Zeno Group buys 3 Monkeys

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Zeno Group, sister agency of Edelman, has acquired 3 Monkeys Communications for an undisclosed figure.

In the UK, the newly-combined agency will be known as 3 Monkeys | Zeno, with a team of around 75 people. Zeno’s UK team will move into 3 Monkeys office in Soho, London.

3 Monkeys founder Angie Moxham will lead Zeno Europe, while the agency’s MD, Christine Jewell, becomes  MD of 3 Monkeys | Zeno, with a brief to run day-to-day UK operations.

Steve Earl will work with both Moxham and Jewell as MD of Zeno Europe.

Founded in 2003 by “chief monkey” Angie Moxham, 3 Monkeys provides work across consumer, corporate and B2B comms for a range of sectors including healthcare, financial services, FMCG and technology, with campaigns for brands including Anheuser-Busch, Castrol, Lenovo, Microsoft, Morrisons, Standard Life, Starbucks, TGI Fridays and United Biscuits.

Part of Daniel J Edelman (DJE) Holdings, Zeno expanded globally in 2012 with the UK as its European hub. Zeno Asia also launched in 2012. Globally, the agency represents brands and organisations including Bausch + Lomb, CA Technologies, Intel, Merck, Netflix and Quaker.

Moxham said: “This is massive news for us. The board and I believe it’s the best next chapter for the company, all us Monkeys and for our clients. We have been looking at how we globalise 3 Monkeys for a few years now, in response to client demand, including us going on the acquisition trail.

“No route, however, could come close to the capabilities and bandwidth we gain on day one by joining forces with Zeno. We can now support current and future clients with our special monkey magic around the world, with people who think and behave in the same way as us. Importantly, we also remain independent.”

Richard Edelman, chairman of DJE Holdings, said: “We have grown Zeno from a small sister agency in the US to a global, highly respected mid-sized firm, approaching 400 people and nearly $60 million in annual revenues.

“Around a third of Zeno’s revenue is now derived from outside the US. This combination with the additional brilliance of 3 Monkeys accelerates the global expansion of Zeno, which is already delivering game-changing, award-winning work for clients. Bottom line: these are two companies that were meant to be together.”

Barby K. Siegel, CEO of Zeno Group, said: “The acquisition of 3 Monkeys is a major step forward for Zeno as we continue to realise our global ambitions. We are scaling our unique Zeno brand and values so that we can serve clients where they need us, regionally and globally.

“We are big enough to take on the most challenging and complex assignments in the Americas, Asia and Europe, while still giving that personalised, senior-level attention and highly-collaborative approach that clients rely on.”

Pictured left to right: Angie Moxham, Richard Edelman and Barby K. Siegel

Sir Ray Tindle positive on local prospects

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Sir Ray Tindle is the biggest champion and defender of the UK’s local press. Over a 68-year career he has built up his media empire Tindle Newspapers to become one of the biggest UK publishers in the UK. While commentators note the continuing decline of the industry, the 89-year old remains evangelical about the local press’ ability to both adapt and remain relevant in the digital age, writes Gorkana’s Ronan George.

Sir Ray, who was knighted in 1994 for services to the newspaper industry, launched his career at the end of the Second World War with £300 – the demob money he was given as he left the army. His first paper was the Tooting & Balham Gazette in South London, which he bought when it had a circulation of 700. Since then, Tindle Newspapers has gone on to build up a stable of titles across the UK with a total audited weekly circulation of over 1.4 million and a £50m annual turnover.

This month, Sir Ray hit the headlines with the announcement that he is giving ownership of several of his titles in London and Dorset to three of Tindle’s executives. However, any suggestion that he might now take a back seat is given short shrift by the man himself: “Retire?! I’m never going to retire. I can’t do that. It’s a lovely life.”

Sir Ray spoke to Gorkana about his unstinting belief in the local press, his approach and his prediction for the future of the sector ahead of his annual address, next week, to Tindle Newspapers’ employees in Taunton.

