Optimum Nutrition goes for Speed

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Sports nutrition brand Optimum Nutrition, creator of whey protein Gold Standard Whey, has chosen Speed Communications to deliver a number of campaigns for the brand, ahead of a new initiative launch for its consumers to mark its 30th anniversary this year.

European Rugby Champions Cup Round 4, Allianz Park, London, England 19/12/2015 Saracens vs Oyonnax Optimum Nutrition Product and branded images Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Andrew Fosker

The agency, which is part of part of The Mission Group and won the account following a competitive pitch, has been briefed to help drive awareness of the brand “at a time of rapid growth for the sports nutrition category”.

Benoit Batard, international marketing manager at Optimum Nutrition, said: “2016 is going to be an exciting and important year for Optimum Nutrition with some key product developments and milestones for the brand just around the corner.

“Speed Communications impressed us with their knowledge of the sports nutrition industry as well as their unrivalled experience in the sports and fitness performance sector, they are the perfect partner for us.”

Amanda Calder-McLaren, director of sport and lifestyle at Speed London, added: “Optimum Nutrition is a premium, global brand that sits perfectly within our portfolio of sport, health and fitness brands. Our team have a wealth of experience in the sports nutrition sector and are really looking forward to working with the brand at such an exciting time.”

Behind the Headlines with 3 Monkeys Zeno’s Tristan Pineiro

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Tristan Pineiro, co-head of 3 Monkeys Zeno’s consumer practice, reveals how he got a starter lesson in the importance of branding, recalls his first, unintentional, pitch to a journalist and wonders why “street food” is a thing.

Tristan Pineiro

Tristan Pineiro

Before I reach the office in the morning, I’ve already…
Walked Tuppence, my Jack Russell, spent an hour in the gym, watched the news, checked Twitter and Facebook, had my first breakfast and scanned my e-mails.  I’m definitely a morning person, much to the other half’s dismay.

You’ll mostly find emails about…in my inbox.
All sorts – that’s the beauty of working in an agency, one minute you might be reading about intimate health issues, the next telecoms regulation, followed by trends in fish. It means you always have ‘something’ to add to conversations at dinner parties.

I know I’ve had a good day if…
I have forgotten to have my lunch, and not noticed.

My first job was…
My first unofficial job was doing the washing up in my dad’s restaurant, stood on an upturned Coca-Cola crate so I could reach the sink. Might sound like child labour, but I seem to remember feeling quite important doing it.

My first actual job was as a Saturday sales assistant in a men’s fashion store called Concept Man, in Cheltenham, which was the male version of Chelsea Girl. Everyone turned their nose up at it a bit, because it was seen as very 80s, and this was 1990! I remember one weekend, before a refurbishment, we packed all the clothes up and sent them away. The shop was then transformed and re-branded to a spanking new and as yet unknown River Island. Exactly the same clothes came back, only with different labels in them, and everyone went mad for them – stuff was flying out the door. That was my first lesson in the importance of branding.

I can tell a campaign is succeeding when…
People who aren’t involved in the industry tell me about this thing that they’ve seen, heard or read about, and repeat key messages back to me, unprompted and without knowing I was in any way involved.  That makes me happy.

I eat…when nobody is watching.
A large plateful of my ‘microwave cheat nachos’. An even layer of tortilla chips on a plate, covered in salsa and grated cheese – popped in the microwave for one minute, and Bob’s your uncle. When people are looking, however, it is all about lightly seasoned steamed fish and vegetables, obviously.

The first time I pitched to a journalist…
I didn’t realise what I was doing. I was working on the door of a club night, talking to one of our VIP guests about the great nights we had coming up. Next thing I knew there was a lovely feature published about it. I liked it.

The worst thing anyone has said to me is…
I honestly can’t remember – I have a very selective memory, and can easily forget the bad bits – no point in lingering and festering.

The last book I read was…
Tell All, by Chuck Palahniuk.  Love everything he’s done, want more.

