The Week in PR

‘The week in PR’ is a look at all the big stories in public relations as reported by the UK media in the week gone by. The highlights include the government’s £410,000 spend on Green Deal PR; Wikipedia’s clash with Wiki-PR, the European Patent Office tender and more. To have your PR News featured here next week, please email me at [email protected]

Leading the news 

Government Spent £410,000 on Green Deal PR by Sophy Ridge via Sky News
The Government has spent more than £410,000 on PR consultants to promote its Green Deal scheme, despite only 219 households having the work completed.

The £413,815 marketing spend works out at £1,889 for every household with the energy efficiency measures installed.

Wikipedia threatens PR firm with legal action by Priyanka Dayal via Cision UK
Wikipedia’s parent company, the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), has threatened Wiki-PR with legal action for ‘engaging in paid-advocacy editing’ of articles on the online-encyclopedia, and demanded that this practice immediately ‘cease and desist.’

Former Grayling chief Kennedy buys boutique firm via The Holmes Report
Former Grayling chief executive Nigel Kennedy has acquired the boutique PR consultancy he helped to establish. Commucan launched in 2010 as a joint venture between creative agency MBA and design and branding consultancy Creative Leap with Kennedy as an adviser and chairman.

Account wins and movements

Frank and Cake pick up PR and social media for Weetabix by Daniel Farey-Jones via PRWeek
The company behind Weetabix and Alpen has refreshed its agency line-up as it plans for product launches next year. Frank PR confirmed it had been awarded the PR account for the company, which is also called Weetabix, but declined to comment further.

Aspectus PR expands its energy practice by appointing junior account manager via Aspectus PR
Aspectus PR, has appointed Laura Iley to the role of junior account manager within its energy PR practice. Based in the agency’s London office, Laura will play an important role in handling the energy team’s expanding client base.

Francis McGee appointed director of external affairs of StepChange via StepChange
Francis McGee will be joining the executive of StepChange Debt Charity as director of external affairs from January 2014.
Francis has a career spanning over 20 years in government, regulation and the financial services industry, most recently as head of policy and external affairs at the Money Advice Service.

The Big Pitch

Innovation drive prompts major European Patent Office tender by John Owens via Campaign
The European Patent Office is setting up its first comms roster, worth between €1m and €2m, as it seeks to promote innovation across the region.

The tender spans six lots including strategy, media, online and film production. The final roster could involve between one and six agencies, with an initial year-long contract potentially extendable by another four years.

Commentary

Sir Bernard Ingham: The Coalition has turned policy into a PR tool by Andy McSmith via The Independent
Fresh from his swipe at ‘bovine’ Northerners, an unrepentant Sir Bernard tells The Independent’s Andy McSmith he never understood the Scots and that Cable and Clegg hamper good government.

Celebrity PR: The Shock Factor by Priyanka Dayal via Cision UK
The role celebrity PRs play in managing the shock-pop culture in music today.

PRspective

Romany Simon of Pieminister by Priyanka Dayal via Cision UK
In conversation with Cision, Romany discusses how she promotes pies, Pieminister’s current marketing campaign and how a discontinued-range was forced back to the shelves by social media demand.