Colliers International appoints new UK PR manager

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Commercial real estate company Colliers International has hired Hannah Zitren as UK PR manager.

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Hannah Zitren

Zitren, who previously worked at Ash Communications, will focus on media relations, and will work across a range of Colliers’ UK & Pan-EMEA business lines, advising on communications strategy.

Charlotte Williams, director of PR and communications for UK/EMEA, said: “PR and communications are an important part of Colliers International’s content strategy as we continue to strive to increase our share of voice within the property sector. Coming from an agency background, Hannah has a broad understanding of the PR landscape and brings another dynamic to our already talented and ambitious in-house team.”

Zitren’s experience has largely been in the property sector, and she has worked with UK and global clients encompassing B2C and B2B.

Earlier this year, Colliers hired Otis Sakyi as a PR executive, and Helen O’Reilly as a comms and marketing manager in its Dublin office.

APS Financial hires Launch PR

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Digital banking services provider APS financial, the trading name of Advanced Payment Solutions Ltd. (APS), has appointed Launch PR to raise its profile in the UK’s SME and freelance communities.

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Johnny Pitt

The Launch PR team, led by director Niki Wheeler, will run a six-month integrated activation programme for APS Financial, and will report to marketing director Najlaa Taqi-Eddin.

Taqi-Eddin said: “We work in a fast moving and innovative area of finance and saw in Launch PR’s thinking exactly the kind of big buzz campaigning we’ve been looking for”.

Johnny Pitt, Launch PR founder, added: “The APS financial story is stunning – From zero to SME hero in a decade, they’re on a continued massive upwards trajectory. We love working with both big brands and entrepreneurial ones at Launch, so this is a great fit.”

Coffee brand The New Black appoints Redleaf

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Coffee brand The New Black has appointed Redleaf Communications to manage its UK launch and raise awareness.

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The New Black coffee bar

Redleaf Communication’s senior account manager Rishi Banerjee and account manager Helena Shadbolt will manage the account.

Banerjee said: “The New Black is a unique coffee experience designed to bring the best artisan coffee from the world’s most renowned coffee roasters to city corporates with a penchant for fine coffee. We are working with Phoa Kia Boon and his team to help build its profile through a targeted media campaign.”

The New Black coffee bars serve speciality coffee from renowned roasters around the world. The company was first launched in Singapore by Malaysian-born British entrepreneur Phoa Kia Boon.

Opinion: Did Trump create the perfect PR campaign?

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Back in July, Lord Sugar’s former publicist, David Fraser, said Trump’s campaign for the US presidency was arguably one of the greatest PR campaigns in recent years. Fraser, who is now MD of PR and SEO agency Ready10, said that when it came to communications, Trump’s campaign was “poetry in motion”. What do you think?

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Donald Trump in congress with the media

22 JULY 2016: OK, first up let’s not get bogged down in the credibility or otherwise of him as President – you will have your opinion and I will have mine. That’s for a different piece (for the record, he’s not my cup of tea/can of soda). But in terms of an effective communications campaign, I think “Donald Trump” is poetry in motion. Here’s why:

Consistency of Message

If you’re British, you won’t be able to vote in November, but I’ll bet that you still know his key campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again” (which Trump apparently applied to trademark as early as 2012). You’ll also likely be familiar with his proclamations that the US is “going to win” and also his key policy pledge to build a wall on the Mexican border. You don’t know this by accident, it’s because Trump repeats, and repeats, and repeats his key messages in every speech and every interview, on his website and on his social media platforms.

He hammers the message home with unparalleled discipline, never deviating, until it’s burned in your consciousness. Can anyone tell me Hillary’s campaign slogan? Thought not.

The use of simple language

A recent analysis of the discourse of the two presidential candidates showed that Trump speaks in language that is approximately 4th grade level (primary school), while Hillary’s is around 8th grade. The same study showed that in a typical 220 word answer Trump gave, 172 of his words had just one syllable. It’s easy to be snooty about this, but it’s to Trump’s credit – he makes his argument simple for his audience, speaking in terms and language they can engage with. As a result he has cut-through (with Republican members, so far).

He has a nose for news

Trump’s campaign has been a steady stream of moments where he has formed the narrative by saying something that generates reams of discussion and column inches – his controversial proclamations about Muslims entering the US and walls with Mexico are the obvious ones but there are others. Many others.