I’ve never really understood why…
Street food is a thing. Particularly when it’s labeled as being from countries that don’t actually do street food. And it’s indoors, with tables and chairs. It’s just daft, and it must end.

If I could go back and talk to my 10-year-old self, I’d say…
Stop wishing your life away – hoping things will hurry up and be done so you can move on to the next one.  Slow down and take it all in, it isn’t a race.  Enjoy the washing up you are doing.

This time next year, I’ll be…
Following the sun around the world in my massive yacht, hosting parties in every port and spending the days eating, visiting new places and generally mucking around in the sea.  I’ll probably see you in Cannes. Honestly, I will.

Fancy featuring in a Behind the Headlines interview? Please email [email protected]

W promotes Sophie Raine to director

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W has promoted its head of brand, Sophie Raine, to director, just over two years after she first joined the agency.

W director

Sophie Raine

Raine, who joined W in 2014, has helped grow the agency’s brand division, which has already brought in Lidl and V Festival as clients this year. She has also helped grow W’s Unilever portfolio.

In her new role, Raine will continue to supervise account teams within the Brand Division, as well as play a wider agency role. She aims to grow and develop W’s live event and influencer programmes.

Working alongside CEO Warren Johnson, MD Richard Tompkins and strategy director Adam Leigh, she will help lead the agency’s business growth both in the UK and internationally, following the opening of W’s first global office in Singapore last year.

Raine has more than 10 years’ consumer and brand experience, and joined W after six years at Frank PR.

Johnson said: “Sophie is a brilliant addition to the board, having played a key role in the growth of W – managing and overseeing challenging, award-winning campaigns, winning and bedding-in new business, and growing and developing team talent. She possesses a rare mix of commercial and creative acumen, and we expect her to be an integral part of the agency’s future.”

Raine added: “This is a very exciting time for W as we continue to scoop up awards, not only for our work but also for the agency and the people within it. It’s an honour to have been a part of W’s meteoric rise over the last two-and-a-half years and to be taking such an important role for the future.”

RMS asks Aspectus to provide comms

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Katy Galasinski

RMS, the global catastrophe risk modelling company, has hired Aspectus to grow its presence beyond insurance sector and trade press.

RMS and the financial services communications team at Aspectus aim to earn coverage within “wider” finance and business publications. Together, they plan to run a number of integrated campaigns throughout the year – from thought leadership and new product announcements to activity surrounding RMS’ annual client event.

Alexia Russell, head of corporate communications at RMS, said: “As an ambitious and dynamic business, we need an agency to match. The team at Aspectus has really impressed us with its creative approach to campaign ideas that work across all media, including digital. And we’re already seeing results, with coverage in the FT, Reuters and the The Wall Street Journal in the first few weeks.”

Katy Galasinski, group director at Aspectus, added: “RMS is a fantastic win for us as it plays a key role in the insurance and reinsurance sector. They recognise the value of planned, properly targeted, integrated campaigns. This matches our philosophy and as always we are providing real clarity over the outcomes and results we will deliver.”

Aspectus specialises in financial services, energy, technology and engineering.

HR tech company appoints Man Bites Dog

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LaunchPad Recruits, an HR technology company, has appointed Man Bites Dog to support its next phase of growth.

Alex Kent 1

Alex Kent

Man Bites Dog will work alongside the business on an integrated communications programme to build brand awareness and enhance the company’s profile among HR and recruitment professionals and the wider business and investment community.

Kirstie Kelly, director at Launch Pad, said: “Man Bites Dog came highly recommended to us. Its reputation for providing compelling storytelling and intelligent media relations precedes it and the wealth and depth of client experience in both the HR and Technology sectors shines through in their work. We’re looking forward to building the partnership.”

Based in London, LaunchPad uses a data-driven platform to help businesses tackle the unconscious bias that affect recruitment decisions. LaunchPad aims to lead the market in the advancement of the diversity and inclusion agenda through HR technology.

