Agencies

Calysto Communications is offering free PR services to 15 companies attending the International CTIA Wireless 2012 conference in New Orleans. The complimentary consultations will take place on May 7 and 8, with each session lasting 45 minutes. “Advise-A-Palooza” will take place in a limo located outside of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Coincidentally, that’s also where we normally have meetings. Anyone wanting to participate should request a questionnaire at adviseapalooza@calysto.com; the deadline is this Friday, April 27 at 4 p.m. Advisors include Laura Borgstede, CEO of the firm, and Kristine Bennett, director of client services. Zeno Group offered complimentary consultations during SXSW last month.

Telefónica Digital, a unit of the Spanish telecom company Telefónica, has chosen Access Communications and Bite Communications after a competitive review. Bite will head things up on the global level and Access will handle North American PR with special attention on Silicon Valley where the company has its venture capital and global partnership groups. [via]

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Did everyone have a great Earth Day? The Washington Post has gathered some images from Earth Day celebrations around the world. And while the world has been introduced to the $60 eco-friendly LED light bulb, Perkett PR has designed a way for employees to actually save money while doing good for the environment: Staffers work from home.

Perkett PR has full- and part-time staffers working in 10 states across the U.S. However, all staffers telecommute. According to the firm’s website, this “virtual agency” saves money on overhead and passes that savings along to the client. The infographic above shows how the agency is also saving money for staffers and doing good works for the environment.

W2O Group, the newly-formed parent company of WCG, comms firm Twist, and W2O Ventures, has acquired Ravel, a data analysis company. The acquisition includes Ravel’s technology, patents pending, and its staff. Steve Blackmon, Ravel co-founder and VP of the engineering and the development group will now be W2O’s director of data sciences, working directly with clients and helping to develop new tools and technologies.

“We acquired a technology company like Ravel because our clients need increasingly sophisticated and larger-scale data analytics to more precisely understand and gain insight into customer/constituent behavior and do predictive modeling to guide media and content planning and syndication,” Jim Weiss, chairman and CEO of W2O told us in an email.

According to International Data Corporation research cited in the press release, there will be 50 times more data out there by 2020.

Kitchen designer Wilsonart International has chosen CRT/Tanaka as AOR to promote the company’s countertop surface product, Wilsonart HD. The firm will target consumers, the home design industry, and commercial design area with influencer outreach, digital marketing, media relations, event support, and more. The new integrated campaign will launch at the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show in Chicago happening next week.

NetApp, the IT storage company, has chosen Hill+Knowlton Strategies to handle PR in the EMEA region and Weber Shandwick for the Asia-Pacific region. The Holmes Report says as many as 20 firms were involved in the competitive search that began late last year. The company chose Bluetext for U.S. public sector outreach in January.

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Corp comms, political, and entertainment consulting and research firm Penn Schoen Berland (PSB) has acquired First Movies International, another market research firm. First Movies has offices in Los Angeles and London and works with entertainment clients, including movie studios. PSB founded in 1975 to provide political polling, began providing market research for entertainment companies in 2001 through its media and entertainment practice.

First Movies staff will report to the president of PSB’s media and entertainment group,  Jon J. Penn. First Movies’ co-founder David Willing will now be MD. First Movies clients include Paramount, Sony Pictures, and Disney.

The combined company will provide market research services for ”all stages of a film’s global lifecycle,” according to a press release statement from Penn. That includes focus groups, box office tracking, and exit polling.

PSB is a WPP firm. Mark Penn is the CEO of PSB as well as Burson-Marsteller.

[via, h/t THR]

Hill+Knowlton Strategies has been chosen as the global PR agency for the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, taking place between September 19 and October 4 in and around Incheon Metropolitan City, South Korea. H+K has developed the “Cheer, Asia” campaign for the Games, focused on uniting all of Asia through this event. Next year, there will be a series of road shows in Guangzhou, Singapore, Tokyo, New Delhi, Dubai, and Almaty in preparation for the Games.

H+K has also been chosen to raise statewide and national awareness of The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. The firm will work on media outreach, social media engagement, and marketing efforts for the organization.

GSE Systems has chosen Schubert Communications for branding, Web marketing, and outreach for the SimWorld International event later this year in Dubai. GSE provides simulation technology for training purposes at nuclear power plants, chemical processing plants, and related facilities.

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PepsiCo’s North American beverage arm is no longer working with Porter Novelli, one of many ties that the company has cut. PepsiCo‘s beverage division has stopped working with about 100 agencies, or about 65 percent of its firm partners, most of them small firms. PepsiCo simply didn’t renew many contracts with these firms.

Ruder Finn will continue to work with the company’s corporate recycling program, but it too has been trimmed from the beverage work.

Weber Shandwick and Olson PR are among the firms (advertising, PR, etc.) that has added business or joined PepsiCo’s list of firm partners. The company hasn’t named those firms that it has cut all together. The beverage group now works with about 50 firms.

[via Ad Age]

Cellebrite, which provides a variety of mobile services, has chosen Affect for brand awareness work. The firm will target various vertical markets and business media.

Abine, a company that provides online privacy tools, has chosen RF|Binder as global AOR. The firm will promote messaging tied to giving people control over their online data and how Abine’s products can help do that.

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RLM Finsbury tops the list of M&A firms by value for the first quarter of 2012. The latest PR league tables, provided by mergermarket, show the firm handled 25 deals worth $89.9 billion during Q1. Tied for second place are Aura Financial and Stockwell Communications, which each had only one whopper of a deal valued at $53.5 billion. Both of these firms and RLM Finsbury worked on the Glencore International/Xstrata deal.

Topping the list of firms based on volume is Brunswick Group with 41 deals valued at about $38.8 billion. In at number two is FTI Consulting with 33 deals valued at about $5.2 billion.

Speaking of FTI Consulting, that firm released research showing that having a succession plan in place reduces the risk to stock price that a CEO departure can have.

“The study found that investors care a great deal about the reputation of a CEO when they’re deciding whether to buy or sell shares. On average, nearly a third of investment decisions are based on the perception of the CEO,” Forbes writes.

NUK USA, makers of pacifiers, teething rings, and other oral baby products and developmental tools, has chosen Hill+Knowlton Strategies for PR services. The firm’s consumer marketing practice will work on the account.

U.S. Cellular has chosen Ketchum after a competitive pitch that included MSLGroup, Ad Age reports. MSLGroup and a number of local agencies had previously worked on the account. U.S. Cellular has been steadily decreasing its ad spend over the past few years.

August Schell Brewing Co., makers of Schell’s and Grain Belt beers, has selected Padilla Speer Beardsley as its AOR. The firm will focus on brand strategy and an integrated marketing program (advertising, PR, digital) to promote the company’s 15 craft beers.

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