PRNewser

 
WPP Group CEO Martin Sorrell (image cred)

We’ve been thinking a lot about the Dell/WPP Group deal and what it means for the future of integrated communications.  Just the sheer size of the project: $4.5 billion and over 1,000 employees is almost unfathomable.  However, as we scanned through commentary on the web, or lack thereof, we were intrigued by this post on the O’Dwyer PR blog, which referenced Dell’s announcement and then said:

Bank of America may soon nail another coffin in the holding company structure. Its contract with Omnicom expires March 31. BoA has put some of OMC’s media-buying responsibilities up for review because it no longer wants to be held hostage to Omnicom’s shops.

The holding company structure is bound to unravel in `08. That will create big opportunities for nimble PR firms.

Then this got us back to thinking about a post from Jeremy Pepper back in October where he wrote:

The reality is that the holding companies do not care who gets the cash. It’s money in pocket and bottom line, and if advertising can get bigger bucks for campaigns, it’s better to go to advertising.

While Pepper’s post was in a different context - he was arguing that ad folk now how to sell themselves better and therefore can get bigger budgets than their PR counterparts - the theme relates to Dell/WPP. 

Is an advantage of creating your own agency that hopefully you will eliminate some of the infighting between different groups within a holding company? And if so, do you agree with Kevin McCauley of O’Dwyers that one of the big trends of 2008 will be the decline of the holding company model?

NYC Dept. of Transportation is looking for a Deputy Press Secretary

Visit Britain is looking for a Publicity & PR Evaluation Coordinator

SnL Communications is looking for a Senior Account Executive

Stanton Crenshaw Communications is looking for an Account Executive

Quinn & Co. Public Relations is looking for an Account Executive

(image from HoodEz)

This is the first edition of what we’re calling ‘Spin the Agencies of Record,’ a look the most recent account wins in the industry. We’ll be looking not only at Agency of Record (AoR) agreements but projects as well. Send us your account news to prnewser at mediabistro dot com.

This edition ranges from the global to the nichy-niche:

• HoodEz, maker of custom hood ornaments, chooses Sawmill Marketing Public Relations

• MWW to represent Asolva, a medical technology company

• BMC software to use Ogilvy for PR in India

• Ritchey Design Inc., maker of high-end bicycle components, chooses SOAR Communications

• Panda Security (IT company) chooses the Bateman Group

NYTimes (via Romenesko): AP to change the way it files, edits and distributes stories

CBSNews: McCain Gets New Hampshire PR Boost

Financial Times: A cascade of thought leaders in need of a good idea

Influential Marketing Blog: 12 Things I Learned Reading My Own Blog

FleetStreetPR: Dear Santa 2.0: My Social Media/PR Christmas List

 
(image cred)

Did Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg lie to the NYTimes Louise Storey about the company’s controversial “Beacon” advertising system? That’s what Storey claims in a post on the Times‘ “Bit’s” blog.  “I’m hardly the only one who found a gap between what Facebook said and what it did. And this may be costing it some of the blue-chip support that it had amassed. Coca-Cola, for example, has decided not to use Beacon for now,” she writes. 

Blogger Robert Scoble calls Facebook PR, “the most controlling PR department outside of Apple.”

Meanwhile, Zuckerberg lost a court request to take down confidential documents that 02138 magazine used in a hard hitting story against him and the company. We believe the WSJ’s Kara Swisher when she writes Facebook PR head Brandee Barker, “has to have the most thankless job on the Web these days.”

What do you think? How would you have handled the Beacon and 02138 news differently if you were at Facebook PR?

 If you build it, they will come.  At least that is what Dell and WPP Group are betting on.  After an intense review, the computer maker chose WPP Group to handle all of their marketing communications, in effect creating a 1,000 employee, $4.5 billion agency, code named “Da Vinci.” 

According to PR Week, “Publicis, Havas, Omnicom, and Interpublic Group all vied for the account, with Interpublic joining WPP as finalist.”

John Batelle: I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with Casey Jones, Dell’s VP Marketing, as he’s gone through this process, and I’m certain that this new agency will create all sorts of fascinating new models.

Micropersuasion: It’s very easy to move an entire account from one agency to another across town and then again until you find the next big idea to replace the last one. So Dell will have to make sure this newco stays fresh and continues to pump out creative ideas.

The market seems to like the news, with shares of WPP Group already up in London trading.

Time for our weekly scan of the wires to get a look at the bad news released when no one is looking. It’s something to do while speculating the cause of Choire Sicha’s departure from Gawker. He gave us some terrific stuff. Hey Choire, email me.

This week is free of toy recalls yet again, though watch the Luigi’s cookies at Stop & Shop if you have allergies. Not all are buried news–you’ll know those when you see them:

• National R.V. Holdings declares Chapter 11
• Evel Knievel RIP
• Dennis Kucinich’s weekly call for impeachment
• Twenty-one Texas Republic artifacts stolen
• At 7:51 PM tonight, President Bush declares Indiana a major disaster only three months after severe storms and flooding; sends in good ol’ FEMA to help

Gawker: Major Magazine Puts Up Craiglist Ad for PR Assistant. The pay? $15-$16 an hour. Ouch.

Mediaweek: Web-Video User Growth Slowed Over Past Six Months

Creative Team Thinking: Six Tips For Perfect Email Media Pitches

Getting Attention: Crisis Communications Report Card: Red Cross Responds to Exec Hanky Panky

PR Couture: Fashion PR Internship Opportunity with Press Office Ltd.

Itching to build your own Social Media News Release (SMNR) the way the Canadian Social Media Group did for the Ford Focus?

Then hurry up and click here to register for a very limited webinar on the basics of the SMNR hosted by Shannon Whitley next Wednesday. There are less than 20 spots available. We heard about this one through the New Media Release Google Group.

Shannon promises to “go over the fundamental structure of the SHIFT template, ending with a quick demo through PRX Builder.”

If you’re looking for a soup-to-nuts look at social media, check out the Horn Group’s overview webinar on Tuesday (Horn is my co-editor Joe’s employer)
The full description after the jump:

Read the rest of this entry »

It seems about every other day, Valleywag posts about some incident with a PR person that makes us cringe.  Do they sometimes go too far?  Maybe.  But, we can’t take much sympathy for the PR people in these posts. After all, it is Valleywag. Know who you’re dealing with. 

In the lastest installment, Associate Editor Nicholas Carlson received an e-mail from an MWW staffer laden with typos and track changes! Not to mention it was a form letter pitch about a company it would seem doubtful Valleywag would cover.  This led MWW Group director of new media strategies, Tom Biro, to send out a thoughtful email reminder about how to deal with bloggers. 

The problem is, the MWW staffer who had originally been flamed by Valleywag didn’t catch this and instead sent an email to the editor from her personal account threatening legal action.  Read on for the whole story.