The Prince’s Countryside Fund names PR manager

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The Prince’s Countryside Fund has appointed the Canal & River Trust’s Simon Henry to the newly-created position of PR manager.

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The Prince’s Countryside Fund was established by HRH The Prince of Wales in 2010 to improve the prospects of family farm businesses and the quality of rural life.

Henry, who took on the newly-created role this week, has been briefed to help raise the profile of the work of the Trust, which provides more than £1 million in grant funding, commissions research into issues affecting farming families and rural communities and helps communities in crisis through emergency funding.

He will report to Helen Aldis, manager for the Prince’s CountrysideFund.

Henry was previously campaigns manager at the Canal & River Trust, having first joined the organisation in 2006. Before that, he was marketing and comms manager at British Waterways.

He also currently does freelance video editing work for travel website passportstamps.uk, which focuses on holiday ideas, travel advice and reviews.

PlayStation hands EMEA PR brief to Fever

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Fever has had its UK PR brief for PlayStation extended and will now act as the retained consumer PR agency for its hardware and software across EMEA markets, ahead of the launch of PlayStation VR in October.

Fever PlayStation

Sony extended the brief following a four-way competitive tender process. Fever will work with the Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s in-house team to develop press and social influence campaigns to support hardware and software launches across 109 countries.

Fever will also provide support on corporate and crisis communications.

The appointment comes ahead of the launch of PlayStation VR in October of this year, PlayStation’s new virtual reality system.

Fever has already been briefed on developing and delivering a launch programme for the system and its launch software titles including RIGS: Mechanized Combat League, Tumble VR, Until Dawn: Rush of Blood and PlayStation VR WORLDS.

The win extends Fever’s relationship with PlayStation, with the agency having been retained by PlayStation in the UK since June 2013.

Fever MD Bruce McLachlan and director Ceri Reed will lead the account.

David Wilson, director of comms at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, said: “We are delighted to have Fever on board as we move PlayStation forward into a brand new and exciting era. With the launch of PlayStation VR on the horizon, plus a raft of exclusive triple A software releases, this continues to be a hugely important time for PlayStation and with Fever we feel we have an agency that understands our target consumers and can develop insight-led ideas that will resonate with the right people.

“We were really impressed with their strategic approach to the launch of VR that put social influence at the heart of their thinking and are confident their experience in delivering integrated campaigns for major brands will help us push PlayStation to new heights.”

McLachlan added: “PlayStation®VR is set to change the way people game and it is extremely exciting for the agency to be spearheading the communications launch strategy. While 2016 has been heralded as the year of VR, so far it is still an emerging technology; PlayStation®VR has the potential to take the VR experience into the mainstream, and we look forward to working with PlayStation to deliver a PR and social influence programme that can help do just that.”

Golin boosts digital content offer

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Golin has created three new roles to strengthen its digital content strategy, with VCCP Kin’s Alex Michael joining the agency as executive digital director, Catherine Pryce named digital creative director and Golin’s head of social media, Neil Kleiner, promoted to head of social and content.

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Alex Michael, Catherine Pryce and Neil Kleiner

With the newly-created roles, Golin aims to drive integrated solutions and meet client demand for digital content.

Golin MD Bibi Hilton said: “Neil has been a driving force in our social strategy for nearly three years. As head of social and content, he will strengthen our content marketing presence and develop integrated opportunities for clients.”

Kleiner added: “We are delighted to welcome Catherine and Alex. Catherine brings a decade’s worth of creative experience to our integrated work and she will drive digital focus within the creative team. Alex is embedded in both our social and digital design and build practice, he will offer best-in-class strategic digital council to our clients.

Ansari joins Centre for Ageing Better as director of communications

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Louise Ansari has joined the Centre for Ageing Better, a charitable foundation, as director of communications.

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Louise Ansari

Ansari will work closely with Anna Dixon, chief executive, Dan Jones, director of innovation and change and Claire Turner, interim director of evidence at Centre for Ageing Better.

Anna Dixon, chief executive of Centre for Ageing Better, said: “We are delighted to welcome Louise, who brings an enormous amount of experience and will play a key role in building a strong communications function to drive changes that help people enjoy a good later life.”

With more than 20 years of experience in strategic communications roles, Ansari has worked as director of communications at Diabetes UK and held senior positions within the British Embassy in Madrid and the Council of Europe. Ansari has also worked as head of communications at Lambeth Borough Council and with the Food Standards Agency, the Health Education Authority and Which?

The Centre for Ageing Better’s mission is to help people to enjoy their later life.

