Laundry Service, an independent social media agency and sister agency to PR firm Middleberg Communications, was recently selected by specialty retailer Big M Inc. as digital AOR for its two discount women’s fashion brands, Mandee and Annie sez.

Laundry Service is currently responsible for creating Big M’s digital and social media marketing infrastructure and backbone as part of its rebranding and efforts to encourage “Mandee and Annie sez fans [to] continuously share their love for these iconic retail brands both online and in stores”. The cornerstone of the program to date has been promoting a partnership between Mandee and boy band One Direction to sell albums with a giveaway to a New York City concert on social media.

Procter & Gamble has hired Omnicom‘s Ketchum and Marina Maher Communications to handle global PR for its future Olympics efforts. The PR responsibilities do not include brand work but instead focus on the company’s corporate program on the global and regional levels, as well as within the host country. The team’s assignments, which include the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, target effective integration and coordination among brand programs and disciplines of various agencies and do not designate a single brand agency leader.

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Omnicom earnings announcement for Q1 2012 showed an overall 6.5 percent revenue growth for the company’s PR business during the quarter, totaling $306.9 million. Organic growth was 4.4 percent for the quarter. PR accounts for 9.3 percent of Omnicom’s total revenue. Omnicom’s PR firms include Ketchum, Fleishman-Hillard, and Porter Novelli.

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The Hispanic Public Relations Association has named its first national board of directors. Among those on the board are Oralia Michel, president of Omagen, who will serve as president of the board; Melissa Smith, EVP at RLPR who’s an at-large board member; and Lourdes Rodriguez, an account supervisor at VPE Public Relations who will serve as VP of programs. HPRA was founded in 1984 in Los Angeles. [via]

Sandra Fine (left) has been promoted to VP at rbb Public Relations. She joined the firm in 2005 as a senior account executive.

MSLGroup has announced a number of international appointments. Leonardo Sforza has been named MD in Brussels. He was previously head of research and EU affairs at Aon Hewitt. Richard Hayhurst has been named MD of the new healthcare practice in the MSL London office. He was previously the U.K. MD of Schwartz Communications, which was acquired in September 2011. And Adrian Rosenthal has joined MSLGroup in Germany as head of social media and digital. He was previously with Ketchum Pleon.

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Ketchum has partnered with market research agency The Modellers on a marketing analytics offering that will illustrate the ROI on a PR investment in order to help determine the best way to spend going forward for maximum effect. The two Omnicom companies will use marketing-mix modeling and other analysis to determine the PR ROI. This offering is in addition to Ketchum’s measurement tools.

David Rockland, partner and MD of Ketchum Global Research & Analytics; Mary Elizabeth Germaine, SVP of Ketchum’s research and analytics group; and Jeff Brazell, CEO of The Modellers will lead the new effort.

Omnicom has named Dale Adams CEO of its Diversified Agency Services group, which houses the holding company’s PR firms including Fleishman-Hillard, Ketchum, and Porter Novelli. Adams was already president of the division. He replaces Thomas Harrison, who will continue on as chairman.

Adams has been president of the division since 2008 and joined the company in 1991. Together with Harrison, they have grown the division through more than 200 acquisitions.

Former Senator and U.S. ambassador Carol Moseley Braun

Former TVNewser editor Steve Krakauer has been promoted to CNN‘s senior digital producer in the U.S., a new position. He was previously digital producer for Piers Morgan Tonight. In this new role, he’ll lead social media activity across the network in an effort to attract and engage audiences. [via TVNewser]

Mirian Arias has been named VP of daytime communications at Disney/ABC Television Group, responsible for outreach on behalf of ABC Daytime, SOAPnet, and ABC Media Productions. She’ll handle the corporate and consumer PR matters, marketing, affiliate, and talent publicity.

Michael Goldberg has joined Porter Novelli as CMO and senior partner. Goldberg was most recently EVP and CMO of Zimmerman Advertising, another Omnicom firm, in Florida. He’ll be making the move to New York and start his new job in the beginning of 2012. PN has lost some business (including Gillette) and high-level staff of late, but says it has made gains in healthcare and food and beverage. [via Ad Age]

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Marcus Peterzell has joined Ketchum Sports & Entertainment (KSE) as EVP. The KSE division has clients including the World Triathlon Corporation (home of the Ironman) and Frito-Lay. He will report to KSE partner and MD Ann Wool and will be based in New York.

Previously, Peterzell worked with Omnicom agencies AWE, where he was co-president, and Fathom Communications, where he was MD of entertainment. He worked on campaigns for clients including Jeep, Philips, and Nokia.

WPP has taken the top spot as the biggest marketing group, displacing Omnicom.  WPP experienced a 13 percent increase in revenue following the 2008 acquisition of TNS, growing from $10.7 billion in 2008 to $12.1 billion in 2009. Omnicom, on the other hand, saw a decrease of 12 percent from $13.4bn to $11.7 for the same time period.

Publicis came in third and IPG in fourth.

Ketchum Pleon announced today that its merger in Germany is officially complete with the integration of businesses in Munich. The agency also has operations in other German cities including Berlin, Bonn, and Frankfurt.

The firm has also announced staff changes. Simone Hoch has been named MD of the new Munich office. Previously, she was a partner and head of Pleon’s Munich office. Sabine Stadel-Strauch has been promoted to head of European client service, a newly-created role. She was previously a partner and CEO of Ketchum’s Munich office. And Petra Sammer, formerly the managing and creative director for Ketchum Germany, has been promoted to chief creative officer of Ketchum Pleon Germany.

Merger plans were announced last summer. Ketchum Pleon will work alongside Omnicom‘s Emanate brand.

This week, Breakthrough, a global human rights organization that focuses on the use of the media and pop culture to address issues such as immigrant rights and violence against women, is launching an international media campaign to combat domestic violence.

Building on the successful Bell Bajao campaign (“Ring the Bell” in Hindi), the effort will use PSAs,  social networking sites such as YouTube, blogs, and traditional media to encourage young men and boys to ring the doorbells of homes where they hear domestic violence taking place. The campaign has already reached 130 million people in India, according to a Breakthrough spokesperson, and will now reach out to international audiences in the US, Pakistan, and Vietnam, among other countries.

Campaign partners include Omnicom (Ogilvy & Mather did pro bono work on the campaign) and the UNiTE to End Violence Against Women Campaign. The campaign will launch tomorrow at the Clinton Global Initiative‘s (CGI’s) “Empowering Girls and Women” event.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, pictured above, is participating with an appearance in a video currently available on the Bell Bajao website.