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Comms consultancy, JPES Partners has hired Miles Donohoe to join its expanding London team as director.
Donohoe will join JPES’ management team and will have responsibility for growing the company’s client base within the wider financial services market.
Julian Samways, managing director at JPES Partners, said: “This is a very exciting time for the company and, following a successful year, I am very confident that Miles will add useful experience and depth to the JPES team. I look forward to seeing the benefits that Miles’ knowledge and fresh perspective from his successful time working in South Africa can bring to both JPES and our clients.”
Donohoe said: “As one of the leading consultancies to the UK investment industry, JPES has built a solid reputation and an enviable client base. I am excited to be joining the team, as the company looks to further cement its position and continue the rapid growth it has achieved over the last few years.”
Donohoe joins JPES from Epic MSLGROUP, a South African strategic communications agency which operates across a range of sectors, including financial and professional services.
Mason Williams PR has launched a Mother, Baby and Parenting division, with initial clients and projects including baby mattress brand SleepCurve, pure fruit snacking bar Fruit Heroes and an ambassadorship programme for preschool development specialist Lamaze, featuring Coleen Rooney.
Headed by senior consultant Victoria Barker and senior director Joanne Greer, the division is on the hunt for more opportunities with brands in the North West.
Rita Rowe, founder and MD at Mason Williams, said: “We have ten mums currently working at Mason Williams and have been involved in the mother, baby and parenting sector since our conception (sorry for the pun) working for brands like Cheestrings, Hasbro, TOMY and Sun Valley, but we haven’t put the two together to form a stand-alone specialisation.
“We are putting all of our 30 year experiences in working with brands and consumers along with our home-honed team to offer a very strong support for any products or groups who want to target this audience.
She added: “Our team of mums have more than 75 years combined experience working with, and talking to, mums and are having huge successes already working for top baby, pre-school and parenting brands.”
KINC has been named as the first UK marketing agency for video gaming headset brand Astro Gaming, with a brief to develop a PR and marketing strategy to target new audiences for the brand.
Astro creates video gaming headsets and equipment across multiple platforms, and its products are recognised as the official audio gaming headset for Call of Duty: Black Ops III.
KINC will roll out a strategy for the brand aimed at broader consumer and lifestyle audiences and gaming segments.
Paul Knipe, MD of KINC, said: “We’ve developed a strategy with Astro to target gamers and build engagement with new audiences. We look forward to working with one of most respected gaming brands in the world.”
Headland has appointed Tulchan’s senior communications adviser, Lucy Legh, as director.
After a decade of working with Tulchan, Legh joins Headland’s 37-strong team and she brings extensive experience of advising companies on how to communicate their investment case and corporate strategy to the media and capital markets.
Chris Salt, CEO at Headland, said: “Lucy’s appointment is another significant addition to our client advisory offer. She is a top practitioner with invaluable experience advising boards of both public and private companies and her ability to bring together a financial and corporate communications strategy is the perfect fit for Headland.”
Legh said: “I am delighted to be joining Headland at a pivotal point in its evolution. Headland’s rounded advisory offer, which sets financial communications in the wider context of corporate reputation, speaks to my expertise and my belief that in this age where the customer is of the utmost importance, clients require a broader perspective on reputation management and strategic communications issues.”
Previously, Legh has advised FTSE 100, FTSE 250, small-cap and private companies on a range of reputation management and communications issues, including IPOs, M&A transactions, management restructuring and crises.
Legh’s former clients include New Look, Lloyds Banking Group, The Co-operative Group and M&C Saatchi.
Strategic comms group, Vigo, has been appointed by Premaitha Health to advise on capital markets communications.
The Premaitha account team will be led at Vigo by director Ben Simons and account director Fiona Henson.
Simons said: “Premaitha is at the forefront of an emerging multi-billion pound market for non-invasive prenatal testing. Its leading CE marked system is gaining commercial traction around the world and Vigo is thrilled to be working with it at such an exciting time for the business.”
Premaitha uses the latest advances in DNA analysis technology to develop safer and more accurate screening tests for pregnant women.
The InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has promoted Yasmin Diamond, senior vice president of global corporate affairs, to its executive committee.
Diamond is set to join the committee and become executive vice president of global corporate affairs on 4 April 2016.
Richard Solomons, chief executive officer at IHG, said: “This promotion reflects the enormous contribution Yasmin has made to the business in her time with IHG.”
Diamond joined IHG as senior vice president in 2012. During this time she led and executed a global communications strategy focused on financial results, IHG’s brand communications and public affairs.
Prior to joining IHG, Diamond was director of communications at the Home Office, where she led all of its external and internal communications.
Missed out on this week’s PR News? Get your handy round-up of the essential highlights of PR and media stories, features and events content over the last seven days on Gorkana News.
Pitch Wins
Travelex has brought in Hotwire as its lead global PR, creative and content agency, as the foreign exchange specialist looks to enhance consumer engagement around its brand and products ahead of its 40th anniversary this year.
Travel and tourism multinational TUI Group, which owns the Thomson Airways and Corsair International brands, has appointed Maitland to manage its financial and corporate comms.
Domino’s, the world’s leading pizza delivery company, has brought in Shine @ The Academy as its retained consumer PR agency in the UK.
Deodorant and shower gel brand Right Guard has chosen Frank as its retained PR and social agency, following a competitive pitch.
Moomin Characters, the business set up by Moomin creator Tove Jansson in the 1950s, has appointed arts and culture consultancy Riot Communications as its first PR agency.
Taylor Herring has been chosen to handle the PR for the second innocent unplugged festival, which will take place from 28 to 30 May 2016.
Newgate Communications is supporting luggage brand Samsonite’s US$1.8 billion (£1.27bn) acquisition of North American luxury travel brand Tumi. The deal was announced last Friday.
People News
The Financial Timeshas named Sacha Bunatyan as global B2C marketing director, with a brief to grow its subscriptions business and enhance audience development.
Rebecca Smith, former medical editor for the Daily Telegraph, has joined the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence as head of media.
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has brought in BBC political journalist Louise Stewart as head of media and comms.
Hill+Knowlton London has chosen Richard Carnell-Jones as associate director of its energy and industrials team.
Andrew Soar has returned to Unity to take on the newly created role of head of engagement, nearly two years after moving to Shine Communications, as associate creative director. Carat’s John Carolan has been appointed as Unity’s first planning director.
Public affairs agency Social Communications has appointed Chris Walker to head up its growing PR division.
Agency News
Global comms firm Next 15 has acquired Publitek, a specialist technical content marketing business.
Weber Shandwick has launched the Gender Forward Pioneer (GFP) Index, which reveals that only 10.9 per cent of senior executives in the world’s 500 largest companies are women.
London-based corporate and financial comms adviser Cardew Group has joined forces with New York investor relations firm Taylor Rafferty to offer capital markets advice to clients in the UK and the US.
News Analysis
OPINION: When brands should speak up on Brexit Andrew Clark, recently appointed public affairs director at Burson-Marsteller and a former deputy business editor of The Times, identifies four key questions business leaders need to ask themselves before wading into this potentially “toxic” debate. He says there are clear pros and cons businesses should consider before stating their views on whether Britain should remain in the EU.
White Paper
PR’s identity in 2016 Gorkana explores how the growth and proliferation of media channels has affected PR and how the industry positions itself in the marketing mix. In public relations, there is now a trend, particularly among agencies, to offer services in social media, online content and SEO, which has blurred the identity and scope of ‘traditional’ PR.
Speaking to PR professionals, from agencies including LEWIS, PLMR, Lexis and Capella, as well as prominent journalists, this report explores what multichannel marketing means for the identity of PR.
Journalist News
Rachel Armstrong has been named financial services editor for EMEA at Reuters.
Times journalist Federica Cocco has joined the Financial Times as a statistics journalist.
MTV’s international entertainment editor Matt Risley has been promoted to managing editor.
