Agencies

It seems Ogilvy PR should be thanking California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration for mismanagement. It helped Ogilvy pick up a $9 million contract with the California High-Speed Rail Authority. The bidding process for the contract was re-opened after Mercury Public Affairs - who was about to win the account - was deemed to have too many close ties to the Schwarzenegger administration. Government board members called the original bidding process, "insufficient."

"Under a new bidding process, a staff selection panel that included three representatives from outside transit agencies chose Ogilvy over six other applicants. Mercury did not rebid, saying it lacked confidence in the new process," reports the Fresno Bee. O'Dwyer's says Ogilvy beat out Porter Novelli for the contract.

First on PRNewser: Bite PR Manager of Business Development & Account Planning Kelly McCarthy is leaving the agency to join Ruder Finn as Director of Business Development. "I love Bite, always have and continue to wish them well, but it's a new chapter for me and a new opportunity. [Ruder Finn] is an agency that is growing and has fantastic credentials," said McCarthy.

Bite will "definitely" be hiring, said Vice President Sean Mills. "We're taking this as an opportunity to evaluate our new business structure across North America and make sure we have the right resources in the right places. As we get that sorted out you'll see us actively recruiting to fill her position." McCarthy's first day at Ruder Finn is November 16th. Bite PR's New York team had a bash to send her off last night.

[P.J. Clarke's, a 125 year-old institution with three locations in Manhattan, via Flickr]

Account wins in this edition of Spin the Agencies of Record includes an online jewelry boutique, an historic restaurant, a medical device high-intensity oncologic and neuropathic pain, a tire recycling company, and a film festival in the Caribbean:

5WPR lands a jem with MyJewelryBox.com

Dan Klores Communications (DKC) dines old school with P.J. Clarke's

RF|Binder prescribes PR as agency of record for Competitive Technologies, Inc. to launch the FDA-approved pain management device Calmare Therapy

S&S Public Relations bounces for Magnum D'Or Resource, a company that deals with all facets of rubber recycling and re-use. No, not those Magnums.

The Bahamas International Film Festival screens firms and awards top prize to Rogers & Cowan

Twenty nine companies in New York City were cleared by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to receive H1N1 swine flu vaccines, BusinessWeek reports. Among the recipients are Goldman Sachs, Time Warner, JPMorgan Chase, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, New York Presbyterian Healthcare System, and New York University.

One business blogger suggested that this "looks like another PR snafu for Wall Street," since in some instances banks were allowed to receive the vaccines before hospitals.

Reached for comment, a Goldman Sachs spokesperson sent PRNewser the following statement: "It is important to understand that the Department of Health decides in its sole discretion who receives H1N1 vaccines - both the amount and timing. Goldman Sachs, like other responsible employers, has requested vaccine and will supply it only to employees who qualify based on the requirements laid down by the CDC and Department of Health."

InVentiv Communications, which includes health-care PR agencies Chandler Chicco and Chamberlain Healthcare PR reported an 8% decline in Q3 revenue today. The decline was much less than the first two quarters of 2009, both of which exceeded 20%.

In a statement, the company said client expenditures "stabilized" as they sought to "gain efficiencies and better coordination of their promotional efforts." The company noted "a number of new engagements with existing and new clients," but did not name specifics.

Ketchum Pleon, which is the recently combined Omnicom agencies Ketchum and Pleon, won work with the Wall Street Journal to promote the publication's Future of Finance Initiative conference, which takes place December 7-8th, just outside London.

"Ketchum Pleon was tapped for this prestigious assignment because of its extensive knowledge of the European media market and its growing strength in financial communications," said Robert H. Christie, vice president of communications, Consumer Media Group, Dow Jones & Company in a statement.

The conference speakers include 100 CEOs, financial executives, officials from G-20 nations and economists including investor George Soros and Paul Volcker, chairman, President's Economic Recovery Advisory and Board Former Chairman, U.S. Federal Reserve. The topic of debate will be "international financial regulation and coordination."

Dow Jones did not comment as to the other agencies who pitched the business as of the time of this post.

[Skip the email and express Irish loyalty and friendship on Claddaugh stationery from Dempsey & Carroll]

The account wins in this edition of Spin the Agencies of Record include B2B software and ad networks, a restaurant, a stationer, a resort hotel chain, a community college, and chemicals used by researchers developing new therapies:

The Susan Magrino Agency dines with Armani Ristorante and writes the thank you note on Dempsey & Carroll Stationery

Articulate Communications scores three in the B2B, including Cellebrite, SoftServe, and Undertone Networks

CRT/tanaka makes the grade for the Virginia Community College System's Great Expectations program

5WPR shacks up with the 15-location Millennium Hotels & Resorts chain

Impress Public Relations mixes up a batch of PR for Sigma Life Science, makers of biological-based chemicals and reagents used by research scientists in the investigation of new or enhanced methods in therapeutic areas

Veteran radio PR executive Amir Forester launched her own firm today, Forester Public Relations. Forester has experience handling media talent and launches her agency with radio personalities Phil Hendrie and Elvis Duran.

Before launching her own firm, Forester ran the communications department at Premiere Radio Neworks, where she was spokesperson for radio personalities such as Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, and Glenn Beck.

Middleberg Communications will acquire The Dowd Agency in a deal announced today. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, however the acquisition puts the agency at more than $4 million in revenues and about 25 employees. Middleberg had net fees of $2,694,000 in 2008, which means about $1.5 million in annual business will come to the agency from today's deal. The new agency will operate as Middleberg Communications, with The Dowd Agency as its consumer division.

This is the third deal in as many years for Middleberg. In November 2006 the agency acquired Towers Group and last February they acquired The Weiser Group.

The Dowd deal has been a long time in the works. "Jim and I have been talking for close to two years," Middleberg Communications CEO Don Middleberg told PRNewser. "It's not an economic story, it's really a story of two guys who have been talking about doing something. Jim is a young guy who has tremendous consumer credentials."

Dowd is steadily growing at a 20% year over year clip, Middleberg said, while his own agency is down 5-10% this year. Referring to his previous firm Middleberg & Associates, which was a 150-employee, $18 million operation that he sold to Euro RSCG, a division of Havas, in June 2000, Middleberg said he is, "not looking to become 150 people in three cities any longer, but I am looking to become what we were before, which is a superior firm doing great work."

He also didn't rule out future deals.

continued...

Boca Raton, Florida based agency TransMedia Group is seeing a rebound in business. Q3 revenues were "up significantly from a year ago and the fourth quarter has gotten off to the strongest start in two years," the company announced today.

"We're nearly back to monthly gross revenues in six figures again, which we haven't seen since 2005," said TransMedia's founder Tom Madden in a statement. TransMedia is a private company and did not provide additional detail in terms of results.