RichRelevance briefs Threepipe

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Tech company RichRelevance, which specialises in omnichannel personalisation, has appointed Threepipe to manage its UK press office activity.

Threepipe

Jim Hawker

Threepipe has been briefed to enhance the profile of RichRelevance’s expanded management team and highlight the company’s services to the UK retail community. Its offering enables digital personalisation across multiple consumer facing touch points for retailers, with clients including Not on the High Street, Hobbs, M&S and John Lewis.

Threepipe won the account following a competitive pitch.

Harriet Fletcher, EMEA director of marketing at RichRelevance, said: “Threepipe offered us something unique in that many of their team are working with our product already on behalf of their own retail clients. This in depth knowledge combined with their retail media experience was key to them coming on board.”

Jim Hawker, co-founder at Threepipe, added: “We are delighted to be working with one of the most exciting retail technology platforms out there and looking forward to helping them secure more world class customers.”

Pelican makes brace of journalist hires

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Communications and marketing agency Pelican Communications has hired Trinity Mirror’s Jessica Beckett and former Blackpool Gazette senior reporter Joe Robinson.

Beckett has worked in senior roles within the Manchester Evening News group of titles for some seven years. At Pelican, she will work across a number of food, foodservice and logistics accounts, managing a small team of consultants.

Robinson was most recently a communications manager for Blackpool Council and has served in parliamentary comms. His journalism experience includes time at BBC Radio 4 as well as The Gazette in Blackpool. He will work across a number of food, packaging and environmental accounts.

Both will drive the business and will play a role in winning new accounts and assisting junior team members.

Pelican MD, Michael Bennett, said: “Its great news for Pelican to have secured two of the region’s leading communications professionals. They both understand our key food, foodservice, packaging, environment and outdoor markets and have vast experience in both journalism and communications.

“In their short time with us so far they have hit the ground running and are already making good progress and serving our clients with distinction. I look forward to seeing them progress and help deliver Pelican’s motto of ‘driving brilliant results’ for our clients.”

Pelican was founded by former newspaper editor Michael Bennett and currently works with the likes of Tate & Lyle, FCC Environment and British Metal Recycling Association.

Citigate Dewe Rogerson

Citigate Dewe Rogerson appoints Darby-Walker

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Citigate Dewe Rogerson has brought in Maria Darby-Walker as senior director within its financial team.

Darby-Walker has some 25 years’ experience in advising board and senior execs on strategic and reputational issues. Her experience includes advising the boards of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Rio Tinto, Iglo/Bird’s Eye and having a key role in the Cadbury defence team against the hostile takeover from Kraft.

She also managed the comms for Outer Mongolia’s biggest mining project, Oyu Tolgoi, and handled comms programmes across Europe, Africa, the Americas and Australia for Cadbury and across Europe for Iglo Group during the horse-meat scandal.

More recently, she has been a non-excutive director at AIM-listed oil and gas firm, Gulf Keystone Petroleum. She is also a Trustee of the charity Hostage UK.

Patrick Donovan, Citigate Dewe Rogerson MD, said: “Maria brings both a wealth of in-house and consultancy experience with her as well as a strong understanding of a breadth of sectors including natural resources, oil and gas, FMCG and financial services amongst others. I am looking forward to working with her.”

Darby-Walker added: “I am proud to be joining Citigate Dewe Rogerson with its impressive credentials for privatisations, IPOs and mergers and acquisitions. Its client list is exceptional and I am very much looking forward to working alongside the CDR team.”

Consilium advises on pharma company IPO

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Consilium Strategic Communications is advising pharma business Shield Therapeutics on its proposed listing on London’s AIM market, following the company’s recent successful raising of £32.5 million.

Shield announced that it had raised the funds on Friday (12 February) from an issue of shares and warrants. It expects to start trading on London’s junior market on 26 February with a market capitalisation of £162m.

