What’s New at Edelman, Mercury, Burson-Marsteller & Feintuch Communications
Chobani Switches PR Rep Again – This Time to Edelman
As of the 1st of March, Edelman represents the Greek yogurt brand Chobani. Edelman replaces Weber Shandwick which had represented the brand since late 2013. Before WS, it was FleishmanHillard for four years. Chobani has $1 billion in annual sales and since launching in 2007 has become one of the US’s fastest growing brands. But they are taking all the great efforts that have been made by their previous PR representatives and building on that preexisting work, so there are more sales in Mexico and sales in the US are becoming closer to the number per capita of yogurt eaters to what the European market enjoys. Michael Gonda, Chobani’s VP of corporate communications and public affairs, and former WS employee, said they are grateful to WS for their help, but they are going more for in house efforts and expanding that team as well as shifting to Edelman as their outside PR counsel.
Commonwealth of Dominica Signs Mercury as PR AOR
Dominica in the Eastern Caribbean archipelago just retained Mercury Public Affairs for help with public affairs, strategy, and media relations efforts. Dominica sits between Guadeloupe and Martinique and was a former British colony is also known as “Nature Island of the Caribbean” because two-thirds of the island is covered in tropical rainforests. The contract is for three months (at least to begin with) and pays a fee of $90K, working with the Omnicom public affairs company, Mercury. According to the Foreign Agents Registration information filed in March, they will be offering help in strategic consulting and management with what Dominica faces in that time for government relations and issues management.
Rolex Tops Reputation Rankings with Reputation Institute
Rolex has always had a top-notch reputation, but they’ve sealed the deal by receiving the first “excellent” rating ever given by the Reputation Institute in their annual 100 Global RepTrak Rankings. The Institute looks at over 170K ratings done during Q1 2017, measuring public perception for seven key areas – products, services, workplace governance, leadership, performance, innovation, and citizenship. To receive the “excellent” rank, Rolex had to get an overall RepTrak Pulse score of 80+.
Rolex beat the numbers from LEGO Group, which was four spots higher than the previous showing, the Walt Disney Group, Canon, and Google. That’s also the order of spots 1-5 in the list. Other companies that soared include Adidas, Rolls-Royce, Sony, Bosch, and Intel.
Genesis Burson-Marsteller (India) Add Three More India Practice Leaders
There are now three new chairs in the Genesis Burson-Marsteller (GBM) practice in India. In consumer tech – Piyal Banerjee; in brands, sports, and entertainment – Dolly Tayal; and in enterprise tech – Shivaram Lakshminarayan. The move splits their technology practice into two new divisions. As GBM grows, they expect more chairs to be added to the PR and public affairs consultancy working with top global and Indian companies.
Feintuch Communications Picks up Klarna as Client
Klarna is a Swedish e-commerce company providing financing for consumer online shopping without customers needing to use a credit or debit card. They are based in Stockholm, and though they were only founded in 2005, they now provide about 40% of all e-commerce sales in Sweden and boast 45 million customers globally. The company’s US headquarters is in Columbus, OH. Klarna recently signed with the New York-based PR agency, Feintuch Communications, for their North American efforts as they expand more services into this market. Feintuch has been tasked to work with the company’s team to increase market support using Klarna’s efforts. Feintuch will be focusing efforts on integrated PR and social media campaigns.
