Latest News from the IPRN
Dear colleagues and friends,
It is a great pleasure to say hello to you all via this new Communication Channel. Our e-Newsletter, that we approved in our last Conference in May in Washington, is being led by Sarah McOnie and her team at The McOnie Agency in the UK and they look forward to receiving any content from as many IPRN members as possible.
Since Washington many things have been going on within the IPRN, most of which was discussed at the AGM and Conference such as the website, the change of General Secretary from Jonathan Choat to me and compiling and resuming “what the members want” from the Network. We are progressing in all three areas and I will briefly explain:
- Before developing a new website, we have decided to get the most out of the existing one, by having it updated and learning how to better align it with the discussions we had in Washington and the resume of “What the members Want”. A new website proposal will be presented at the next conference in Bordeaux, in May 2016.
- Most of the paperwork, files, accounting, etc., that were in the hands of Jonathan and Maggi, who resigned as website administrator in June, has been passed to me and a technical team of digital experts that will help us. There are still a few things to finish, such as a new Bank Account in € in Madrid, etc. that we hope to have ready in September. We have been receiving some requests from agencies / freelancers and others to become members of IPRN, but out of seven, I am only progressing with one who seems to be serious enough. At the right time I will inform you if all the due diligence is OK and ask for your final approval, as Jonathan did in the past.
- Hope that you all had the chance to read the document: “What the Members Want” from our network. If not, please go through it. As I said in the e-mail I sent, this is going to be my guideline in relation to what you want and what has to be done. Any ideas that can complement or reinforce this are always welcome.
In the meantime and after the work that I have been doing during the holiday period in the lovely and exciting Ibiza – a very inspiring Island, other projects and activities that involve IPRN have progressed and I will update you soon.
All the Best for you and your business and profit of this new communication channel, as well as the Facebook page and our section in the website, news and Hot Topics, to keep the rest of the members informed.
Luis G. Canomanuel
Member News
Four Communications Group acquires PR agency Broadgate Mainland
27 August 2015, London: Independent integrated agency Four Communications Group (Four) today announced that it has acquired leading financial and professional services public relations agency Broadgate Mainland. With fees in excess of £2.2 million in 2014, Broadgate Mainland represents national and international brands including BNY Mellon, Baillie Gifford, Durham University Business School, St James’s Place Wealth Management and Woodford Investment Management. Combined fee income is expected to be more than £20 million in 2015.
As part of Four, Broadgate Mainland will be rebranded as Four Broadgate and will focus on the delivery of communications programmes within the specialist areas of financial services, professional services and education.
This acquisition is the first announced by Four since it successfully secured a £10m investment of equity finance from BGF (Business Growth Fund), the UK’s most active provider of growth capital to small and mid-sized businesses, earlier this month. As part of the investment, Four also secured an additional debt facility from HSBC.
Four has experienced rapid growth over the past four years, doubling turnover from £15m in 2010 to over £32m in 2014, a record-breaking year for the agency, and is expected to increase this again by over 20 per cent organically in its current financial year ending December 2015.
Nan Williams, Four Communications Group chief executive said: “ Broadgate Mainland’s expertise will really bolster our existing offer within the financial & professional services and education sectors. This is just one of a series of acquisitions we will be announcing over the coming year as we surge ahead with our growth ambitions and expansion plans for the UK, Middle East and South East Asia.”
Roland Cross, director at Broadgate Mainland says: “PR is increasingly aligned with broader communications strategies and the integrated approach at Four makes them an ideal partner. As part of Four we can offer existing and prospective clients an enhanced service and have a strong platform to continue the growth of the business in the future.”
As well as its London headquarters, Four also has offices in Edinburgh, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. It employs over 220 staff and has over 600 clients including Etihad Airways, The Man Booker Prizes, Sotheby’s International Realty, InterContinental Hotels Group and American Express. Its key services include public relations, public affairs, marketing, sponsorship, digital & content and media planning & buying with a particular focus on the property, travel, culture, healthcare, financial services and public sectors.
Over the past four years, Four has built a strong track record of acquiring and integrating communications agencies which offer complementary services to the group including bgb in 2011, Colman Getty in 2012, Kinross & Render in 2013 and more recently Consolidated PR in 2014 and MSA Media in May 2015.
The business is now ranked as the UK’s sixth largest independent communications agency according to PR Week and ranked 21st in PRWeek’s Top 150 PR Consultancies report in May 2015.
PR Partner participated in the Moscow Marathon distances
On 20th September members of the PR Partner’s team took part in the annual charitable Moscow Marathon, team members were Natalia Yarkova, Damir Feizullov, Elena Fuks, Julia Ogorodnikova, Anastasia Miloslavskaya, Valentina Voronina, Victoria Poyda, Natalya Kutuzova and Olga Kharitonova. More than 20 000 participants from different countries had made their applications for the race of 10 and 42.2km.
During two and half months our colleagues were training on the technique of a natural run by sports coaches Leonid Shvetsov and Sergey Karavanov. The main principles of it are moderation, gradual increase in load and individual program for every person.
Our team made good results in the distance of 10 and 42.2km. Inexperienced runners could finished the run easily and athletes with experience improved their personal records. Natalia Yarkova and Julia Ogorodnikova overcame their first marathon distance for 5 hours and 13 min in average pace.
Proud Moments
The McOnie Agency is shortlisted for a PRCA Awards 2015 and CIPR PRide award 2015
The McOnie Agency, B2B PR agency based in the UK, has been shortlisted in the PRCA Awards 2015 and CIPR PRide Awards 2015 for the crisis communications work carried out for its client Arco, the UK’s leading supplier of safety products and training.
