Pope Francis, Beyoncé and 3 Monkeys in ‘The Week in PR’ (Dec 9-16)

‘The week in PR’ is a look at all the top stories in public relations as reported by the UK media in the week gone by. The highlights include views from MPs on BBC payoffs; Pope Francis as Time Magazine’s ‘Person of the Year 2013’; The top 100 marketing agencies outside London; and  more. To have your PR News featured here next week, please email me at [email protected].

Leading the news this week

BBC payoffs damaged its reputation, say MPs by Rajeev Syal via The Guardian
The BBC has severely damaged its international reputation by its handing over large payoffs to senior staff, according to a committee of senior MPs.

The public accounts committee (Pac) also accused the BBC Trust, the corporation’s governing body, of “sitting on its hands” while the payoffs were being made, and challenged the accuracy of some of the evidence given to the committee by corporation executives.

Pope Francis, The People’s Pope by Howard Chua-Eoan and Elizabeth Dias via Time
Why Time magazine chose Pope Francis as its ‘Person of the Year 2013.’

Beyoncé’s new album and the revolution in PR by Ben Beaumont-Thomas via The Guardian
Beyoncé, David Bowie, My Bloody Valentine – all are leveraging their star power to sidestep the PR machine, and bring their music straight to audiences.

Top 100 marketing agencies: MediaCom North leads the list by Priyanka Dayal via Cision UK
MediaCom North tops The Drum’s fifth Recommended Agency Register (RAR) Top 100, which highlights the best marketing agencies found outside London.

Manchester-based Media Agency Group came in second, followed by Stein IAS. The rest of the top 10 were TRT Direct, The Fresh Group, BWP Group, Brightsource, Stickyeyes, Jellyfish and Elmwood respectively.

PR Blunder over Labour MP’s ‘Pikey’ Tweet by Sophy Ridge via Sky News
Shadow cabinet minister Jack Dromey has become embroiled in a race row after calling a post worker a “pikey” on Twitter.

Hundreds of Twitter users pulled him up on the use of the word, with some threatening to report him to the police.

Account wins and movements

House PR scoops MasterCard Brit Awards work via PRWeek.com
MasterCard has moved PR duties around its longstanding headline sponsorship of the Brit Awards from Kaper to House PR after a competitive pitch.

The five-figure brief to bring the sponsorship and the brand’s ongoing ‘Priceless’ campaign to life runs until the awards ceremony on 19 February 2014.

Story PR wins Belazu and Bounce Natural Energy Balls accounts by Priyanka Dayal via Cision UK
Story PR, an independent food, drink and lifestyle agency, has picked up two new briefs for Belazu, the Mediterranean ingredients company and Bounce Natural Energy Balls.

Story PR will be implementing creative campaign work as well as running the press office for both brands. 

Mail Online’s CMO Sean O’Neal joins Adaptly by Priyanka Dayal via Cision UK
Adaptly, a social advertising technology company, has appointed Sean O’Neal as the company’s first president. Sean joins the firm from The Daily Mail Online where he served as the chief marketing officer for a year. 

In this role, Sean is expected to lead Adaptly’s growth strategy into new markets and oversee the development of strategic partner relationships. He will report to Adaptly chief executive and co-founder Nikhil Sethi.

Honeywell selects 3 Monkeys for European PR business by Priyanka Dayal via Cision UK
3 Monkeys Communications, a consumer technology and lifestyle PR agency, has won Honeywell’s European home comfort and energy solutions business. The brief spans the UK and the Netherlands where 3 Monkeys Communications is working with partner agency LVT PR.

GolinHarris appoints Zac Schwarz as executive creative director by Priyanka Dayal via Cision UK
GolinHarris, the global strategic communications and PR firm, has appointed Zac Schwarz as executive director, creative. He joins the team in London, led by Charlie Coney, EMEA head of creative.

Zac joins GolinHarris from Mischief where he served as creative director. 

Marylebone Cricket Club hires Threepipe via The Holmes Report
Marylebone Cricket Club, the owner of Lord’s Ground, has hired Threepipe to run integrated digital marketing and PR campaigns on a range of projects for Christmas 2013 and throughout 2014. The agency will be using a blend of PR, digital display, paid search and social media advertising to help the MCC achieve its commercial objectives in areas including Lord’s hospitality, events and ticket sales, the MCC Cricket Academy and the Lord’s Cricket Store. 

Commentary

Pope Francis, Time person of the year, should be rebranded as the PR Pope by Adam Brereton via via The Guardian
Pope Francis’ popularity is so vast that even those excluded by the church applaud him. That’s a coup, but his critique of capitalism shouldn’t be misinterpreted by his new admirers.

Amazon Drones and the Uphill PR Battle by Ronn Torossian via The Huffington Post
Speaking from a PR standpoint, Ross Torossian dis
cusses the implications and connotations of the word ‘drones’ used in this context.

The greatest PR campaigns of 2013 by Shey Osibowale via The Lincolnite
2013: the year that brought us a new royal, a horsemeat scandal and the death of Nelson Mandela. It also brought us some eye-catching PR campaigns. Shey revisits some of the most mind-boggling PR campaigns and stunts of this year.