Ansari added: “With a growing ageing population in the UK and the huge opportunities and challenges this presents for society and individuals, it’s an incredibly exciting time to be joining Ageing Better. I look forward to sharing my passion for using communications to help improve lives.”

Ageing Better is currently recruiting for three senior communications managers for digital, engagement and media.

Former Guardian Leader of the Year joins Bite

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Bite has enhanced its senior team with the appointments of former Leader of the Year winner (The Guardian) Sam Fresco as head of innovation and growth, and Tag Worldwide’s Sophie Holdham as client services director.

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Sam Fresco

Formerly of digital agency Clock, Fresco will lead on client strategy, innovation and partnerships at Bite.

At Clock, he co-founded a new product called SwipeStation, an interactive out-of-home media technology platform for retail and leisure venues. Taking the concept from idea to market, he won clients such as Coca Cola, Red Bull, Butlins, Pepsi Max (Britvic), Yates’s and Odeon.

In 2014, Fresco was awarded Leader of the Year and nominated for Great British Entrepreneur of the Year, before gaining experience as innovation lead at EngageWorks in its Flux Innovation Lounge.

In this role, he gained experience in emerging technologies, including projection mapping, virtual reality, augmented reality, collaborative working environments, immersive experiences, IoT and wearables.

Fresco’s role at Bite will be to advise clients on how to use these new technologies to improve the way they tell their stories.

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Sophie Holdham

Fresco said: “Bite works with some of the world’s most progressive brands – large and small – so it makes sense to ensure the agency is embracing these advances in tech across all campaigns.”

Sophie Holdham joins Bite as client services director after six years at global brand agency Tag Worldwide, where she worked closely with Land Rover and Reckitt Benckiser in a strategic, creative and campaign management capacity.

At Bite, she will focus on driving integrated campaigns and pulling in all the agency’s specialists to meet client briefs.

Stand promotes The Reading Agency

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The Reading Agency, the national charity focused on inspiring adults and children to read for pleasure, has appointed Stand Agency to increase its profile in the national media and promote the value of reading to a wider audience.

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Stand, which won the account following a competitive pitch, will run The Reading Agency’s press office and campaign activity, including the charity’s reading programmes such as The Summer Reading Challenge, Reading Hack and World Book Night.

The Reading Agency’s mission is to create and deliver reading opportunities that inspire more people to read more, encourage them to share their enjoyment of reading with others and celebrate the difference that reading makes to all our lives.

Matthew Pilkington, director of development and comms at The Reading Agency, said: “Stand’s understanding of our challenge was obvious from the start. Their enthusiasm for the subject matter, and experience at reaching mass audiences convinced us they were the right choice.

“They’ve got stuck in immediately with our Summer Reading Challenge and they are already encouraging us to think differently about The ReadingAgency’s work.”

Laura Oliphant, MD at Stand Agency, added: “We look to work with clients that are challenging a moment or the way people think or behave. For too long the focus has been on reading for education or work, when really the starting point should be pleasure.

“We are an agency of avid readers and understand first-hand what reading can do to transform lives, so we couldn’t wait to start spreading the word about the amazing work The Reading Agency does.”

Gorkana meets… Professional Photography

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In October, Future launched Professional Photography magazine – its latest offering in the photography sector. Gorkana’s Sam Willis caught up with group editor-in-chief Chris George to find out, eight months in, how the market has reacted, why Future wanted to add to its existing photography portfolio and what he wants from PRs in content ideas.
Professional Photography

Chris George


Professional Photography was launched by Future last October. What was the inspiration behind it?

Future was already the market leading producer in the consumer-targeted photographic magazine sector, and while we did have content around aspiring professionals in some of our photography magazines, we didn’t have a dedicated title to cater to this market.

Two years ago we launched a new event – The Photography Show. It’s an annual show that attracts
about 30,000 people, including professional exhibitors in the photofinishing, wedding album and lighting markets. Out of that, the idea of launching a professional photography magazine became more exciting due to the client base that emerged from the show.

An opportunity arose when Archant closed Professional Photographer magazine. We acquired its subs list and social media strands to create what we think is a fresh magazine that fills the space that was left by the former title’s closure. We’ve changed the name, it’s kept some of the heritage of Professional Photographer, and its been refocused so as not to step on the toes of any other Future titles.

What were the biggest challenges around the title’s launch?Professional Photography cover

Getting the proposition and the magazine’s feel right. It’s always hard with a new product like this because you are approaching brands that haven’t heard of you, and yet you’re trying to persuade them to give you a lot of stuff and access. It’s a harder journey than if you’re established. Because we’ve sort of re-launched an existing title, people expect it to be exactly the same as the last one, so we’ve got to go through the process of explaining that it’s not, it’s even better. It’s exciting though – not a challenge!

