Golin acquires The Brooklyn Brothers

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Interpublic Group agency Golin has acquired creative agency The Brooklyn Brothers.

Founded in 2001 in New York and 2008 in the UK, The Brooklyn Brothers expanded to Los Angeles in 2012 to create its Hollywood writing room, an alliance with seven of Hollywood scriptwriters. It opened an office in Brazil in 2013.

Clients have included Castrol Edge, NBC and Pepsi.

Founding partners Guy Barnett, George Bryant, Paul Parton and Jackie Stevenson will continue to manage The Brooklyn Brothers operations. David Watson, original London founding partner, will continue to work with the team in 2016, after which he plans to leave the business.

Stevenson said: “Our clients are looking for ideas that unite the marketing and PR disciplines and experts who can operate seamlessly across both worlds.

“We’ve always strived to build our agency at the intersection of marketing and PR and the Golin team shares our passion and commitment. The consumer doesn’t recognise the difference between disciplines – nor should we. We are delighted to be joining the Golin family. ”

Matt Neale, president international at Golin, said:  “If you were starting a global creative agency today, it would look like The Brooklyn Brothers. They operate at the apex of paid and earned media with an exceptional bench of senior talent that delivers compelling content across multiple platforms. They will be a tremendous asset for our clients.”

Fred Cook, CEO of Golin, said: “Our new partnership with Brooklyn Brothers is an important step in our long-term strategy to provide a complete suite of creative services to our clients. They will dramatically boost our capabilities in paid media, which is becoming an increasingly important part of our business.”

One Green Bean promotes Sky Cycling

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Sky has brought in One Green Bean as the retained consumer PR and social agency for Sky Cycling, ahead of what it says will be the brand’s biggest year yet.

One Green Bean has been briefed to help Sky promote its ongoing commitment to cycling and celebrate the role it has played in cycling in the UK.

A key part of One Green Bean’s remit will be the launch of a new cycling brand campaign to get more people on their bikes.

The team will also raise the profile of Sky’s relationship with three-time Tour de France winners Team Sky, as well as promote Sky’s partnership with British Cycling, the Great Britain cycling team and WIGGINS.

The agency will also launch and provide PR support for Sky Ride, a mass participation event, which launched in 2009 and is now in its final year.

The PR campaign will include content strategy and production for Sky Cycling’s digital and social channels. The agency’s remit will also include influencer and talent outreach and engagement.

The account will be led by One Green Bean MD Matt Buchanan and executive creative director Kat Thomas.

Fiona Morgan, head of brand for Sky Cycling and Team Sky, said: “We were impressed by One Green Bean’s fresh perspective, outstanding creativity and brand building credentials outside of sport. They demonstrated a very modern approach to communications, spanning PR, social and content strategy.

“This is the biggest year yet for Sky and cycling, and we’re excited to have One Green Bean onboard to drive our communications far and wide and get people to love cycling as much as we do. We’re delighted with the appointment and can’t wait to get started.”

Buchanan added: “We’re thrilled to be kicking off the year with such a big win. There’s a lot of excitement in the agency for Sky Cycling and we’re looking forward to delivering some innovative and memorable work in the coming months.”

Tulchan

Alliance Trust hands financial brief to Tulchan

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Alliance Trust PLC, one of the largest generalist investment trusts in the UK by market value, is now working with financial PR agency Tulchan following a competitive pitch process.

The FTSE250 trust manages a total of some £3.3bn assets and owns two financial services subsidiaries; Alliance Trust Savings and Alliance Trust Investments.

Partner Stephen Malthouse and director Martin Pengelley will lead the Tulchan team managing the brief.

In January, the trust appointed Robert Smith, Lord Smith of Kelvin, as its new chairman. He took up his new role on 1 February.

PRCA

PRCA launches MENA resource

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The Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) has launched PRCA MENA (Middle-East and North Africa) to represent consultancies, in-house teams and individuals across the region.

