruistic. But one of the reasons I love purposeful work is that it brings a sense of meaning to these ‘intangible’ marketing and comms jobs we do.

“Whilst we enjoy strategising, and measuring our impact, our ‘produce’ won’t be here for long so it’s no surprise that doing something that makes a positive mark on the world makes us feel good. It brings personal reward in a way that makes us walk a little taller.

“So, as we (agencies) all fight over the golden not-for-profit campaign briefs, and challenge our clients to strive for genuine behaviour change, we also need to stop and spend a moment to question what we are doing as agencies to make the world a better place.”

Pennon Group promotes Sarah Heald

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Pennon 1

Sarah Heald

Utility company Pennon Group, the owner of Viridor, South West Water and Bournemouth Water, has promoted Sarah Heald, its head of investor relations, to director of corporate affairs and investor relations.

Heald joined Pennon in April 2015 as head of investor relations and her role has grown to encompass corporate communications, internal communications and public affairs.

She reports to Chris Loughlin, Pennon’s CEO, and joins the group’s Executive Management Board.

Prior to joining Pennon, Heald worked for Finsbury and Canadian bank BMO Capital Markets, where she specialised in metals and mining. She began her career in the multi-industries investment banking team at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Andrew Martin International hires Pure PR

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Pure PR Andrew Martin

Holly Frean Collection

Pure PR has been appointed to handle the PR for luxury interiors brand Andrew Martin International.

Andrew Martin distributes a range of fabrics, wallpapers, furniture and accessories, which aim to illustrate the brand’s passion for “fusing together eclectic influences from around the world”.

Pure has been briefed to launch Andrew Martin’s new collaboration with emerging British Artist Holly Frean on a collection of “animal-inspired textiles”, as well as a partnership with the National Gallery.

The team will also promote the upcoming Andrew Martin International Interior Design of the Year Awards.

Cara Ward, Pure PR’s co-founder and director, and Shari Ryness, senior account director, will lead the account.

BBC’s Jack Baine joins Good Relations’ broadcast arm

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Former BBC journalist Jack Baine has joined Good Relations’ broadcast arm, Good Broadcast, as a consultant.

Good Broadcast

Jack Baine

Baine spent more than 20 years at the BBC as a senior journalist and editor. During his career, he has worked on a range of BBC programmes, including BBC World News TV, BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Leicester.

In his new role at Good Broadcast, Baine will help create campaigns to deliver top tier broadcast coverage as part of integrated PR and content work.

He will also play a key role in content production and media training, and report to Phil Caplin, who joined Good Relations in February (2016) to launch and lead Good Broadcast.

Baine told Gorkana: “Moving to Good Broadcast after more than 20 years at the BBC is a great opportunity to use my journalistic skills in the PR world. It’s going to be fascinating to be on the consultancy side rather than being on the receiving end of emails and calls from PRs.

“The attraction of joining an agency like Good Broadcast lies in the opportunity to work with a range of blue chip clients that have different needs and expectations. It’s an exciting time in my career and being part of such a fast growing agency like Good Broadcast. I can’t wait to get stuck in.”

Caplin added: “It’s been an unbelievable first year at Good Broadcast and we are excited that we are growing so fast. Clients are increasingly coming to us for integrated campaigns with broadcast and content at the centre. Jack is a hugely talented broadcast professional with years of valuable experience under his belt.”

NBCUniversal International names CMO

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NBCUniversal International has promoted its EVP for marketing and comms, Lee Raftery, to chief marketing officer.

NBCUniversal

Lee Raftery

Based in London, Raftery steps up from his prior role as EVP, marketing and comms, to which he was appointed in 2013 in order to reflect his increased remit in managing corporate and internal comms and media relations for the international organisation.

In the last year, Raftery led efforts to create the ‘hayu’ brand – NBCUniversal International’s SVOD service – and drove its marketing launch in the UK, Australia and Ireland in April 2016.