The Consilium team, made up of Mary-Jane Elliott, Matthew Neal, Lindsey Neville and Hendrik Thys, will continue to advise Shield on its financial comms and investor relations as a publicly listed company.

Carl Sterritt, founder and CEO of Shield, said: “Consilium provided us with trustworthy tactical advice, an enormous amount of relevant experience and an unparalleled capital markets network. We have enjoyed working with the proactive team and thank them for their contribution to our achievements to date.”

Elliott said: “Consilium has worked with Shield Therapeutics since 2010 and are pleased to have played a key role in the Company’s entrance to AIM. Shield is a high quality speciality pharma company with near-term revenue potential and a major market opportunity, addressing an unmet need for patients.”

The Cult directors open Virtual Reality agency

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Charli Morgan and Matt Glass, directors of London PR agency The Cult PR have launched a new virtual reality company, Cultural Reality Co., to offer consultancy to journalists, media, PR and marketing businesses.The Cult PR

They are opening the doors on the new company now to anticipate Spring consumer launch of virtual reality headset Oculus Rift, which they believe will cause an “explosion in the market”.

According to the founders, Cultural Reality Co. will primarily work within the media industry to help journalists, as well as PR and marketing companies use virtual reality within their fields.

It will be based at The Cult PR’s London Bridge offices. The team has already forged a partnership with virtual reality production studio Infinite360. A second studio partnership, based in New York, is expected to be announced soon.

Glass said: “We wanted to wait until we had the right partners in place to ensure that we are capable of being at the forefront of this technology. Virtual reality and 360 degree videos are a huge, emerging market and we’ve been really excited about their use in the world of PR, marketing and journalism.”

He added: “Perhaps the most incredible thing is that we’re entering a market that is still in its infancy. People are starting to look into this technology but we’re all – including the production houses that create the content – still discovering new ways it can be used and seeing how far they can push the medium.

Morgan said: “When Oculus hits the shops in spring this year, there’s going to be an explosion in the market, with millions of people searching for videos to use on their new headsets.

“Brands who create that content now are going to benefit from these new customers who are hungry to explore the VR world. This is a chance to put your brand in front of those tech-savvy new customers and be at the forefront of a new platform. We are perfectly placed to work with journalists, newspapers, brands and celebrities to help them tell their stories in an incredible, immersive and ground breaking way.”

Bench hands UK brief to Coffin on Cake PR

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Coffin on Cake PR has been appointed by global fashion brand Bench to handle its UK comms activity.

Founded in the UK in 1989, Bench is represented in 34 countries in Europe and North America, offering “performance and streetwear inspired apparel” for men and women.

Coffin on Cake has been briefed to support the global development of the Bench brand through traditional PR, collaborative talent work, events and seasonal press days.

Activity will focus on building upon the label’s origins. The agency plans to position Bench products in both mainstream fashion and streetwear titles, as well as engage with social media influencers.

Coffin on Cake will also handle PR activations with Grammy award-winning British singer songwriter Jess Glynne, who is an ambassador for the brand, as they launch the ‘Jess Glynne x Bench’ capsule collection this year.

Dean Bennett, Coffin on Cake PR director,  said: “Bench was one the UK’s most iconic brands of the 90s, and has been a great British export. Born from the much loved ‘89 ‘Madchester’ music scene, this go-to streetwear brand has a nostalgia appeal ingrained in its DNA that with strategic development appeals to a whole new audience. We’re excited to get moving with this campaign and work alongside this fantastic brand and its marketing assets.”

Lexis names heads of digital and social media

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Lexis has enhanced its digital team with four new hires, including Microsoft’s Virginie Luce as head of digital and Cheil’s Geoff Desreumaux as head of social media.

Luce has a strong client background in tech and lifestyle. Most recently, she led global marketing campaigns for Skype at Microsoft. She has also held senior international marketing roles at Vodafone, TomTom and Philips Healthcare and Consumer Lifestyle.

Desreumaux replaces Tessa Barrera as head of social media, who has left Lexis to move to an, as yet undisclosed, in-house social media role.