The king of earned media

Trump has spent less money on his campaign than any candidate in recent history. In February alone, he ‘only’ spent $10 million on media whilst his then-opponent Jeb Bush spent $82 million. Why? Because Trump creates and generates enough stories of his own to earn media and for the news networks to do his own free advertising. As he says himself, “a lot of the programmes are 100% Trump, so why do you need more Trump during the commercial breaks?”

He is brilliant at social media

In this day and age there isn’t going to be a political candidate who isn’t on social media, but there’s a difference between being present and being engaging. Trump is the latter, generating honest, genuine and shareable content via a plethora of outlets including Facebook, Instagram, Periscope and Twitter. Like him or loathe him, you cannot deny he is authentic.

We don’t know whether Trump can convince the wider American electorate of his credentials. Can he go that last step? Three years ago not many would have bet that this businessman/reality star would be anywhere near the ticket this November.

The fact that he is comes in no small way down to what is, arguably, a perfectly executed PR campaign. I certainly wouldn’t bet against him.

  • The original version of this article was published on 22 July 2016
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David Fraser

 

David Fraser is MD of Ready10, a London-based PR and SEO agency that launched in June. Before Ready10, Fraser spent 12 years at Frank and was named deputy MD in 2013. While there, he spent 10 years as the personal publicist to Lord Sugar, alongside Frank MD Andrew Bloch. 

W offers job to creator of fake John Lewis Christmas ad

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Nick Jablonka, the 18-year-old A-Level student whose online Christmas video made thousands of internet users believe it was this year’s official John Lewis Christmas advert, has been offered a newly-created role by W Communications on its digital and social team.

Jablonka created the video, entitled ‘The Snowglobe’,  as part of his media coursework back in June (when he was aged 17 at the time), and it has since clocked up nearly 800,000 views.

Following the mass of interest in the video, W tweeted Jablonka on Monday (7 November) saying they were keen to talk to him about a role at W “for when your exams are over”.

Sophie Raine, director at W, has since spoken to Jablonka about the offer, who said the last 24 hours has been “absolutely crazy,” and he is due to visit W’s offices later this week to discuss the role, which W has said would focus on “creating content for household brands”.

Raine said: “Advertising agencies are paid billions by brands to try and replicate exactly what Nick, aged 18, has managed to do with his fake John Lewis ad. Nick’s work captured our attention – we were all inspired by his ingenuity and creativity, especially given his age.

“It was a no brainer to create a bespoke role for him within our digital content team, offering him the chance to create content and emotive stories for huge household brands.”

She continued: “Nick was both excited and overwhelmed by our proposition and we are arranging a meeting for later in the week to flesh out his package and what the role will involve.”

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Sauce Communications appoints Sarah Canet to international director role

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Spoon PR founder Sarah Canet has joined lifestyle comms agency Sauce Communications to build its international division and brought four new clients onto its books.

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Sarah Canet

Canet, who has more than 20 years’ experience, brings three of her long-standing clients to Sauce: Italian restaurateur and chef Massimo Bottura from Osteria Francescana, Swedish chef Niklas Ekstedt from Ekstedt in Stockholm and Seattle chef and polymath Nathan Myhrvold and his modernist cuisine series of books.

She also brings with her a recent signing, chef Ben Shewry from Attica in Melbourne.

They join global restaurateur Jason Atherton, D&D London, Thomson & Scott Skinny Champagne and Prosecco, and Relais & Chateaux as Sauce clients.

In her new role, Canet will report to Sauce co-founders Nicky Hancock and Jo Barnes.

Hancock said: “Sarah brings a wealth of experience and clients with her to Sauce at a very exciting time as we build our International division.”

Canet said: “I have always admired the results that Sauce Communications achieve and so I am excited to be joining them.”

Clarity PR wins Captify

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Clarity PR, which specialises in working with fast-growing tech businesses, has won the account for London search intelligence company Captify.

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Captify co-founders, Dominic Joseph (left) and Adam Ludwin

Clarity’s team has been briefed to raise Captify’s profile, and will work alongside its marketing team to execute a programme in Europe and North America. The strategy will involve media relations, content marketing activities and event management.

Founded in 2011, Captify has worked with major brands such as BMW, Nike and M&S. It specialises in search intelligence and uses semantic technology to analyse 15bn monthly searches to interpret the intent and interests of over a billion users to power advertising campaigns.

Dominic Joseph, co-founder and CEO at Captify, said: “Having opened an office in New York earlier in the year, we’re at a pivotal and exciting stage of the company’s growth. We really wanted an agency who knew our business and had a sound understanding of the market. Clarity’s team have both the experience and energy to support our ambitious expansion plans.”

