Coyne PR signs with Midea as their US PR Agency of Record
The Chinese-headquartered Midea, with over 100K employees and locations in more than 200 countries, just hired Coyne Public Relations as their first US PR representation. Coyne will be working to increase the brand’s presence among industry stakeholders and key media outlets in the US. Midea offers products in air treatment, laundry, kitchen appliances, floor care, lighting, refrigeration, large cooking appliances, and water appliances. They are a Fortune 500 company founded in 1968, though they are relatively new in the states.
Coyne already did some work for Midea earlier in the year during the launch of the latter’s new air conditioning products at the International Air-Conditioning, Heating, Refrigeration Expo in Vegas. In the process, Coyne boosted Midea’s media presence with one-on-one media interactions, a customer reception, and press conference.
Danielle Pesce Promoted to PadillaCRT NYC Food and Beverage Director
The New York office of PadillaCRT just saw a promotion from account supervisor to director of their food and beverage practice with Danielle Pesce taking the reins. She’s been with Padilla since 2006 when she started working with both US Highbush Blueberry Council and Consorzio del Prosciutto di Parma accounts. For three years she helped manage the “Legends from Europe” campaign. While doing so, she worked on partnerships with television and radio chefs, media relations, recipe and photography development, and a food service training program.
Padilla also saw several other promotions across their network including promotions from assistant account executive to account executives – Melissa Mowery (Consumer – DC), Blake Mirzayan (Corporate – Richmond), Laura Campbell (FoodMinds – Chicago), and Moira Allyson (Foodminds – Chicago). Other promotions were given to Tim Nelson (Tech – Minneapolis) from senior acct. exec to acct. supervisor; Katie Priebe (Crisis – Minneapolis) from acct. exec. to senior acct. exec.; Shalee Hanson (Bus. Development – Minneapolis) from coordinator to specialist; and Cassie Verde (FoodMinds – Chicago) from senior acct. exec. to acct. supervisor.
Weber Shandwick Brings Gary Sheffer on Board as Sr. Corporate Strategist
Gary Sheffer joined Weber Shandwick to focus on culture, executive engagement, and corporate reputation. Sheffler previously was chief communications officer at GE until his retirement in 2015. While he was at GE, he oversaw their global communications (in and out of house) including employee engagement, media relations, and public affairs. But he’s back to work now – out of the agency’s New York office.
Feintuch Communications Now Repping Klarna in North America PR Campaigns
Klarna, an innovative payment provider headquartered in Sweden and with offices in Columbus, Ohio, and New York just signed Feintuch Communications as their PR AOR in North America. Klarna is in 18 markets globally serving 45 million consumers through 65K online merchants. In North America they are best known for allowing for payment of online purchases over time without using a credit card. Feintuch brings extensive experience working with retail markets, e-commerce, and online payments as they specialize in the fintech sector with clients such as PaySafe, FOREX.com, DealVector, Rezzcard, and SimCorp.
2016 Was a Good Year for WPP PLC
WPP PLC, the world’s largest advertising group, showed strong earnings for 2016 with an increase of 20.9% in earnings per share up from 2015. Their revenues increased by 17.6% from the previous year, totaling approximately $19.4 billion showing ongoing growth. They were especially strong in North America, Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East, the UK, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.
WPP expects 2017 to continue the growth cycle, anticipating earnings per share to increase by 10-15% using revenue growth, acquisitions, margin expansion, and share buybacks. Many analysts say that with ongoing revenue increases and targeted acquisitions, growth momentum should continue through 2017 and likely beyond.