How does Professional Photography differ from the rest of Future’s photography portfolio?

We don’t have any tutorial type content in the magazine – like ‘10 ways to light your subjects better’. More than half of the content in the title is picture-led feature articles (images by great photographers accompanied by intelligent discussion of their work).

Another strand of content includes ‘Personal Projects’ – a common tool used by photographers to say “I’ve been pigeonholed as ‘this’, but if you give me a free reign then ‘this’ is what else I could produce”. It’s a fascinating way to talk to photographers, because you get to see a whole other side to their day job work.

We also have a business section, which contains gallery listings and book reviews, as well as content around the business of making money out of photography.

How big is the Professional Photography editorial team?

We have two full-time members of staff; an editor and art editor. We also have a team of freelancers.

Tell us about the Professional Photographer reader.

They’re either a professional photographer or they’re the kind of person who has outgrown the practical content we give in our other magazine offerings. They’re the sort of person who would probably queue to go and see a Sebastiao Salgado exhibition at the Natural History Museum. They might buy a coffee table book by Yann Arthus-Bertrand or Cartier-Bresson because they’re really interested in photography, but don’t want to learn how to set up a flashgun.

Describe your relationship with PRs.

We have a very established relationship with people on, what I’d call, the equipment side. The PRs that we are trying to build relationships with – and it’s been going really well – are the galleries and the more extensive list of book publishers. We’re getting on their radars because we’re doing something different to other photographic magazines. It’s been a case of showing them rather than trying to describe to them what we’re doing.

How best can they help with content?

It would definitely be helpful to hear from PRs about galleries. I never curse at the amount of press releases I get in my inbox because you can get very skilled at going through them and picking out the ones you want very quickly. I’d prefer not to miss anything.

Finally, what would be your ideal piece of content to feature?

I get quite excited about the big-name people that we can feature in the magazine, whether it’s Robert Mapplethorpe, who died in 1989, but has a major retrospective, or David Bailey, who we recently interviewed. He’s probably still the best known living British photographer. We’ve also featured David Hurn, who’s not such a well known name, but has established one of the first photo-journalism courses in the UK and is still an active shooter.

Occasionally you find these fantastic photographers that you haven’t heard of before. If you can show hardened professionals that have seen it all before something that makes them go “Wow, that’s breathtaking” then I think it makes it all worthwhile.

Chris was talking to Gorkana’s Sam Willis

CIPR Excellence Awards 2016 – The Winners

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Tin Man, MHP and Stripe were the big winners at last night’s CIPR Excellence Awards, with Tin Man claiming the biggest haul with three trophies. Hotwire was named Large Consultancy of the year.

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The Tin Man team at last night’s CIPR Excellence Awards ceremony

Tin Man scooped up Best Event for its Sweet Success: Creating a Sunday Times Bestseller campaign, as well as Best Use of Media Relations and Consumer Relations Campaign for its Pulling Power: Giving Advanced Driving Courses Sex Appeal campaign for the Institute of Advanced Motorists.

MHP, with Engine, picked up the Integrated Campaign award for its ‘Missing Type’ campaign for NHS Blood and Transplant to generate new blood donor registrations. The agency also won the Public Affairs Campaign award for its Drop the Duty work, a campaign to cut alcohol tax.

Stripe Communications was named Outstanding Mid-Sized Public Relations Consultancy, and its senior account manager, Shaun Bell was also named Outstanding Young Communicator.

Hotwire won Large Consultancy of the year, while Holistic was named Outstanding Small Public Relations Consultancy of the year.

Other notable mentions include Direct Line which was crowned winner of the Outstanding In-House PR Team, Teamspirit PR for winning Global Public Relations Campaign for its work with Henderson Global Investors, and Mischief PR for Best Use of Digital with the National Trust.

Pitch won Best Arts, Culture or Sport Campaign for its Switching Saddles campaign for Betfair, and Taylor Herring picked up the best Automotive Campaign award for its work with Kwik Fit.

Nicola Green, head of PR and comms for O2, and winner of the 2015 Suzy Spirit Award, was named CIPR IoD Public Relations Director of the Year.

The Excellence Awards 2016 united around 700 professionals from over 120 PR consultancies and in-house teams at Old Billingsgate in London last night. Entrants fought across 29 categories and faced panel interviews with over 85 esteemed judges, to be recognised as CIPR Excellence Award winners.