Co-chaired by Loretta Ahmed (pictured), CEO of Grayling Middle East, and Mohamed Al Ayed, CEO of PR network TRACCS, founding members include Golin MENA, Memac Ogilvy, Instinctif and Fleishman Europe.

It will enable members to better share best practice, engage in training, network, and help raise standards in the industry in the region.  Working alongside ICCO (International Communications Consultancy Organisation), the association will provide an international framework within which its members can develop global networks and links to London.

Ahmed said: “I am delighted to be given the opportunity to co-chair this great new resource for the PR industry in MENA. As a fellow of the PRCA I am fully aware of its successes in the UK, and believe that this move will help the industry here to grow, to improve its professionalism, and to increase its profitability.”

Francis Ingham, PRCA director general, added: “By creating a new, vibrant association across the entire region, we will bring PR professionals even closer together, and raise standards even higher. The link with the PRCA in the UK, and its management of ICCO in 32 countries, will make the region fantastically well connected with the global PR community.”

EM

Citigroup’s Denis Denisov joins EM

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Emerging markets consultancy EM has appointed Denis Denisov, formerly head of communications for global bank Citigroup CIS, as director in the business’ Moscow offices.

Denisov will focus on EM’s financial PR offering, working with existing clients and growing the business.

As director in Citi‘s Moscow’s office, Denisov was responsible for the bank’s comms across the Russian Commonwealth, which includes some former Soviet states. He spent 13 years at the bank in various senior marketing and comms roles in Moscow and London.

During his tenure, he supported Citi through the acquisition of HSBC’s retail business in 2010. He was also founding member of Citibank’s cards business in Russia, one of the first credit cards in the country.

Tom Blackwell, EM CEO, said: “Our strategy for Russia is very simple – continue to hire the very best people in the market. We are deeply committed to Russia, and to reinforcing our position as the market’s agency of choice. With the arrival of Denis, the gap between us and the rest has become even wider.”

Denisov added: “EM has become a buzzword in the market and is known for its energy, professionalism and top-notch clients. I am thrilled to become part of this success story in the communications industry and to bring my experience in financial communications for the benefit of its clients.”

ReputationInc

ReputationInc opens office in Norway

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ReputationInc, an international reputation management consultancy headquartered in London, has opened an office in Norway.

Managing partner Dennis Larsen leads the team, with support from special advisor Peggy Simcic Brønn and consultant Thomas Groot. Larsen, who has some 15 years’ experience working in reputation strategy, will use the Norwegian office as a platform to bring the consultancy’s work to the wider Scandinavian market.

He said: “Having worked for some time with leading Norwegian organisations and foreign multinationals we know there is a growing demand for specialist expertise which ReputationInc brings.”

John Mahony, ReputationInc group CEO, said: “Driven in part by our growing Norwegian client base and our belief that a specialist approach to reputation management is of more importance than ever to Norwegian and international companies, I am excited to open our Oslo office.”

Earlier this month, the consultancy opened an office in New York, led by Dr Leonard J Ponzi.

Henman to launch SMART digital cricket scoreboard

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Quickscore has appointed Henman Communications to handle the PR for the launch of a full colour SMART digital cricket scoreboard, which will be unveiled at All Our Cricket Live at Lords Cricket Ground in London on Sunday (21 February 2016).

With an estimated 3 billion audience around the world, cricket can claim to be the world’s second most popular sport. Quickscore says it would be the world’s first SMART digital scoreboard, wirelessly controlled by the CricHQ mobile application.

Its aim is to improve live fan engagement at matches by enabling cricket fans to view live match scoring, statistics and results in real-time.

Henman has been briefed to initially focus on the UK market, targeting the UK’s online and social media communities of country cricket clubs, players, schools and colleges, fans, coaches.

Activity will include creating video testimonial and product placement opportunities at key county cricket clubs.