Belief

“A lot has been said about the local press in recent months which just isn’t the case,” Tindle maintains. “It’s been said that, ‘the last four months have been brutal for what remains of Britain’s local press, (and) that local papers’ primary task is to manage decline’. I am 100 per cent against both those statements.”

Approach

The journalistic strengths of good regional reporting endure, he believes. “I used to say all the time – ‘names, faces, places’ – that’s what we’re going for. For example, a (local) bazaar, you can’t see that covered on the internet or in a daily paper. We tell you who manned the stall, what they sold last time, what they sold this time. We have a picture with the local vicar or good ladies. We give details. Whilst we go on doing that, there will be no competition.”

The Future

Tindle’s confidence in the future of the industry is firm: “The local press has been going for 200 to 300 years. I am totally confident we will be here in (another) 100 years, and I’ll have a 10p bet I’ll be here too.”

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Sir Ray Tindle – key facts and landmarks: 

  • Born in October 1926.
  • Served in the Devonshire Regiment in the Far East during the Second World War.
  • Bought the Tooting & Balham Gazette with his demob money, before going on to buy over 200 local newspapers including the South London Press, Yellow Advertiser Series and  Enfield Gazette, through his Tindle Newspapers company.
  • In 1972 moved into local radio with Guernsey’s Island FM, Channel 103 FM in Jersey and Midlands 103 in Ireland.
  • Announces in January 2016 the sale of several of his titles in London and Dorset to three Tindle executives.

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Jacamo briefs M&C Saatchi PR

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M&C Saatchi PR has been appointed by Jacamo, the online menswear brand, to support Jacamo with both brand and product PR.

The e-tailer wants to be seen as a fashion destination for modern men and M&C Saatchi will work closely with the brand ambassador and ex-cricketer Andrew Flintoff to deliver content for both digital and traditional media.

M & C Saatchi will report to Ed Watson, director of communications at Jacamo, and senior press officer, Jenni Bamford.

Chris Hides, UK MD at M&C Saatchi PR, said: “Jacamo is a really great win for us, it is a no-nonsense, irreverent brand that is not afraid to do things differently. We have been tasked to deliver a campaign designed at creatively targeting real men. The brief plays to the strengths of the agency showcasing our capabilities not only in traditional media relations but also on experiential and digital campaigns.”

M&C Saatchi PR has worked with a range of clients to build brand awareness through consumer platforms including Red Bull Studios Future Underground and The House of Peroni.

The appointment comes at a time when Jacamo, part of the fashion retailer N Brown Group PLC, has announced double digit year-on-year growth.

Gaming Realms brings in Yellow Jersey

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Gaming Realms, the creator and publisher of real money and social gambling games for mobile, tablet and desktop computers, has appointed Yellow Jersey as its financial PR adviser.

The company recently reported it had doubled 2015 revenues to £21.4m for the year ending on 31 December in a trading updated. This is up 116% on 2014’s £11.2m.

It also announced that it had signed agreements with the media companies behind X Factor and Deal Or No Deal, and a licensing deal with social games developer Zynga, involving its flagship slot game, Slingo.

Yellow Jersey’s Charles Goodwin is leading the brief.

He said: “Gaming Realms is making great strides in building its own niche in the mobile gaming space, benefiting from its proprietary platform and innovative gaming content.

“The team is excited to be working with Gaming Realms’ senior management and helping it with the task of communicating the corporate story to new investor and media audiences.”

Hume Brophy wins trading data co account

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CoalFace Capital, the newly launched trading data company that financially rewards traders for their activity and performance, has hired Hume Brophy to manage its media launch campaign.

This “virtual hedge fund“, which launched in October last year, allows independent investors to track the best-performing trades, in turn rewarding high-performing traders for their activity.

Roddi Vaughan-Thomas, Ed Jenkins and Marion Banide manage the Hume Brophy team.

Vaughan-Thomas, financial services MD at Hume Brophy, said: “We are enjoying working with such an innovative and exciting business as CoalFace Capital. Declan and his team have a deep understanding of the trading community and have created an interesting and clever business to benefit traders and investors alike.”

Declan McEvoy (pictured), CEO CoalFace Capital, added:  “In appointing Hume Brophy, we were impressed by their ability to apply strategic thinking and specialist knowledge to promoting our business to the media and trading community.

