Agencies

[Slash knows that Little Kids Rock, via NAMM.org]

The account wins in the this edition of Spin the Agencies of Record include the real life school of rock, a retail shopping venture in Florida, a chain of affordable accessory stores, a huge insurer, and a company that can help you build multimedia presentations:

Weber Shandwick harvests State Farm

MSR Communications named agency of record by Faculte, Inc., an online communications and video platform. MSR wisely used Faculte's Broadcast Studio to create their presentation.

Stiles Realty of Florida goes shopping for PR and hires Relations PR & Marketing to help with their Shoppes at Avalon in Tampa

The Bateman Group kicks out the jams for Little Kids Rock, pro bono

RBB Public Relations accessorizes with the Bijoux Terner boutiques [we didn't link to RBB because we suspect they've fallen victim to a DNS attack this morning]

[image: MeFind on Flickr]

Ruder Finn today released it's Intent Index, a study that examined online behavior and user intent. Among the key findings:

More than twice as many people go online to socialize (81%) than to do business (39%) or shop (31%).

72% of people go online just to become part of a community.

Women (48%) are much more likely than men (39%) to go online to advocate for an issue or position.

More men (42%) than women (36%) go online to do business.

"Intent is the new demographic," said Ruder Finn co-CEO Kathy Bloomgarden in a statement. "Delving deeper into the underlying motivations of online behavior is critical to developing proactive strategies. Just being online is not enough to leverage digital channels to drive business imperatives. Audiences must be targeted based upon their intent." The agency has posted complete findings on its website.

Just 16 months after joining Ketchum's KIC division and one Twitter gaffe later regarding the FedEx account, James Andrews launches social media consultancy Everywhere with three clients and two partners.

According to his PitchEngine press release, Andrews and partners Danica Kombol, former VP, Ketchum, and Tamara Knechtel, formerly SVP, Operations at Radio One, are launching with Delta, legendary actress Jane Fonda and Hip-Hop producer Jermaine Dupri as clients.

Andrews kicked off the launch with some time with Don Lemon on CNN this weekend, talking Iran, Michael Jackson and the new, Now media.

Good stuff but why didn't the Atlanta-based Andrews drop by CNN headquarters to do the spot in person?

Andrews ...

Suburban Detroit agency Tanner Friedman caught rival firm Marx Layne squatting, impersonating and defaming the newer firm on Twitter. Tanner Friedman filed a federal suit against "John Doe" to compel the Twitter company to give up the IP address of the Tweeting bandit.

There is bad blood between these two firms. As can happen when an employee leaves to start their own firm, Matt Friedman lured four clients away from Marx when he left. The situation is likely intensified by the regional nature and intense competition for business in the recession-crippled market. Both have auto industry related accounts among other areas of overlap.

Tanner Friedman launched their real agency Twitter account yesterday with "Yes, it's really us". Not surprisingly, Marx Layne's account carried no mention of any of this.

Crain's Detroit Business's For Immediate Release blog has been covering the story since the nasty Tweeting began in March.

[Rock 'Em Sock 'Em gif via SuicideBots]

[Twitter co-founder Biz Stone]

A post on Adrants covering the Cannes Lions festival caught our eye this week. Specifically, when blogger Angela Natividad wrote, "This year was the first year Cannes recognized PR's role in getting a brand message across, so PR people just about creamed themselves getting here. Even Twitter's PR folk, Hill & Knowlton, couldn't help but say something smug about it before passing the mic to Biz Stone this afternoon."

Twitter? PR folk? Hill & Knowlton? This was all news to us so we did some investigating. Reached for comment, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone told PRNewser, "Hill and Knowlton invited me to speak at their session-Twitter has not hired them nor have we hired any PR company."

The session Stone speaks about was a Tweet Up hosted by Twitter and H&K at the festival. If anything H&K is trying to get the most out of the connection, and we can't blame them. An agency blog lists both company logos with the copy: "Joining forces at Cannes."