When Ebola engulfed West Africa in 2014, the UK Department for International Development (DFiD) procured thousands of sets of protective clothing from Arco to be worn by health workers at the UK facility in Sierra Leone. This equipment helped protect the workers in exceptionally high risk conditions, enabling them to carry out their tasks in temperatures often exceeding 30°C. The McOnie Agency’s PR campaign supported the Government’s education and awareness campaign aimed at the general public to demonstrate how public money was being allocated and at the same time, boosted Arco’s reputation and ongoing business opportunities. The campaign achieved high level coverage across national print and broadcast media in just four days.
Sarah McOnie, Managing Director, and her team are already celebrating the PR agency’s 25th anniversary and are now looking forward to attending the London and Bristol awards ceremonies in November.
Sarah said: “This is a fantastic achievement for the team and I am so very proud of the hard work that went into putting this campaign together. Both these awards are of an extremely high calibre and so to be shortlisted is an achievement in itself. Of course our thanks go to Arco for their support throughout the campaign; we couldn’t have been shortlisted without them.
Our 25th anniversary year will hopefully be one of our most successful.”
Business Growth
Public Dialog starts cooperation with MAC Education in July.
For more than 25 years MAC Education has been supporting teachers and students in their daily education, publishing manuals, training, educational materials, as well as methodological materials.
Public Dialog Agency Consultants are responsible for: strategic advice, Corporate PR, Social media.
PR Partner starts cooperation with a federal retail chain Perekrestok
In July 2015 PR agency PR Partner added a retail chain Perekrestok to its client portfolio. PR Partner will develop the SMM-strategy as well as promote the trading network in social media such as Facebook, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and Instagram.
The main purpose of cooperation with “Perekrestok” is to create a virtual help desk office for consumers in social media.
Perekrestok is the leading national supermarket chain in Russia and one of the first modern supermarkets to open in the Russian retail space. Perekrestok strives to be the customer’s first choice for fresh products supported by the right complementary assortment and pricing strategy.
Evercome Creates New Digital Marketing Area – Evercom Evolution
Evercom, one of the main independent communication and PR agencies in Spain, has faced new challenges in the first semester of 2015 creating a new Digital Marketing area, Evercom Evolution, offering innovative services to its existing and potential costumers according to the latest online trends.
Simultaneously, Evercom has incorporated twelve new companies to its customer portfolio (Aegon, Sport Zone, Frigo, Groupalia, El Corte Inglés, Best Seller and Qlik, among others) producing an annual revenue growth equivalent to 440.000 euros. In this period, the agency has hired five new consultants to achieve its managerial objectives. Alberte Santos, CEO of Evercom, explains that “this increase in the annual revenue is the result of a great effort made by different departments in order to reach a better market position as one of the most innovative and fast-growing agencies in Europe”.
PR Partner began to work for a cinema chain “KARO”
PR Partner PR agency begins a PR campaign for “KARO” cinema chain. PR Partner professionals will write and publish articles, comments and interviews in entertainment, business and specialised media as well as develop and realize PR projects.
“KARO” was founded in July 1997. Today it develops a chain of cinemas in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Kaliningrad, Samara and Surgut. “KARO” was the first cinema chain in Russia to completely implement projection rooms with digital projection devices. Today, “KARO” continues implementing modern technology to improve the quality of service.
Blog
Privacy, Security and Ethics: Global Challenges Affecting Business Marketers
At the AGM meeting in Washington, DC this past year, we discussed numerous topics that will affect global marketers. One of keen interest was: Privacy, Security and Ethics in a Digital Age.
We learned that by the year 2022, we are expected to interact with more than 500 ‘smart’ objects every day. It has already started. From the time we wake up to the time we go to sleep, we seem to be engaging with technology, primarily through our personal mobile devices.
In some ways, we are not just talking about connected devices. We’re talking about connected individuals, and connected lives.
But with all the good that exists with innovation comes a concern or two. How do we protect our personal data? Our personal lives? How does information that lives in a cloud stay in a cloud, without falling into the wrong hands?
As marketers and public relations specialists, this concern extends to our clients – the companies doing business in this digital age. There are many questions. For example: How do companies break through the noise to tell their story – without oversaturating their key publics? How do corporations protect their brand, their reputation and their data from security breaches and privacy invasion if information is flowing freely? How do leaders ensure they’re following best practices but also engage in ethical behaviours?
The answers are not yet clear. What’s important is to start the conversation.
Over the past 20 years, the Internet has changed the way companies produce, consume and interact with all forms of content and information. This accessibility has led today’s PR expert to new challenges and responsibilities to use these resources appropriately. Will your client become the next the next Sony or Target Corporation? As a collector of customer information, who owns that data? How are you walking the fine line of customization and privacy to ensure you’re not being too invasive into your customers’ personal space? If we’re all using smart devices to stay connected, what happens when we run out of bandwidth to store information and operate our businesses?
At the conference, we learned the “Internet of Things (IoT)” is powering innovation and hyper-connectivity worldwide. We also learned that it’s important to stay continually informed about new advances, and to consider how these advances may affect our clients.
No one has all the answers. But the overriding guiding principle is to keep personal and business values in mind when evaluating today’s marketing tools. To ask the question: Is this the right thing to do? A good conscience can keep you on the right path.
Jan Gusich, AKHIA
Dates for the Diary
2016 AGM/Conference – Bordeaux, France. Dates to be confirmed.
Did You Know?
France covers the most time zones?
If you count everything, including overseas territories, then France claims the title by covering 12 time zones. The United States would be the runner-up with 11 and then Russia with 9.
To read the other 24 Amazing Facts about Countries Around the World click here: https://travelforfreebook.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/25-amazing-facts-about-countries-around-the-world/