Before joining NBCUniversal in 2011, he was senior vice president, marketing, PR and on-air at Comcast International Media Group (CIMG) in Los Angeles, where he oversaw promotional activity for its TV and new media properties, which included E! and Style.

Prior to joining CIMG, Raftery spent 10 years with Hasbro Inc, managing senior roles in marketing, both UK and international. Before that, he held marketing roles at The Walt Disney Company and Unilever.

In his new role at NBCUniversal International, Raftery has been briefed to implement global campaigns and drive new digital content growth initiatives across marketing and comms strands to support future expansion.

He will continue to oversee marketing, comms and PR across NBCUniversal International Studios, International Distribution and International Networks television divisions.

As a key part of his role, Raftery also serves as chairman of the NBCU International Marketing Council, which includes Project Symphony, an internal initiative that aims to proactively leverage global campaigns and cross divisional marketing support across the broad NBCU media portfolio.

He continues to report to Kevin MacLellan, chairman of NBC Universal International.

MacLellan said: “Lee has provided strong leadership and expertise to our marketing and communications at a time of exciting and rapid evolution for NBC Universal International. He has proved himself to be a decisive and versatile leader, whose talents will help us innovate and expand our business.”

Raftery added: “I am delighted to take a broader role in building greater growth opportunities at such an exciting time for the media industry. We have so many powerful assets and dynamic talent to harness across our portfolio and I look forward to the opportunities ahead.”

Aspectus briefed to raise profile of OnGuard

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Aspectus has been chosen by Dutch credit management firm OnGuard to maintain its presence in the credit management community and build its profile among the C-suite, particularly CFOs.

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Katy Galasinski

The agency, which specialises in the financial services, energy, engineering and technology sectors, will provide content development, traditional media relations and social media strategy.

Michael Facey, head of marketing and product management at OnGuard, said: “Aspectus’ reputation within OnGuard is top notch, the team came highly recommended from our ex-CEO, now chairman, David Taylor. This made it the obvious partner for us as we looked to enhance our communications programme.”

OnGuard and Aspectus worked together in 2010-2011, and OnGuard has briefed Aspectus for help with its proactive campaign. OnGuard is looking to show how efficient credit management can improve the health of working capital and drive business growth.

Katy Galasinski group director at Aspectus, added: “It’s great to be back in business with OnGuard, we secured great results last time and look forward to doing the same again.”

Fourth Day opens office in Berlin

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Tech and B2B specialist Fourth Day PR will offer PR and content services to the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) after opening an office in Berlin.

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Danny Stephens

The new office will be Fourth Day’s fifth. It already has offices in London, Manchester, Paris and Casablanca.

Managing director Danny Stephens will oversee the German operation; he joins the company from the German government’s economic development agency, where he has been corporate communications manager for the past three years.

Stephens said: “With a leading economic role in Europe, and particularly in light of the thriving tech start-up scene in Berlin, Munich and other cities, backed up by concepts such as the government’s high-tech strategy 2020 and Industrie 4.0, Germany is becoming an indispensable strategic location for companies wishing to spread into Europe. I am looking forward to the challenge of taking Fourth Day into a key global market.”

Stephens, who is originally from Wales, has lived and worked in South Africa and the US, as well as Berlin where he moved three years ago. Throughout his career he has worked regularly as an editor and freelance journalist for outlets including Sports Illustrated, Sky and MSN.

Nikki Scrivener, Fourth Day co-founder and director, added: “As we specialise in tech PR, we often work with clients who want support across Europe, so the idea of setting up an office in Germany has always been at the back of our minds. What made us finally take the leap though was customer demand and finding someone that we felt was right to drive the business there.

“It was a tough decision choosing between Berlin and Munich as our location but we were won over by the vibrancy of the capital, and its developing technology industry. Having a presence in Europe’s new start-up capital is, we feel, a crucial strategic move.”

Workwear fabric producer Carrington will be Fourth Day’s first client in Germany.

