Italian independent SEC targets UK corporate affairs market

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SEC, which claims to be the largest independent advocacy, public relations and integrated communications agency in the Italian market, says it is in negotiations with a London corporate and public affairs agency as it aims to raise up to six million Euros with an IPO on the Alternative Investment Market.

The Italian agency which features Nigel Payne, former CEO of Sportingbet plc and David Mathewson, former FD of Playtech plc as non–executive directors and Luigi Roth, a former director of Pirelli as non-executive chairman, plans to expand into new territories and sectors with the funding and build a warchest for acquisitions.

Founded in 1989 by current Chairman Fiorenzo Tagliabue, SEC has operations in Italy, Belgium, Germany and Spain and it supports more than 500 clients in its various operations.

Tagliabue, President and founder of SEC, said: “In the last few years, SEC has experienced important growth in the Italian market, which has been essential in achieving its leading position in the market today. We have undertaken the key process of international growth through acquisitions in Brussels, Spain and Germany.”

He added: “We plan to continue on this path, essential for firms like us, who operate in an inherently global industry. We are in advanced stages of negotiations with a London-based agency with turnover in excess of £3 million, specialising in corporate and public Affairs.”

Cesare Valli, CEO of SEC added: “The decision to list on London’s AIM market is down to two main reasons. The first is to further consolidate the international position of the network in a key market like the UK and the second to enhance our financial strength.”

 

 

Promote PR wins sports event account trio

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Sports and fitness agency Promote PR has been appointed by three clients including British Triathlon, the Windsor Half Marathon and Running4Women.

British Triathlon has appointed the agency to create and manage a communications campaign that builds on awareness and participation around Team GB’s presence at the Rio Olympics this summer. Promote will be responsible for the creative development of the campaign, establishing partnerships and raising profile through traditional and digital media.

Also, the Windsor Half Marathon has appointed Promote to reinforce its positioning in the local community and generate sponsorship.

In addition, the agency’s focus for Running4Women will be to drive more women to compete in the Windsor 10k which takes place in Windsor Great park on 24 September 2016.

Promote will also provide pro bono support for the Duchenne Dash Max and the Women’s Sport Trust.

Sue Anstiss, MD and agency founder at Promote, said: “After 22 years of specialising in this sector we understandably have a very strong reputation for delivering cost effective results for clients. That said, even we have been surprised – and delighted – by the dramatic increase in the demand for our services this year. Encouraging more people to be physically active is clearly as massive priority for the future, and we’re incredibly proud of the impact we are having with work we deliver.”

eBay appoints Porter Novelli to B2B and corporate brief

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eBay has appointed Porter Novelli to a Pan-EMEA brief for B2B and corporate external communications.

The brief includes executive profiling, issues management and a series of campaigns to demonstrate the benefits of the eBay platform to both current, and potential, buyers and sellers.

Porter Novelli will report to Deborah Binks-Moore, Senior Director of Communications EMEA, eBay.

She said: “In a competitive pitch situation, Porter Novelli’s notion of ‘corporate creativity’ stood out but just as important was Porter Novelli’s integrated thinking – across traditional and social media – as well as influencer relations and other channels.”

Steve Loynes, Porter Novelli’s  UK head of technology, will lead the eBay account.

He explained: “Our understanding of the business and its marketplace, as well as the relevant industry issues across Europe, enables us to be extremely creative while staying 100 per cent on strategy. We’re absolutely delighted to be working with eBay, as you’d imagine, with a very innovative programme.”

 

AMEC 2016: Numbers bring the summit to life

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Gorkana has put together an infographic telling the story of last week’s ground-breaking AMEC summit and its impact on social media, following key announcements including the launch of AMEC’s integrated Evaluation Framework.

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Gorkana meets… Jaimie Kaffash, news editor at Pulse

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JULIAN CLAXTON PHOTOGRAPHY 2013

Jaimie Kaffash

Jaimie Kaffash, news editor at Pulse and healthcare specialist Cogora, tells Gorkana about his award-winning team, life working on a public sector trade publication and his drive to source exclusive stories. 

The Pulse news team won ‘Best Section Team – Business’ at this month’s BSME Rising Stars Awards. What is special about the team?
The reporters all understand news, and what makes a great story. They are all experts in their patches, and frequently find out what is happening with GPs before the British Medical Association does, for example.
We also have a great blend in the team. Whether that be sheer tenacity to get a story as if their life depended on it, building watertight, important investigations or finding superb stories from the most mundane of sources, such as board papers or excel spreadsheets.

What makes a great story or piece of content for Pulse?
Exclusives. We aim for around one exclusive a day. But they must also be important for our readers – it’s all very well finding a story no-one else has, but if it is not of interest to our readers, it is pointless.
For me, there are two types of exclusives – there is beating our rivals to get a story before anyone else, which is always a good feeling. This could be pre-empting an NHS England announcement, or being leaked a report that the authorities did not yet want made public.
But by far the best exclusives are stories that would not have come to light were it not for us. These could be investigations, where we have data showing trends – such as the NHS spending money on holiday homes for patients, or commissioners cutting mental health budgets. They could also be a controversial scheme being buried in board papers, such as when we revealed that GPs were being paid to cut the number of urgent cancer referrals they made.

How is the Pulse team set-up? How do you find news stories?
There are three reporters and me in the news team, although we have help from other members of the features and digital team.
We do write on-diary news, and the reporters are well on top of this (most of the time!).
But again, our big stories are exclusives, and there are a number of sources for this. I tend to find that the more mundane the source (ie, long reports, larger spreadsheets, etc), the less likely other journalists are to plough through them.