Alex Kent, head of London at Man Bites Dog, added: “We’re very excited to be adding such an ambitious and unique HR tech company to our growing client list. The diversity and inclusion agenda is a business-critical issue for companies across all industries, and LaunchPad is at the forefront of this disruptive and fast-moving market.”

Lloyd’s of London hires Harvard

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Lloyd’s of London has hired Harvard PR, part of Chime, with the aim of positioning the insurance giant as a global leader in cyber insurance.

Lloyd’s of London 1

Harvard will develop a new narrative and messaging to be used by Lloyd’s to tell a consistent story around cyber risk, and to support its ‘reputation for genuine innovation’.

Stewart Todd, head of strategic communications at Lloyd’s, said: “Cyber is a growing risk for businesses across Europe, and the Lloyd’s market has the expertise to help develop the protection they need. We were looking for an agency that would work directly with syndicates in the Lloyd’s market to create a compelling narrative. Harvard impressed us with its impeccable tech credentials, particularly in the cybersecurity space, and will bring the right strategic approach to our challenge.”

Louie St Claire, MD at Harvard added: “The average cost of a security breach in 2015 was $3.79 million [£2.62 million], and many companies are simply not insured against that risk. Our strategy will be one of education, taking Lloyd’s into the boardroom to help companies tackle the cyber security challenge.”

Law firm Nabarro appoints Rostrum

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Nabarro, the international law firm, has appointed Rostrum to assist with a project that will raise its profile among technology companies in the UK.

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Mark Houlding

The project will consist of a research report, social media content and a media relations campaign.

Alex Bellinger, head of communications at Nabarro, said: “The Rostrum team impressed us with their ideas, creative thinking and media contacts in this sector. We’re confident that the work the Rostrum team is doing with us will raise the profile of Nabarro in the UK technology sector.”

Mark Houlding, CEO at Rostrum, added: “Nabarro is a well-regarded international law firm and we’re excited about the prospect of working with Alex Bellinger and the Nabarro team to deliver this campaign. Nabarro has a strong story to tell in the UK technology market and we’re looking forward to helping the firm take that message to market.”

Rostrum specialises in working with financial services companies, professional services firms and technology businesses.

The BIG Partnership reports new client wins

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Claiming to be Scotland’s largest independent PR and digital marketing agency, The BIG Partnership‘s Aberdeen office has secured new client wins worth over £350,000 in the first half of 2016.

Zoe Ogilvie 1

Zoe Ogilvie

included in this total is BIG’s first contract with a Middle Eastern company, The Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO).

Zoe Ogilvie, director and head of BIG’s Aberdeen office, said: “We are particularly proud of winning the BAPCO work as we were up against international agencies. We have been delivering services in the Middle East for our Aberdeen-based clients for several years, but this is the first time we have secured a contract with an indigenous business in the region.”

BIG will deliver senior executives at BAPCO with four weeks of intensive PR and communications training.

Other wins in the first half of the year include Elevator, a social enterprise for entrepreneurs in Aberdeen and Dundee, Iqarus, an intelligent health solutions business and SPE Offshore Europe 2017, the oil and gas conference and exhibition.

BIG’s success with oil and gas businesses comes despite the fact that a sustained low oil price is ‘taking its toll on the North East’.

Ogilvie added: “Times are tough in Aberdeen, but we remain quietly optimistic about our prospects for the year ahead. More than ever, energy companies need to tell their stories about the people and innovation that will get them through the next few years. It’s easy to panic when the oil price hits new lows, but our job is to provide sensible communications strategies which deliver results and add value in a cost-effective way.”

International Greetings appoints Redleaf

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International Greetings, a designer, manufacturer and distributor of gift packaging, cards and stationery, has appointed Redleaf Communications to handle its corporate communications.

International Greetings 1

Rebecca Sanders-Hewett, MD, capital markets, Sarah Fabietti-Dallison, senior account manager, Helena Shadbolt, account manager, and Susie Hudson, account executive at Redleaf, will work on the account.