Jonathan McKendry, Carrington’s export sales and marketing manager, said: “We are delighted that Fourth Day has established a dedicated presence in Germany. Our operations extend across Europe and beyond, so it’s wonderful to work with a partner already experienced in tackling different languages and cultures. We are confident that our partnership with Fourth Day will further enhance our reputation in the country.”

iPhone 7 launch: comms pros on Apple’s PR strategy in 2016

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Apple has altered its social media strategy as it prepares for its biggest launch event of the year. Ahead of the product launch later this week, Gorkana asks PRs from Babel, Berkeley, Wildfire, as well as Dan Grabham, editor of T3, about any changes to its PR approach in 2016.

Ahead of its largest annual product launch (September 7 2016), Apple did something out of the ordinary. It created an official verified Twitter account, from which it is yet to Tweet. This is unusual for Apple. Despite having separate accounts for different aspects of the business such as @applesupport, @applemusic and @iTunes, it has never taken a centralised approach on Twitter.

It has also been reported that the company has been sending out ‘ghost tweets’ ahead of the event. So, while its Twitter newsfeed remains empty, the brand has been sending targeted invites to its launch event to individual users that cannot be seen by others. If one of these individuals attempts to ‘retweet’, and share the message, it explains that it will remind them of the event closer to the time.

Furthermore, Apple has invested in sponsored tweets with a custom emoji to accompany the #AppleEvent hashtag.

This strategy echoes Samsung’s. The rival smartphone maker used the ‘retweet for reminder’ method for its launches at Mobile World Congress earlier this year.

In addition, Apple has cautiously begun to take part in social media activity across other platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram. Gorkana asks PR pros how significant these changes are and if Apple’s PR strategy has differed from previous years.

iPhone sales are plateauing

Apple recorded record breaking profits last year but revenues have fallen recently. In 2015 it reported the biggest annual profit in corporate history, recording a profit of $53.4bn (£35bn), mainly driven by iPhone sales.

This year, for the third business quarter (three months ending 25 June 2016) it reported a quarterly revenue of $42.4bn (£31.74bn), compared to revenue of $49.6bn (£37.13bn) in the same quarter last year.

Ian Hood, CEO and co-founder at Babel, says this might be influencing Apple’s current PR push.

He says: “What’s different this year, is that iPhone sales have levelled off, partly because of premium alternatives in the Android camp (particularly from Samsung, despite the recent product recall of the Galaxy Note 7) and partly because there’s been no real innovation in this sector for the last couple of years.

“We do seem to have heard a little more from Apple directly, and indirectly, ahead of the iPhone 7 launch. It’s likely that the so-called ‘leaks’ of information have been sanctioned by Apple’s PR machine. The question is why?

“My guess is that the company is trying to gauge what the initial reaction to the new flagship phone will be, so that its army of PR specialists can properly shape their messaging for the day of the announcement, as well as come up with answers to any cynicism or criticism thrown their way post-launch,” he adds.

Apple’s PR changes are subtle

Apple’s PR changes are subtle, but this is what the world has come to expect of the brand, according to Pat Southwell, director of strategy and partner at Berkeley.

“Incremental, small changes won’t rock the boat for the most watched brand in the world. Anything else would spook everyone. The fact that we’re commenting on changes that are imperceptible to the vast majority of people shows how important it is for Apple to keep PR consistent to protect the brand,” he says.

Southwell notes that Apple CEO Tim Cook took interviews with the press after the billionth iPhone sale earlier this year. This was another small shift for the brand, alongside the opening of a verified Twitter account.

He adds: “These [cases] are interesting, because they illustrate a subtle shift to a more proactive approach. Perhaps this is about settling nerves regarding Apple’s direction while starting to own the debate on social at launch. We should expect live Tweeting and more.”

Alex Warren, senior account manager at Wildfire, agrees that there has a shift in company culture under Cook. He says: “The brand famously avoided social media, and typically took the view that consumers won’t hear from them until they have something important to say.

