Truvia Hires Carmichael Lynch and Spong for PR
Carmichael Lynch, along with their sister agency, Spong PR, have been signed as AOR for Truvia, a natural low-calorie sweetener produced from the stevia plant. CL/Spong will represent Truvia in the U.S. and aid with digital content, media, brand planning, PR, and advertising. Regarding their choice, A.J. Aumock, global marketing leader for Truvia, said, “We really liked the fact they are both outstanding agencies, and they’re under one roof, so they’re constantly aligned strategically, and we’re already starting to feel the advantages and synergy.” CL will be in the lead for creative and strategic marketing efforts.
Redstone’s Battle Brings Several PR Agencies into the Mix
Edelman PR, ML Strategies, Cone Communications, and Brunswick are all representing participants in Sumner Redstone’s battle with the CEO of Viacom, Philippe Dauman. That’s to say nothing of all the lawyers addressing the case in open court, or all the workers back in offices supporting the process.
Judge George Phelan in his small Massachusetts courtroom recently came face-to-face with 22 lawyers representing clients in the case against Dauman, who’s been sent packing by both the Redstone family trust and National Amusements board.
Viacom’s PR is coming from Edelman and legal representation from Paul, Weiss. Shari Redstone has ML Strategies on tap for PR and Mintz Levin for legal. Sumner Redstone has Cone Communications for PR and a couple of law firms on tap. And Viacom/CBS’s controlling shareholder – National Amusements, hired Crisis PR experts, Brunswick along with Cleary Gottlieb for legal help.
A variety of other participants in the legal battle bring their separate legal eagles providing counsel. With Sumner’s $40 billion media empire’s control at stake, there may ultimately be even more PR and law firms joining the fray.
Nuclear Energy Institute Adds APCO Worldwide for PR Support
NEI’s primary purpose is presenting best nuclear tech uses to the various branches on Capitol Hill as well as federal and state leaders and regulators. They seek to form polices and promote nuclear energy and technologies’ beneficial uses globally and in the U.S. For that reason, they recently added APCO Worldwide, one of the largest PR providers in the world as their Agency of Record.
APCO will work with NEI’s SVP of communications, Scott Peterson. NEI previously worked with Hill+Knowlton on other projects.
WPP Creates New Positions to From Within Their Agencies
Kieran Moore has just been named as CEO of public relations and public affairs for the WPP AUNZ group – this is a new position for the newly formed entity. The new entity happened after WPP’s takeover of STW recently. Another new position goes to Ben Dixon, CEO of Kantars for Australia and New Zealand. His new position will be CEO data investment management for WPP AUNZ. The two will report to Mike Connaghan and WPP AUNZ’s board of directors.
Between the two of them, Moore and Dixon will be in charge of 26 agencies under the WPP AUNZ PR umbrella. Moore will continue devoting 50% of her time to Ogilvy PR, and Dixon also will continue to devote time to Kantar. Some of the PR groups under WPP AUNZ PR include Hill+Knowlton, Ogilvy PR, Ogilvy Impact, Ogilvy PR Health, and Burson-Marsteller.
Celebrity PR and the Encore Score
Australia’s 2016 Encore Score results were recently announced at the Mumbrella360 conference. The scores are a combination of results from two polls showing 60 names of Australian and international celebrities (not including any politicians). The top five chosen on the list were Hugh Jackman, Jamie Oliver (chef), Chris Hemsworth, Dawn French, and Cate Blanchett.
The conference featured two speakers who are CEOs of talent agencies – Fordham Agency, and HMMG, who spoke about how “celebrity” should be defined and how agencies looking for celebrity endorsements or representation should approach their search. Some of their remarks can be found here.