“CoalFace is conceived and designed with traders’ interests at heart and the team at Hume Brophy rapidly demonstrated an understanding of what we are trying to achieve.  Their advice has already made material benefits to our business.”

The Gym Group hires Instinctif to boost profile

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The Gym Group, the low cost gym operator, has appointed Instinctif Partners as its retained business comms adviser, following a competitive pitch process.

Instinctif takes responsibility for growing awareness of the “affordable gym” model to investors, sellside analysts and the media. It will also raise the company’s profile with all key stakeholders.

Managing partners Matthew Smallwood and Justine Warren lead the Instinctif team, with support from consultant Antonia Pollock.

Smallwood said: “We are delighted to be working with The Gym Group management team once again, having advised them previously when they were a private company in 2012/13.

“The Gym Group are pioneers of the low cost model and have made a terrific success of their business enabling them to float last year. We look forward to advising them and being part of their future success.”

Former England squash player John Treharne founded the business in 2008. It listed on the London Stock Exchange last year with a valuation of some £250m, with FTI Consulting providing comms support.

Treharne added: “Instinctif has a strong track record in the leisure space and understands the health and fitness business segment and our model, in particular. They presented a coherent plan for communicating our story to the financial markets and we look forward to working with them.”

Facebook’s results: 3 takeaways for PRs

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Facebook reported its financial results for the quarter ending on December 31 2015 yesterday (January 27), highlighting its wide user base, with more than a billion monthly active users worldwide, its “strong quarter” and its plans for future projects.

While this has given the wider media industry something to talk about, as the network reported a total $5.8 billion in revenue primarily based on advertising, there are a handful of key points that earned media can take from the social network’s announcements.

Here are three key points from Facebook’s results and industry reaction to them:

Facebook is king in user engagement

The social network had 1.59 billion monthly active users at the end of last year. This is substantially larger than its peers, according to measurement platform Statista. It estimates that Twitter had 307 million monthly active users for the same quarter and reports that Tumblr had 555 million.

Speaking during Facebook’s earnings call, David Wehner, its chief financial officer, said: “In December, 1.04 billion people used Facebook on an average day, an increase of 17% compared to last year. This daily number represented 65% of the 1.59 billion people who visited Facebook during the month of December.”

The ‘like’ button is growing in capability

Prior to the network’s results, Bloomberg also revealed Facebook’s intention to expand its ‘like’ feature – the ‘thumbs up’ button that lets users (and PRs) decipher the value of their posts on the platform.

The new button is often referred to as ‘Reactions’ as it looks to let users express emotions such as ‘love’ or ‘anger’.

March Muhlenbach, CMO of Flapit- the social media service, said: “Facebook is launching Reactions to design an experience around feelings, comments and reactions that are elegant and fun, a way to give positive feedback and connect with things you care about. It also provides another way to engage and sustain its 1.04bn daily active users.”

Facebook is bringing VR to the masses

Like social media before it, virtual reality is set to have a big impact on the PR industry by providing new ways to pitch and to communicate information to consumers. Facebook is one of the first to provide these tools for mass consumption and the PRs need to keep an eye on what this will mean for the industry.

Speaking at the conference call, Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder and CEO at Facebook, said: “This Oculus launch is shaping up to be a big moment for the gaming community. But over the long-term, VR has the potential to change the way that we live, work and communicate as well. The launch is an important step towards the future, and we’re really looking forward to seeing how people use it.”

Gorkana asked Red Hot Penny – a digital PR agency, how it uses Facebook and what it thinks would improve the experience and if Facebook’s new functions will make a change for them.

Ruth Elliott, digital marketing and brand executive at Red Hot Penny, said: “The main social media platform we work with is Twitter, closely followed with Instagram. This is due to both platforms’ popularity with editors and influencers.

“With that said, if one of our target publications shares our content on Facebook, the engagement levels go shooting up and as a digital agency that is our biggest goal,” she continued.

