The Gorkana Weekly Industry News Brief: 27 February to 4 March 2016
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
Mattessons
Lidl appointed W as its UK PR agency as the supermarket looks to increase the brand’s engagement with ‘aspirational’ shoppers in the UK.
Morrisons, the UK’s fourth largest supermarket chain, chose Cirkle as its product PR agency as part of a planned review of its marketing agencies.
Frank was appointed by Kerry Foods-owned Mattessons to promote the brand’s new ‘Snackarchist’ advertising campaign, created by Saatchi & Saatchi.
Revolution Sports + Entertainment was chosen to provide a consumer and lifestyle PR campaign for the Silverstone Classic, the world’s biggest classic motor racing festival.
Hired, a tech recruitment specialist headquartered in San Francisco, has brought in Harvard as it looks to boost its UK profile following a competitive pitch process.
Mercia Technologies, a business which invests in “disruptive” tech companies such as virtual reality enterprise nDreams, has hired Buchanan as its retained financial PR and business comms adviser.
Wild Card was appointed to handle the public relations for The Big Lunch, the UK’s annual get-together for neighbours – an idea from the Eden Project made possible by the Big Lottery Fund.
People News
Bilsborough
Creative comms group Beattie recruited the former PR chief from Mondelez International and Cadbury, Tony Bilsborough, to head up its team in Birmingham.
CNC appointed Tulchan’s Tom Buchanan as joint managing partner. He will work alongside the comms firm’s Richard Campbell and Roland Klein.
London Luton Airport appointed BBC correspondent Neil Bradford as stakeholder comms manager, as the airport embarks on a £110 million redevelopment.
Citigate Dewe Rogerson appointed CNC’s James Madsen as associate director in its corporate team.
Ogilvy PR London enhanced its social and content offer with the appointment of Edelman UK’s Chris Wall as head of content.
News Analysis
The New Day
The launch of media titles is high on the mind of PR and comms professionals this week as Trinity Mirror debuted its national newspaper The New Day with a £5m advertising push. Three comms experts tell Gorkana which key PR rules remain important when pitching to journalists working on launches and new titles.
Fairtrade Fortnight cuts through with a simple message
Launched in 1997 by the Fairtrade Foundation, Fairtrade Fortnight is at the heart of the brand’s mission to promote fair pay for farmers in the Third World and it explains to Gorkana how it is using a simple message to make the most of a mix of channels to stand-out in an overcrowded market.
Features
Ella Eyre
When KINC was approached by England Rugby last year to create social media excitement around the Rugby World Cup, the agency teamed up with Brit Award winning artist Ella Eyre to create a new rendition of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”. The results? Six million online film views, the song reaching number two on iTunes video charts and a 40% increase of England Rugby’s page likes.
Behind the Headlines with MB Communications’ Maria Boyle
Maria Boyle, founder and director of MB Communications, on gaining a sixth sense for what will and won’t work, why PRs shouldn’t hide behind emails and get on the phone, and why she’s keen to mentor more business women.
60 seconds with Claire Maugham, Smart Energy GB
Claire Maugham, director of policy and communications at Smart Energy GB, on effecting national behaviour change around the government’s complete rollout of smart meters by 2020, how to avoid “24/7 workaholism” and how she persuaded the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to play instruments made from old energy meters.
Awards
Hope&Glory, MHP, Dynamo and Capella were among the winners for this year’s PR Moment Awards.
Journalist News
The New Day’s editorial team has been revealed as it launched this week. Alison Phillips leads the team as editor and Dawn Alford is deputy editor.
Peter Campbell was appointed Motor Industry Reporter at the Financial Times. Prior to this he was the FT’s early companies and technology reporter.
Lawrence White has relocated to London from Reuters in Hong Kong, where he was Asia investment banking correspondent.
Simon Jack has now started in his new role as business editor at BBC News, leaving his former role as business and economic correspondent on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Jamie Ross is now Scotland Correspondent at Buzzfeed UK, leaving his former role as political reporter at Buzzfeed.