Sara Collinge, UK MD at Clarity PR, added: “Captify is experiencing an exciting period of growth with cutting-edge products that are already a pivotal part in the evolution of search intelligence that powers brand, video and mobile. We’re delighted to have the opportunity to design a communications programme that will capitalise on Captify’s market-leading offering to create a standout position for the organisation with its key audiences.”

Taylor Herring promotes UK’s “fastest growing” children’s magazine

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The Week Junior, which claims to be the UK’s fastest growing children’s subscription magazine, has hired creative PR agency Taylor Herring to promote the brand in its debut year.

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The Week Junior

The Week Junior is aimed at “curious and smart” 8-14-year-olds, who “want to make sense of the world around them”.

Content includes information on topics including the latest news, nature, science, geography and film, all explained from a child’s perspective, and encourages them to form and share their own ideas and opinions.

Launched by Dennis Publishing in November 2015, it reached 10000 subscribers in its first three months, and over 25000 in under a year, making it the fastest growing subscriptions magazine in the publisher’s history.

Taylor Herring will create a campaign to highlight Britain’s ‘Knowledge Gap’ on current affairs and will see the promotion of short form video content fronted by children explaining complex news topics including the Middle East, the devaluation of Sterling and the Grammar Schools debate.

The account will be led by Taylor Herring’s managing partner, James Herring, and account director, Katie Fox, who will report to The Week Junior’s editor, Anna Bassi, and Dennis Publishing’s PR and comms director, Jerina Hardy.

Bassi said: “The Week Junior has had an incredible year; subscriptions have surpassed our expectations and the sheer appetite for the publication is massive. We’re looking forward to an even better year in 2017 with the help of Taylor Herring.”

Herring added: “Working on content for a generation that have grown up with unlimited access to information will be extremely challenging, but a load of fun!”

FTI expands strategic comms practice in London

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FTI Consulting has expanded its strategic communications segment in London with the addition of 15 people from HR and learning development firm JSB.

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Leslie Benson

These professionals will lead FTI’s employee engagement and change communications practice, led by Leslie Benson, its new senior MD in strategic communications.

Benson, JSB CEO and global head of the employee engagement and change communications practice, said: “Our team has worked with FTI Consulting for ten years, and we share an understanding of the important role that people and organisational development plays in the successful execution of business strategy. Our expanded practice will partner with heads of communications, human resources and the C-suite to drive business results by enabling people to perform to their full potential at work.”

Edward Reilly, global chief executive officer of the strategic communications segment at FTI, added: “Whether in the course of normal business operations or during moments of change, challenge or opportunity, such as mergers, corporate restructurings or crises, senior corporate leaders are increasingly focused on ensuring their employees’ actions are aligned with their business objectives. The addition of this team means we can offer our clients a comprehensive range of employee engagement and change communications services delivered seamlessly across the globe.”

FTI Consulting recently expanded upon its London health and life sciences practice with senior hires.

The Pool calls in Exposure

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The Pool, the multi-media platform for women “too busy to browse” launched by magazine editor and author Sam Baker and broadcaster Lauren Laverne in 2015, has appointed network comms group Exposure to build its profile and work on a series of consumer and corporate events.

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Lauren Laverne

Launched to “champion female voices”, The Pool covers everything from daily news, to fashion, food and film, work, books, health and beauty. It also works with a group of brand partners to create unique content.

Exposure has been briefed to build greater awareness of The Pool’s commercial content opportunities, and place the brand at the forefront of women’s issues, including health, politics, economics and technology.

The kick–off event, which took place yesterday, saw Exposure play host to an all-female roundtable held at its central London offices. The event, hosted by Lauren Laverne (pictured), led with the topic: The World, As Run by Women.

Jo Morrell, CCO at The Pool, said: “We have grown organically to establish our unique proposition in the media landscape, and already worked successfully in partnership with some vibrant and progressive international brands such as Michael Kors, Clinique, Starbucks and Pinterest. We have now hired Exposure to help build our brand profile and communicate to a wider audience.”

Heather Ogie, CCO at Exposure, added: “The Pool has created a clever and vibrant way to communicate to an online audience, which Exposure really admires. We’re very excited to partner with such a like-minded business, who use bravery as well as brains to create new ways to communicate.”

  • Last month, Sam Baker talked to Gorkana about how The Pool was going from strength to strength a year after launching, which content is working best and what PRs can do to get involved. Click here to read the exclusive interview.