Account wins in this edition of Spin the Agencies of Record include a product to help you kick smoking, a regional division of Susan G. Komen for the Cure (hence the iconic pink ribbon), a Linux software consultancy, and a sub sandwich franchise looking to take a bite out of the big guys:

CIGGX lights it up with the TransMedia Group as AoR. CIGGX is an herbal supplement to help smokers kick the habit.

Zimmerman beefs up Firehouse Subs' franchise expansion as agency of record

The Linux Box consultancy opens up its possibilities with Feintuch Communications

Atomic advocates for the L.A. County affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world's largest breast cancer advocacy organization. Work will include support for the Los Angeles evens Dine Out for the Cure, Fashion for the Cure, and of course, Race for the Cure.

Last but not least, Illinois-based Champion Media sets a Spin the Agencies record with thirteen client wins announced at once

Apple pulled all promotion, marketing, and PR duties in the U.K. in-house, ending a 14-year with its agency there, Bite PR.

The account diminished in size over the last few years and was worth $165,000 annually at the end (100,000 pounds, converted). The PRWeek UK story explains that Bite was in fact, named specifically for the Apple account in 1995 when it spun off from Next Fifteen sister agency Text 100.

Most interesting in this is a column by MacWorld UK Editor Karen Haslam, explaining that she was on the Apple account while she worked at Bite, in the heady days of the iPod and OS X launches. She reveals that Bite overserviced the account by 50%. Despite the AdAge bit that repping Apple is the easiest job in marketing, this reveals how hard firms will work to keep a marquee account.

If you're not familiar with PR's P&L game, this means that Bite spent a pound fifty in hourly work for every pound it earned in retainer--a worthwhile marketing expense if it brings in other accounts.

A little over two months ago PRNewser heard that Golin-Harris, Weber Shandwick, Cohn and Wolfe and Taylor were finalists for the Walmart PR business, which it was said would encompass multiple agencies.

Two out of the four names were right, as today news broke that Golin Harris, Cohn & Wolfe and Porter Novelli were each chosen for separate parts of the massive account. Advertising Age's Michael Bush broke the story.

Writes Bush:

The win is especially big for Porter Novelli, whose chairman, Helen Ostrowski, stepped down at the beginning of the year. The agency has been relatively quiet on the new-business front and in 2008 there were numerous reports of layoffs in addition to the loss of two significant accounts, Humana and the American Cancer Society, both of which it chose not to defend and were rumored to be seven-figure contracts.

None of Bush's sources would speak to him on the record, which is not necessarily unusual with an account win of this size, as agencies and the end client are extremely careful with all communications. However it does lead us to guess that the selection process was finalized very recently, possibly today.

[Johnny Pag's Barhog model]

The account wins in this edition of Spin the Agencies of Record include a landmark hotel, a mobile play, a eat-and-play restaurant franchise (think Chucky Cheese for grownups), reading glasses, and as seems to happen often in these posts, a motorcycle company:

Dan Klores (DKC) beds down with the newly renovated classic, The Carlton Hotel in Manhattan

Cohn & Wolfe takes the call from iconmobile, creator of digital services and products for the mobile business

Synergy plays well with Dave & Buster's for its Indianapolis launch

Non-prescription reading glasses maker Magnivision gains visibility with Duffy & Shanley

Brandware saddles up with Johnny Pag, maker of affordable custom motorcycles as agency of record

PR agencies are certainly not immune to the current recession, and a new study shines some light on just how much things have changed over the last year. Consulting firm Stevens Gould Pincus released their "2009 Best Practices Benchmarking Report," today, which surveyed 106 PR agencies in the U.S. and Canada.

Some of the key findings:

Profitability dropped 20.8% in 2008 to 15.6% of revenues.

The average minimum monthly fee that PR agencies charge clients also fell, by 26%, to $10,332.

The average monthly retainer for NY-based agencies was $10,482, compared to $5,020 in the Midwest and $11,750 in Washington, D.C.

Crain's NY Business has additional insight here.