WhatsApp buyout, Mastercard’s PR nightmare and Viber’s PR formula – all on The Week in PR (Feb 24)

‘The week in PR’ is a look at all the top stories in public relations as reported by the media. Leading the news this week is Facebook’s £11.4bn acquisition of Whatsapp, House PR’s defence against the Twitter backlash surrounding Mastercard’s #pricelesssurprises tactic, an overview of 2014’s news:rewired digital journalism conference as well as the latest news, views and account wins in the world of PR.
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Leading the news

WhatsApp – what’s next? by Jon Swaine via The Guardian
The popular and ad-free texting service has been snapped up for $19bn, making a fortune for its founders. But does this acquisition by Facebook make economic sense or is it just a salvo in its hi-tech ‘arms race’ with Google?
Also read:  WhatsApp sorry for outage after Facebook deal via Sky News

 House PR justifies disastrous #pricelesssurprises Brit Awards PR tactics for Mastercard by Angela Haggerty via The Drum
House PR, the agency at the centre of the Mastercard Brit Awards storm, has defended its policy of offering press passes to journalists in exchange for promotional tweets, saying that the agency’s job was to “pursue all coverage opportunities”.

Journalism.co.uk’s news:rewired conference; an overview by Priyanka Dayal via Cision UK
‘Mobile is not coming, it’s here, it’s now…but it’s just the beginning.’ The quote from David Ho, editor of mobile, tablets and emerging technology at The Wall Street Journal perhaps best sums up the central theme of Journalism.co.uk’s 2014 news:rewired conference held on 20 February at the MSN Headquarters in London. From cats to conflicts, speakers representing leading newsrooms and digital media companies, covered the key topics and tools that make content read, liked and shared online.

WSJ’s John Crowley on immersive storytelling and the role PRs play in making content interactive by Priyanka Dayal via Cision UK
John Crowley, digital editor, EMEA at WSJ.com, was a panelist at the ‘immersive storytelling and production’ session at Journalism.co.uk’s News:rewired conference. Cision caught up with John after the discussion to find out what role PRs can play in helping make content interactive. 

Creative directors in PR earn more than those in advertising or digital, with ‘creativity and brainpower’ suggested as the reason by Ishbel Macleod via The Drum
Creative directors in the PR industry earn more than creative directors in the advertising or marketing sectors, research from the Future Factory has found.

The position in the PR industry saw an average day-rate of £1271, compared to £1068 in the advertising industry, and £1051 in digital.

Account wins and movements

3 Monkeys wins Barratt Homes business by Priyanka Dayal via Cision UK
After a four-way competitive pitch, Barratt Developments PLC has appointed 3 Monkeys Communications to create an integrated brand reappraisal campaign for its Barratt Homes brand. 

GolinHarris swoops for Havas’ Neil Kleiner to lead social media division by Alec Mattinson via PRWeek
GolinHarris has snared Havas Group’s UK head of social Neil Kleiner to spearhead its own social media offering.

Edelman Names Nigel Miller To Senior Employee Engagement Role via The Holmes Report
Edelman has appointed Nigel Miller as co-chair, Europe and CIS employee engagement and global director of Edelman talent engagement. Miller will co-chair the regional employee engagement practice alongside Nick Howard and will develop the practice outside the UK.

Ketchum to help launch alternative to ice cream in UK by John Owens via PRWeek
Ketchum has been brought in to help Perfect World Ice Cream Company with the launch of its new brand in the UK.

The agency has been handed a year-long brief covering PR and social media to promote a frozen dessert claimed by its makers to be the UK’s very first non-dairy, and no added sugar ice cream alternative.

Ogilvy London Launches New Sports Specialty via The Holmes Report
Ogilvy Public Relations/London has launched Ogilvy PR Sport and appointed Jonathan McCallum to lead the new practice. It will work closely with Ogilvy’s sister  agency in Dublin, Wilson Hartnell, which has more than 30 years’ experience in sports marketing and sponsorship and works with clients including AIB; Diageo; Electric Ireland; and Liberty Insurance.

Ogilvy PR Sport will deliver marketing strategies and communication campaigns and enable new and current clients to leverage sports properties in their communications programs.

Commentary

PRs need to change their approach towards bloggers by Vicki Day via Cision UK
Discussing the best ways for brands and PRs to work with bloggers, this is a guest post by Vicki Day, author of the blog MrsD-Daily. 

5 PR lessons from Viber’s rise from zero users to a $900M exit by Ayelet Noff via Venture Beat
‘The journey began in October, 2010 when a friend recommended my public relations firm, Blonde 2.0, to Viber. The
company reached out to us to run their PR efforts for the launch of their promising app. Since that time, we’ve continued to work with Viber as it has grown from a young startup, to a thriving tech company, and finally as it completed its exit to Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten for $900 million.’

In this guest post, Noff shares PR techniques that helped get Viber to a $900 million acquisition.