“As the mobile market has slowed however, there has been a definite shift in the company’s culture and its attitude towards communication. Under Tim Cook’s direction, Apple has shifted to far more open and direct forms of promotion. Once iconic PR stunts (consisting) of leaked photos and iPhones found in bars have been replaced with full page newspaper ads and celebrity-packed viral videos,” he adds.

Editorially it’s the “same drill”

Dan Grabham, editor at tech title T3, says that he has not seen many changes.

“Apple opened its Apple Support Twitter feed earlier this year, while Apple CEO Tim Cook does Tweet. So it’s not a huge surprise that it is probably going to use this week to launch its main account,” Grabham says.

When it comes to Apple’s pre-launch promotion, Grabham says nothing has changed for him: “Same drill – invites around two weeks in advance and so on.”

Nayyar and Seewoosurrun launch corporate comms agency Acuitas

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Simon Nayyar and Samantha Seewoosurrun have launched a corporate communications agency Acuitas Communications with offices in three capital cities.

Acuitas Comms 1

Samantha Seewoosurrun and Simon Nayya

Nayyar was previously the managing partner and founder of Newgate Communications and, prior to that, a managing director at Citigate Dewe Rogerson. Seewoosurrun is the owner of Ara Consulting, a public affairs consultancy in Brussels, she also worked at Newgate Communications, heading up the Brussels office.

Acuitas will provide a full service offering that includes corporate communications, financial communications, public affairs and crisis management.

The agency is based in London, Brussels and Mauritius – each office has its own local team and client base – and it belongs to a global affiliate network.

Simon Nayyar, UK managing director at Acuitas, said: “We at Acuitas are totally focused on providing cerebral solutions for clients’ complex commercial needs, provided in an empathetic, accountable and affordable way. We aim to be a refreshing antidote to soulless big agency culture, by delivering genuinely strategic communications with a client-focused philosophy and ethical approach.

“Clients want to see genuine and lasting value for their companies and organisations and that’s what Acuitas is geared up to achieve. We will never make clients subsidise massive agency overheads, sell a naff, one-size-fits-all PR plan that suits the agency and not the client, or believe the agency is more important than the client.”

Samantha Seewoosurrun, Mauritius managing director at Acuitas, added: “In a short space of time, we’ve already won almost a dozen client mandates and have a strong new business pipeline in all our offices. That’s a testimony to our amazing team and their commitment to make Acuitas a great success for our clients.”

Edelman appoints UK general manager, digital

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Edelman UK has appointed Toby Gunton, head of innovation at media agency OMD UK, to the newly-created role of general manager, digital.

Edelman Toby Gunton

Toby Gunton

With more than 20 years’ industry experience in digital, creative and media agencies, Gunton has previously led strategic innovation in paid, owned and earned media at OMD UK. He led its newsroom service, managed its social, content marketing, mobile and technology futures practices, and was part of the team that ran OMD’s annual Innovation Week series of panel events and speakers.

Before joining OMD UK, he held positions as chief digital officer and MD at WCRS.

In his role at Edelman, Gunton will join the agency’s UK executive operations team and be responsible for building digital specialist skills and services for clients across the UK business.

He will have a particular focus on leading digital innovation and be part of Edelman’s global digital capabilities led by Kevin King, global chair of Edelman Digital.

Gunton will assume his new role in Edelman’s London office on Monday October 3.

Ed Williams, CEO at Edelman UK, said: “We have assembled a community of digital, social and production specialists spanning creative technologies, UI, and digital transformation advice. In Toby we have an inspirational leader who can provide the next level of client advisory as well as further embed digital innovation across our client portfolio.”

Gunton added: “It’s an incredibly exciting time for Edelman and I can’t wait to get started. The breadth and depth of digital skills and talent already in place combined with the agency’s earned-centric approach to communications puts it in a perfect position.”