Below is the full list of winners:

• Corporate and Business Communications Campaign: CYBG, Introducing the UK’s largest Challenger Bank
• Internal Communications Campaign: Northumbrian Water Group, Introducing Nature Watch
• Consumer Relations Campaign: Tin Man, Pulling Power: Giving Advanced Driving Courses Sex Appeal
• Public Sector Campaign: The NHS Sussex and Spirit, #notQUITEanemergency
• Corporate Social Responsibility Campaign: Ketchum and P&G, Actions speak louder than words
• Public Affairs Campaign: MHP Communications, Drop the Duty: a campaign to cut alcohol tax

• Not-for-Profit Campaign: WaterAid, #ifmenhadperiods
• Healthcare Campaign: Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, Alder Hey in the Park: The Future of Children’s Healthcare
• Integrated Campaign: MHP Communications/Engine for NHS Blood and Transplant, Missing Type
• Global Public Relations Campaign: Teamspirit Public Relations, Henderson Global Investors – Henderson Global Dividend Index
• Issues or Crisis Management: Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, Dangerous dogs
• Automotive Campaign: Taylor Herring, Fit Kwik

• Low Budget Campaign: Kelso Consulting, Black Friday website crashes
• STEM Campaign: Brands2Life, Outlining the future of government digital services for EMC
• Arts, Culture or Sport Campaign: Pitch, Betfair – Switching Saddles
• Education Communications Campaign: University of Derby, Guide to Expertise: connecting the media with academic expertise

• Best Use of Media Relations: Tin Man, Pulling Power: Giving Advanced Driving Courses Sex Appeal
• Best Use of Digital: Mischief PR and The National Trust, Creating the Nation’s Ode to the Coast
• Best Use of Social Media: University of Glasgow, Social media promotion of the discovery of Gravitational Waves
• Best External Publication: VisitScotland, Set in Scotland – A Film Fan’s Odyssey
• Best Internal Publication: beetroot, Outside In for Royal Bank of Scotland
• Best Event: Tin Man, Sweet Success: Creating a Sunday Times Bestseller

• Outstanding Young Communicator: Shaun Bell MCIPR, Stripe Communications
• Outstanding Independent Practitioner: Hilary Berg Found.Chart.PR, MCIPR, Hilary Berg Consulting
• CIPR IoD Public Relations Director of the Year: Nicola Green MCIPR, O2
• Outstanding In-House Public Relations Team: Direct Line

• Outstanding Small Public Relations Consultancy: Holistic
• Outstanding Mid-Sized Public Relations Consultancy: Stripe Communications
• Outstanding Large Public Relations Consultancy: Hotwire

Lexis names new head of consumer

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Frank PR’s Bianca Lee-Chang has joined creative comms agency Lexis as head of consumer, with a brief to drive growth and lead on some of the agency’s key clients.

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Bianca Lee-Chang

Lee-Chang will head up the agency’s brand comms team, which handles several consumer brand clients including Coca-Cola, Harley-Davidson, Pizza Hut and Pernod Ricard.

She was previously a board director at Frank, having joined the agency in 2013. Before that, she was a director at Publicasity, and spent time in-house at LG Electronics after starting her career at Cake.

Her consumer brand experience includes Nintendo, Orange, Danone and LG Electronics.

Dominic Shales, MD at Lexis, said: “We’re delighted to have Bianca on board to lead our consumer team. We look forward to her spearheading some great campaigns for new and existing clients and bringing her experience of integrated, insight-led, creative campaigns to our dynamic team.”

Lee-Chang added: “Lexis is an agency that I have always respected and admired having pushed the boundaries with some of the industry’s most famous campaigns. I’m really excited to be joining the team to continue the amazing work and further our creative insight-led thinking across even more exciting brands beyond an already impressive client roster.”

PJ Valves appoints Aspectus

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Aspectus, a communications agency for the energy, financial services, engineering and technology sectors, has been appointed by PJ Valves (PJV), a manufacturer and supplier of valves to the energy industry.

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Laura Iley

Aspectus aims to support PJV’s growth strategy with written and visual content that will engage the company’s target audience.

Dan Munro, managing director at PJV, said: “We contracted Aspectus because of their global reach, innovative approach and specialist sector knowledge. We already had a great relationship with the team and are looking forward to working with them.”

Laura Iley, head of oil and gas at Aspectus, added: “We’re really excited to work with PJV on their geographical expansion. We recognise that these are challenging times for the industry, which is why we’ve designed a performance-based model that focuses on delivering business outcomes. The oil and gas landscape has changed dramatically but by investing in communications, companies can make sure they continue to achieve their goals.”