Sanders-Hewett said: “We are delighted to have been appointed to work with International Greetings, at what is a very exciting time for the business. International Greetings is an innovative and well established company, and the strong core values it promotes globally have been reflected in the financial success and rapid rate of growth it has achieved over several years. We look forward to working with the team to help tell its story as the business grows and evolves.”

Nissan’s Stuart Jackson: ‘Tell a story well and it will fly’

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Stuart Jackson, Nissan’s VP of comms, tells Gorkana about the lessons that have stayed with him since helping to launch the joint venture between Orange and T-Mobile in 2012 and explains why he co-authored The 4G Mobile Revolution: Creation, Innovation and Transformation at EE.

Stuart Jackson BC

Stuart Jackson

Since its launch in 2012, EE has won multiple uSwitch awards as the fastest UK network and comes up top as the fastest mobile operator in this year’s Rootmetrics bi-annual stress test.

After the high-profile Orange/T-Mobile merger, and EE’s sale to BT in 2015, Olaf Swantee, former CEO at EE and co-author of The 4G Mobile Revolution…,  approached Stuart Jackson, former communications director at EE, to help tell this success story. The duo spent 18 months developing the copy and chasing a publishing deal. The final proofs were signed off last week (30 May) and the book is set to be published in August.

Jackson describes how his experience at EE taught him to be bold, how comms became a powerful tool and the differences between working in comms for the telecoms and automotive industry.

How did the concept of the book emerge and what’s interesting about EE and your time there as comms director?

The book was really an opportunity for us to reflect on how a great team took two of Britain’s biggest brands, Orange and T-Mobile, and created something totally new and unexpected.

I have very fond memories of that time, but writing the book reminded me just how tough it was too. Delivering real transformative business success is not an easy ride. It was a combination of smart thinking, very hard work and a little bit of luck here and there.

It was a potent mix of great ideas, a can-do spirit and expert leaders, enabling a group of individuals to experience something most people never get to do in their working lives … to play their part in creating a new business, a new brand and all the incredible learnings and experience that goes with that.

What lessons did you learn during this time about brand-building and communicating new services and offerings for both a corporate and consumer audience?

Often, when people think ‘brand’ they think ‘logo’. But a brand is so much more than that. It’s a promise. It’s the very essence of your company and forms the basis of an emotional contract between you and your customers. It’s the reason they choose you over the competition and the reason they stick with you, even when things go wrong.

A key lesson we took from EE was that a new brand needs to have product differentiation at its heart if it is to succeed. In EE’s case, that was 4G.

What’s your biggest take-away from your time at EE?

Be bold. We came up with a phrase and a belief that has stuck with me through all subsequent jobs – “never go soft”.

There are too many soft launches and trials out there. Too many businesses don’t just get on and do it. Just get out there and deliver as a business with communications spearheading that movement.

With the right support and engagement of a CEO, communications can be the most powerful tool in a business’ armoury. That’s where we got to with EE. We used communications to power up the business and act as a lever to create an agile business with an impactful story that the competition couldn’t keep up with.

You’ve made the jump from working in the telecoms sector to automotive, what are the similarities (and differences) between the two?

The difference has to be the product lead-time involved. In telecoms, you can have a device go from a sketch on a piece of paper and into the stores in under nine months. You can change a tariff in under six weeks. When you’re making a car, that process is in years.

On average it takes half a decade to get a car from drawing board to forecourt, and there is significantly more investment made upfront – and that means more risk if something goes wrong. The communications cycles are equally matched.

In the automotive world, we’ll be talking to media about a specific model 18 months before it’s available to buy, whereas we’d leave it as late as possible to announce our new plans in telecoms. All that said, the general rule of communications is the same … It’s all about the story. If you’ve got a good story, it doesn’t matter what sector you’re in. Tell it well and it will fly.