David Geensen, co-founder of Quickscore, said: “Henman Communications has great credentials in the sports and technology media sectors and has a wealth of experience bringing new innovative sports products to market in the UK. They will advise across all areas of PR and brand building and help deliver our strategic communication plans to build awareness across online and social media channels.”

Richard Henman, founder and CEO of Henman Communications, said: “It is very exciting to working with Quickscore and in cricket to launch the world first colour SMART digital wireless scoreboard sand mobile application in the UK.

“Quickscore brings cricket and technology together enabling cricket fans around the world amazing live-match experience and increased match day enjoyment through fun, and informative content, in-depth match data, videos and 3D graphics, all in real-time! Quickscore has exciting plans to launch into new international cricket territories later this year and expand into other sports as well and we look forward to helping it grow its brand.”

Mobile World Congress helps brands stand out

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Mobile World Congress (MWC), which will be held in Barcelona next week (from 22-25 February), is the biggest mobile and technology conference in the world  attracting thousands of brands, journalists and attendees year-after-year. It gives PRs interested in the sector, opportunities to network, chances to create media coverage and reach a vast audience both at the event and indirectly.

However, the sheer scale of the event means PRs compete to get messages through and get in touch with the top media players. Several big brands including Samsung and Sony launch flagship products every year, leading to a host of marketing collateral that PRs must cut-through. So how do PRs ensure their clients, their messages and their own opportunities stand out?

We asked MWC media partner CNBC,  Edelman and Babel what the biggest trends are set to be, how to cut through the noise and what the target audience is. Here is what they said:

Look to the future for opportunity

The mobile-handset market has become crowded so many brands are set to shift the focus away from mobile phones to virtual and augmented reality offerings. HTC, for example, is defying the convention of launching a yearly flagship smartphone at this year’s event and will focus on its virtual reality headset, Vive VR.

Arjun Kharpal, tech reporter at CNBC, said: “This year there’ll be a number of big trends and one of the most exciting will be virtual reality (VR). The potential of the technology has been talked about over the past few years, but with a number of manufacturers now releasing VR devices, it has entered the mainstream and competition in the space is heating up.

“5G and what that means for mobile and the internet of things are also going to be a big trend. A lot of mobile networks and also equipment makers will be talking about how you might be able to download a movie to your phone in a few seconds and when 5G could become a reality.”

Matt Humphries, director and head of telecoms at Babel PR, said: “The mobile sector is experiencing a big shift and it’s no longer all about mobile operators and handset manufacturers. That’s changing the power base and the most interesting developments are likely to come from the mouths of the likes of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Ford President & CEO, Mark Fields and Matercard’s President, International Markets, Ann Cairnsdent.”

Know your audience

Although it’s focused on the mobile and tech industry and draws in major brands such as Facebook, LG or Google, the event also provides opportunities for businesses in related industries such as finance. For instance, brands like HSBC and Deloitte are exhibting at MWC this year.

Satyen Dayal, director of enterprise and innovation, London technology at Edelman, said: “MWC is a fascinating show and one that has evolved significantly over the past three decades from being primarily telecoms oriented to practically everything mobile. As tech investors Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz and Benedict Evans, note: “mobile is eating the world” and this is a big part of the reason for the show’s continued success amongst media and attendees.

“For Edelman, we are seeing clients from all industry sectors look at this as a major destination to showcase their products and contribute to the conversation that takes place over the week. Hence, as mobile continues to grow, we expect to see an ongoing trend of non-tech or telecoms firms telling their story at MWC.”

Keep things simple to stand out

In 2015 there were 94,000 visitors to MWC and 2,199 exhibitors. In addition, 3,800 press and industry analysts attended as well as thousands of C-suite level leaders. While this presents some big opportunities for PR, it can also be easy to get lost in such company.

“Brands can make a big splash at a place like MWC, but the ones that do it best are the ones that get their message across through all the noise. And, the way to do that is stand out by being simple,” said CNBC’s Kharpal.

