Happenings at Marino, Porter Novelli, PR Agencies for P&G, Penn State PR, MWW PR, and Zimmerman Advertising
Marino becomes AOR for New Rochelle
Manhattan PR agency Marino just won the bid to become the city of New Rochelle’s public relations firm. The selection process began in June. Marino was founded by Frank Marino in 1993, but before that he graduated from Iona College in New Rochelle and later served in public affairs for Ed Koch during his time as mayor of NYC between 1979-1988.
Marino will help New Rochelle build a reputation for good economic development for businesses considering moving there. The city has already been redeveloping and promoting the waterfront and downtown areas. They also have started new zoning and redevelopment of downtown using RDRXR, a RXR Realty and Renaissance Downtowns’ partnership. The city wants others to see they are not only pro-business but a good place for families to live and work with easy access to Manhattan through the Metro-North New Haven rail.
New People at Porter Novelli May Mean Problems
In recent months, Porter Novelli has gone through a lot of staff changes and has posted lower than estimated earnings. That leaves many wondering about the stability and success of the firm that is part of the mother corporation, Omnicom. They’ve just brought in another three people to hopefully stabilize the firm. These include Bruce Ginsberg, Sr. VP of business development, Peter Dibart, creative director, and Julie Schumacher Ciardiello, managing director of the NYC office. Schumacher Ciardiello left Ketchum, where she’s worked since 2007, most recently as co-director of their food and beverage practice for North America, and before that she was in charge of the food and wellness division in their NYC office. In her new position she’ll oversee health and wellness, food, consumer, tech, and corporate communications. She replaces Erin Osher who remains with PN but moves to their Seattle office. Peter DiBart came from Max Borges Agency where he was the creative director for their NY satellite office. Bruce Ginsberg will use his 20 years of PR experience leading new business development work.
This firm has been plagued with many years of staff issues and client problems.
Procter & Gamble Looks to Double Impact of PR and Advertising While Cutting Agencies by Half
P&G seems to be streamlining their efforts, both with PR and ad agencies, as well as their product lines, although they currently spent about $500 million on that portion of their budget annually. In the last couple of years they dropped 100 of their brands and focused on their 70 or so more productive brands.
Now they are cutting the advertising and PR agencies they work with to about half the number they used previously. They are looking for other ways to cut costs in that part of their budget while increasing creativity. P&G’s chief brand officer, Marc Pritchard, said the conglomerate wants “open sourcing in creativity” to cut ad costs. They will also pool production in their agencies and use more digital tech in the process. Some of the PR agencies they’ve been using include Citizen and Porter Novelli for global markets. Most of the work is divided between PR holding companies including Omnicom, WPP, and Publicis.
Arthur W. Page Center Adds 3 to Advisory Board
Three new advisory board members were elected to the nine-member board at the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communications. They are Ellyn Fisher, Sr. VP of the Ad Council; Tom Martin, ITT’s and FedEx’s former VP of communications and currently College of Charleston’s executive-in-residence; and Gary Sheffer, former VP of communications at GE. Board members give guidance for the leaders at the center and assist in building awareness across the PR industry, as well as participating in fundraising efforts.
MWW PR and SBOANJ’s Efforts to Expand NJ Casino Rejected
Even though there was a grassroots effort encouraging voters to accept the proposal to expand the gambling casino in northern NJ, the motion was not passed, and that didn’t surprise most people. The casino is deeply tied to horse racing and breeding, so the election results devastated horse lovers throughout the state. Mark Ford, President of SBOANJ, along with MWW, have been feverishly working on a new plan to benefit the cause. Ford said: “We may have lost this battle, but we are not ready to give up, we are determined to continue the fight to keep our industry competitive.”
MWW PR worked hard – but lost.
Zimmerman Advertising Brings T. Scott King to Their Board of Advisors
Zimmerman Advertising just added T. Scott King to their Board of Advisors. King brings 30+ years’ experience of breathing life back into brands and companies while working as a CEO, Division President, and Sr. MD in many companies, both private and public. His goal is to amplify the craft of advertising campaigns for clients and their long-term business initiatives. CEO of Zimmerman, Michael Goldberg, said: “In our business, there is nothing more powerful than knowledge and expertise. It solves problems. It creates growth. And nobody understands growth at the speed the retail sector demands as well as Scott.” King’s past posts include a stint with Sherwin-Williams Company, managing paint brands for Dutch Boy, Martha Stewart, Ralph Lauren, and others. During his 10 or so years with Sun Capital he strengthened brands such as Shopko, Friendly’s, VPS Convenience Stores, Fazoli’s, Jiffy Lube, Bruegger’s Bagels, Marsh Supermarkets, Gordmans, and The Limited.