How did your background in finance journalism prepare you for your role at Pulse?
They are very different roles. In finance, and other private sector publications, your contacts are desperate to get their name publicised and become known as experts in the field to generate more business. They are also happy to give you negative info about rivals! As a result, you can generate exclusives easily from building up contacts and getting involved in the industry gossip.
In public sector trade publications, people are far more hesitant – the motivation to generate business simply doesn’t exist. Indeed, for the public bodies, many stories are negative, and it can become a case of fire-fighting for PRs.
That said, it has really helped me (and our chief reporter, Sofia Lind, who worked for Legal Week) to have experience of both – being able to bring some of this contacts-based journalism into public sector issues.

Jaimie was talking to Gorkana’s Emily Andrews

Top tips for how to PR a music festival

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By Sophie Raine, Director at W Communications

With Glastonbury Festival kicking off this week, music lovers across the UK are preparing themselves for yet another season of muddy fields, loud music and sing-a-longs.

But ‘Festival PR’ isn’t about just showbiz and music coverage, far from it. The way we at W approach our festivals is via an inventive strategy that delivers coverage in all the places you’d expect – and particularly those you wouldn’t.

Here are four top tips to help PRs develop festival campaigns that deliver W’s “through-the paper” impact:

1. Treat festivals as brands
Festivals are more than just standalone events. It’s not just “all about the music” these days; they represent a lifestyle brand that consumers buy in to and want to be a part of. The PR strategy should not only tap into the media’s interest in the festival, but also help to elevate the brand’s social and cultural status via a series of creative and tactical partnership alongside stories that deliver against the “through-the-paper” mindset.

Wireless Festival

2. Be resourceful
PRs can rarely rely on headliner talent. Of course, the campaign will lean on their name, but PRs need to think about on-site offerings they can dial up or create, how to craft interesting heritage angles and what gossip / key information can be seeded out to achieve maximum impact. As festivals generally have limited activation budgets, it’s up to PRs to bring in creative partners that offer additional newsworthy initiatives, like W did with the Wireless X BOOM Cycle partnership last year, to take the festival to new parts of the media and talk to new audiences.

3. Insight
Festival organisers hold incredible insights into consumer buying patterns, behaviour and key touch points, so PRs should tap into this knowledge before commenting the campaign. This will help PRs execute big campaign moments in-line with spikes of consumer interest covering everything from when headliners are announced, to when people buy tickets, to deciding what to wear over the festival weekend. By aligning with these consumer touch-points and the media’s calendar, PRs can tell the story of what makes a festival fan tick – and make sure their festival is at the heart of the story.

4. In-house journalists
Thousands of media apply for accreditation, but we know that only around 50 media hold the power to move the dial for the brand. We created a bespoke role to deploy W’s own ‘in-house journalist’. Their job is to make sure they are liaising with these key media targets from three months before the festival until the week after. Their role is to collate and issue back key interviews, stories, gossip and photos in real-time to ensure there is a bespoke story for everyone who matters.

– Follow Sophie on Twitter.

The 2016 AMEC Summit in social media stats

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London hosted this year’s AMEC Summit which focused on Making Metrics Matter. The event saw hundreds of international delegates and organisations gather to discuss the latest innovations within the media evaluation industry.

The launch of AMEC’s Integrated Measurement Framework and the awards ceremony were key talking points on social media and we have summarised the highlights from the event in the infographic below.

Clarion wins brief with British Turkey Federation

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Madeleine Shaw

Clarion Communications has been appointed by the British Turkey Federation to raise awareness of British turkey products.

The agency will work on a campaign with social media influencer and nutritionist, Madeleine Shaw. Shaw will support the campaign through national news generation, events, recipe creation and social media.

The campaign aims to drive awareness of British turkey by tapping into current health and well-being trends to reach a target of ‘busy mums’ and ‘younger consumers’.

Shelley Wyatt, managing partner at Clarion, said: “This campaign will champion quality British turkey as a great tasting, healthy, lean and versatile meat to ultimately move turkey further up the UK’s culinary agenda.”

Catriona Lee, chair of the British Turkey Federation’s publicity and marketing committee, added: “Clarion developed a solid and insightful strategy and creative in response to our brief. The team have excellent food PR experience and high levels of energy and enthusiasm. We are delighted to have them on board.”

US Ogilvy PR team take gold in Young Lions PR Competition

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Michael DiSalvo and Ben King, account directors at Ogilvy PR’s New York office, have won gold at the 2016 Cannes Young Lions PR Competition.

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Ogilvy PR’s Michael DiSalvo, CEO Stuart Smith and Ben King

Competing against 17 other teams from around the world, DiSalvo and King are the first US team to win gold in the Young Lions PR Competition.

After winning regional competitions and being chosen to represent their nation, each team was then asked to compete at the festival in Cannes, creating a campaign to end retailer food waste on behalf of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The Ogilvy duo created an Extra Ordinary Food campaign aimed at shifting public perception through partnerships with beauty magazines. The predominant message was, ‘good food does not need to always look perfect.’

DiSalvo and King said: “Cannes Young Lions has been an extraordinary experience and it was fantastic to work on a brief around such an important cause. We hope it showed how PR still has the ability to change behaviour and influence outcomes. We have been so grateful for the support we have had from Ogilvy PR, the PR Council and NCM along the way.”

Matt Watson and Paul Stollery from Hotwire, representing the UK in the global competition, won the bronze award. Silver was won by Hungary.

Watson, programme director at Hotwire, said: “We were really proud to represent the UK in this year’s competition. Cannes has been an incredible experience and we’re absolutely delighted to be coming home with bronze!”

The PR Young Lions competition asks for teams of two PRs under the age of 30. On Saturday 18 June, the teams were each given a brief by Nikhil Seth, executive director at United Nations. On the following day the teams had 12 hours to create an effective and creative campaign.