Elliott added there are aspects of the product that Facebook could improve for PR and comms pros. “For a long time now we have been including social media coverage in our reports to clients. Therefore, if Facebook easily displayed the top statistics relating to that coverage without us having to log in would be a huge benefit to us. At the moment we can only show the likes, comments and shares that have been produced following the post.”

Credit: Niall Lea

W wins brief to promote V Festival 2016

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Festival Republic has called in W to handle all comms activity for V Festival 2016. The music festival celebrates its 21st anniversary this year.

The agency’s entertainment division, which won the account following a competitive pitch, has been briefed to manage V Festival’s two-day event across both of its sites in Chelmsford and Staffordshire on the weekend of 20 and 21 August.

Activity will include the management and execution of a series of creative campaigns for V Festival, highlighting the anniversary.

Additionally, W will operate a news generation press room for V, from the first wave of headliner announcements to be revealed next month, through to the festival weekend in August.

The appointment comes alongside the news that W has been reappointed by Festival Republic to handle the PR for the Wireless Festival for the second year in a row. It takes place later this year in London.

Sophie Raine, head of brand at W, told Gorkana: “V and Wireless are two of the biggest events on the summer music calendar and make brilliant additions to our rapidly expanding live event offering. V is one of the most iconic music festivals in the world and its 21st birthday represents a milestone year which we can’t wait to bring to life in our comms. It’s going to be an incredibly busy but breathtakingly exciting summer for all of us at W.”

Melvin Benn, head of Festival Republic, said: “We were really impressed with W’s understanding of V and the team’s exciting ideas on how to drive the festival forward in its 21st year. Coupled with its understanding of the media and the team’s brilliant execution of Wireless 2015, it was a clear choice for us.

“It delivered an inventive strategy that we are confident will help drive ticket sales and engage both media and consumers with the V story. We’re excited to see the results in what we know will be an incredibly exciting 21st year for V Festival.”

Gorkana meets with CNBC International

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CNBC International looks to run stories that move markets and affect people’s everyday lives. This was one of the messages from its editorial team, as Gorkana met up with CNBC International’s news editor, Katrina Bishop, social media editor, Cristy Garratt and managing editor of digital, Phillip Tutt yesterday (27 January).

In front of a large industry audience, the team talked about how daily, CNBC International operates four hours of programming out of London, with three of those dedicated to the flagship Squawk Box Europe show. In addition, CNBC.com offers users 24/7 business and financial news online.

The site also features a new live blog, which provides users live updates throughout the European Trading day and is expanding its reach, according to Tutt. Insight into its audiences, the best time to pitch clients for broadcast and digital platforms and how to work with trending news was shared as well as essential dos and don’ts for PRs.

Some of the key points, images and video footage of the event can be found here.

Beth Cooper PR and The Brandman Agency merge

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US PR firm The Brandman Agency has launched a new UK office by merging with its London-based sister agency Beth Cooper PR, and will be known as Brandman UK.

The Brandman Agency and BCPR have operated as sister agencies for over a decade. Led by MD Elizabeth Morrison (pictured), Brandman UK will operate with the same London team from the BCPR Fulham offices with no physical changes.

Beth Cooper, who founded BCPR in 2000, takes on the role of creative director.

This is the latest office opening for The Brandman Agency, following new offerings in Sydney and Los Angeles. Its headquarters, which was launched by CEO Melanie Brandman in 2001, is based in New York.

Global clients include Fairmont, Raffles, Swissôtel, Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board, Crystal Cruises and La Mamounia.

Brandman said: “The Brandman Agency prides itself on representing the best of the best in the luxury travel space and adding a London office was a natural next step for us.

“Our clients are global in nature and we’re thrilled at the synergistic advantages we’ll be able to offer current and future clients with the new London office. Beth and I have worked together for a long time and I respect and admire what she has created.”

Cooper said: “We are really thrilled by this proposition and opportunity.  To be part of a global network and such a dynamic, growing firm is really exciting for us.  The benefits for both our clients and our team make this collaboration incredibly worthwhile and I cannot wait to work more closely with the US and Australian teams.  I have known Melanie for a long time and we are very good friends.  I cannot think of anyone I would rather do business with.”