He added: “Brands have the world’s biggest media and businesses in one place. They need to tell a compelling but simple story, not try and complicate it by throwing every buzzword under the sun into their pitches. The amount of times I’ve seen pitches involving the words “end-to-end cloud mobility solution” in the first line is incredible.

“I’m excited to see the way companies market themselves, how they will attempt to stand out from the crowd in a market that is becoming very same-y in terms of devices.”

Bowel Cancer UK names external affairs director

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Bowel cancer research charity Bowel Cancer UK has brought in Gus Baldwin from Leonard Cheshire Disability  as director of external affairs.

Baldwin will join Bowel Cancer UK on Monday 29 February, having spent the past nine months at Leonard Cheshire Disability as MD – public affairs and engagement.

Before that, he spent nearly ten years at Macmillan Cancer Support, where he built the charity’s public affairs department and eventually became head of public affairs.

He started his campaigning career working for two public affairs consultancies before moving to Mencap to be its parliamentary officer. He went on to join Macmillan Cancer Support in 2005.

Deborah Alsina, chief executive of Bowel Cancer UK, said: “We’re delighted that Gus will be joining us. His appointment comes at a highly opportune time as we announced recently an ambitious move to become the UK’s leading bowel cancer research charity, dedicated to stopping bowel cancer.”

“The major advances in saving lives from bowel cancer in the past 20 years have all come through research. We already know many of the reasons why people continue to die of the disease. Gus will play a key role in leading our expanded policy and research programme to address these issues specifically. Through strategic investment in targeted research, we will deliver improvements in bowel cancer survival in our lifetime.”

Baldwin added: “The opportunity to become a director at a charity with the ambition of Bowel Cancer UK was too good to turn down. We absolutely must improve bowel cancer survival rates and I’m incredibly excited about having the chance to roll up my sleeves and help.”

Bowel cancer is the second biggest cancer killer in the UK. If diagnosed at its earliest stage, nine out of ten people will survive bowel cancer. Yet this survival rate falls to just eight per cent as the disease develops and spreads. Currently only 18 per cent are diagnosed at this early stage, says the charity.

In 2013, Bowel Cancer UK partnered up with Gorkana and LEWIS to launch The Suzy Ferguson Spirit Award, a PR and comms industry initiative to recognise individuals of exceptional character, integrity and determination.

The award, now in its third year, is in memory of one of the industry’s brightest young stars, Suzy Ferguson, who passed away on 26 July 2012, aged just 31.

Six people have been shortlisted for this year’s Suzy Ferguson Spirit Award 2016, following a record number of nominations. The winner will be announced at a special ceremony on 18 March.

More information can be found here.

Mulberry’s Tori Campbell joins Dragon Advisory

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Tori Campbell, Mulberry’s head of marketing, has joined Dragon Advisory as a partner to lead its luxury brands and lifestyle division.

As head of marketing for British fashion house Mulberry, she ran its brand and global marketing strategy for just under a decade.

Campbell joins Dragon as its recently formed partnership model, created to attract and retain industry leaders and offer an opportunity to have a stake in the success of the business.

Clients include David Morris, Oaknorth Bank and private members club 5 Hertford Street.

Charlie Methven, founding partner of Dragon, said: “I’m delighted that Tori has decided to join Dragon, as she will add significant extra capabilities, contacts and skill-sets to our senior team here.”

“At Mulberry, she has been at the forefront of marketing a major brand, with all that entails: understanding of the international luxury marketplace; the mix between traditional and digital media; and, of course, devising creative and imaginative ways to help communicate with target markets.”

Campbell said: “The chance to join Dragon has provided me with a golden opportunity to diversify and work across a number of exciting accounts, with a very bright team of advisers. Dragon’s Partnership model was also a very attractive proposition, as it provides an opportunity to have a stake in a growing business.”

Dragon provides comms and commercial advice to corporate clients, wealthy individuals and luxury brands and services.