James Gill has been appointed executive editor – film at ShortList magazine. He was previously content solutions editor at Shortlist Media and will take on his new role on 29 March.
VICELAND, the new TV channel from VICE, will be available on Sky and NOW TV customers when it launches in the UK and Ireland in September this year. The 24-hour channel will be programmed, developed and produced in-house by VICE’s creative team.
Features
Gorkana Media Briefing with Shares “Responsible” and “disciplined” financial reporting is what Daniel Coatsworth, editor of Shares, wants his title to feature and to be known for. Speaking to Gorkana during an exclusive media briefing, Coatsworth explained how he prefers the title to focus on stories that are forward-looking and based on research and data, over more “sensationalist” content.
60 seconds with Maria Darby-Walker, Citigate Maria Darby-Walker, senior director at Citigate Dewe Rogerson, on getting into PR by accident, the importance of not leaving a void when communicating during a crisis and her admiration for Ruth Sunderland at the Mail.
Gorkana meets…Country & Town House Lucy Cleland, editor of luxury interiors and lifestyle magazine Country & Town House, talks to Gorkana’s Ben Spencer about how her readers appreciate the good things in life, the importance and high quality of the magazine’s supplement series and the difference between “good” and “not so good” PRs.
Hotel Chocolat has appointed its retained adviser Citigate Dewe Rogerson to manage its financial communications through its IPO and beyond.
Citigate will handle the media relations as Hotel Chocolat lists on AIM and embarks on the next stage of growth and invests in store rollouts, expansion of its UK factory and invests in its digital offering.
The team is being led by Simon Rigby and Angharad Couch with support from Ellen Wilton and Elizabeth Kittle.
Following the listing, Citigate will continue to offer PR support to HC around financial calendar events, regulatory announcements and crisis communications.
Online arts and culture magazine After Nyne has brought in Alexander PR & Communications to support the launch of its bi-monthly print publication.
After Nyne, which WH Smith will stock in 160 of its stores from June, has an online following of more than 45,000 through its social media platforms. Alexander has been briefed to lead a 12-month national awareness campaign for the After Nyne brand over all as well as its print edition.
Activity begins with Alexander PR developing the brand’s first extension, The After Nyne Art Prize, which will open for entries in October 2016. It will award the most exciting and innovative international visual artists with substantial financial and creative support annually.
Claire Meadows, MD at After Nyne, said: “We wanted to work with an agency partner that understood arts and culture while providing valuable strategic counsel to cultivate our brand and we felt Alexander PR was best placed to meet our objectives.”
Adam Rutherford, director at Alexander PR, added: “After Nyne’s content provides us with a rich source of collateral for communicating their messages and meeting their objectives and we’re excited to working with a great team of traditional and digital journalists.”
Global communications firm Next 15 has acquired Publitek, a specialist technical content marketing business.
Next 15 specialises in acquiring, incubating and growing data-driven digital agencies with a diverse range of services. It also provides firms with mentoring and financial support.
Bob Jones, Publitek’s founder and CEO, stays with the business following its acquisition.
Tim Dyson, CEO at Next 15, said: “As the marketing industry becomes increasingly specialised and technology-driven, Next 15 is looking to find firms like Publitek that can drive these niche, but powerful, online communities. Publitek’s deep domain expertise in the semiconductor and component markets has enabled it to provide a unique way of reaching the CTOs, CIOs, specialist engineers and product managers who buy and use these technologies. As part of the Next 15 group, we believe we can accelerate Publitek’s already significant growth prospects.”
Bob Jones, CEO at Publitek, said: “Next 15’s global presence provides the platform we need to support our clients better and to accelerate our growth, particularly in the US and continental Europe. We share a common vision of how the digital revolution has impacted marketing communications and how truly integrated strategies can be harnessed to deliver better value for clients.”
Publitek builds content platforms, creates and optimises content, and manages on and offline communities on behalf of more than 40 companies, including Ericcson, Intel and Sony.
Comms consultancy, JPES Partners has hired Miles Donohoe to join its expanding London team as director.