Desreumaux was previously a senior social media strategist at Cheil, where he primarily worked on Samsung. He has also delivered campaigns at a variety of agencies including Impero and Lowe & Partners. He also founded and edits social media blog We Are Social Media.

Lily Tomala has also joined the agency as an account director from STA Travel, where she was social and earned media manager. Kuku Sobodu has also been appointed as an account executive. She was previously at Hill+Knowlton Strategies, where she worked in its Consumer Packaged Goods team.

Dominic Shales, MD at Lexis, said: “Our new additions will add significant digital capability and skills to an already strong social media team. Though social media continues to be a pre-requisite for the majority of our earned media campaigns, we see real opportunity in further extending our capabilities beyond social to wider and complementary digital services.”

Lexis’ clients currently include Pizza Hut, Harley-Davidson, Tefal, Coca-Cola and Chivas Regal.

Pictured left to right: Virginie Luce, Kuku Subodu, Lily Tomala and Geoff Desreumaux.

Hume Brophy’s public affairs unit hires Martin

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Independent international comms consultancy Hume Brophy has hired The Communication Group’s Chris Martin as a director in its UK public affairs division.

Martin has some ten years’ consultancy experience and joins Hume Brophy after four years as a group board director and head of public affairs at The Communication Group. He previously worked for ASDA Walmart as a senior comms manager and spent three years at Bell Pottinger.

He has particular experience in infrastructure, property and planning, which complements HB’s current experience in retail, food and drink, energy and transport, and “presents significant opportunity for new business growth in these areas.”

Robert Condon, managing director of UK public affairs, said: “Chris is an exceptional public affairs consultant whose knowledge and experience will add great value to our client work – we are delighted to appoint such a senior practitioner to the Hume Brophy team in London. Having grown our UK public affairs practice by almost 50% during an election year, Chris will counsel current Hume Brophy clients and will bring us into new sectors during an exciting time in public affairs, and for our firm.”

Martin will join Hume Brophy next month, and said: “Clients increasingly require integrated communications campaigns which combine public affairs, PR and investor relations, and Hume Brophy’s ability to seamlessly deliver this across several markets makes it stand-out.”

Martin’s appointment follows Hume Brophy’s recent hire of former UK Employment Minister, Rt Hon Esther McVey, and Roudie Shafie, a principal advisor to Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.

Crosby Textor hires ex Independent editor Blackhurst

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Chris Blackhurst, a former editor of The Independent, is to join election strategist Lynton Crosby’s political consultancy Crosby Textor Fullbrook (CTF) full-time as a senior executive.

Blackhurst still has a writing contract withChris Blackhurst The Independent and is in the process of completing his final column for the paper before joining CTF.

His move to join the firm, Blackhurst said, is not connected to the national’s announcement last week that it is becoming a digital-only title.

Blackhurst explained: “I’m fascinated by the work that they do. I think I can make a good contribution. I have been in media for a long time. The high level strategic advice they offer to clients appealed to me.”

Crosby is best known as the election strategist behind the 2015 General Election victory for David Cameron’s Conservative Party and Boris Johnson’s London mayoral victory in 2008.

Take part in AMEC’s global comms trends study

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Comms professionals are urged to take part in a survey to identify emerging trends in the industry by AMEC, which has partnered with leading PR associations, including the University of Southern California’s Centre for PR, to produce a new Global Communications Report.

The study will build on the USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations’ long-running GAP (Generally Accepted Practices Study) of corporate communications planning.

– Take part in the survey here.

Other survey partners include the Holmes Report, the Institute for Public Relations, the Global Alliance for Public Relations & Communications, the PR Council, the Worldcom PR Group and the PRSA.

Fred Cook, Golin CEO and director of the USC Centre for PR, has called this the “most comprehensive global study of our profession” and encourages comms professionals to take part, which you can do here, the last day to participate is 26 February and the report will be made available in April.