Welcome to our review of PR Pitches and mergers & acquisitions in the UK PR scene with Andrew Bloch. Here we discuss the biggest pitch wins and mergers & acquisitions that the PR sector has seen in November 2024.
Andrew is the lead consultant - PR, Social, Content and Influencer at the new business consultancy firm AAR and a partner at PCB Partners, where he advises on buying and selling marketing services agencies.
Andrew launched Andrew Bloch & Associates in 2020.
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3 mins Andrew on the current state of the PR market. How does the golden quarter compare to previous years.
“Measurement is more critical than it ever has been.”
PITCHES
DFS appoint Red Consultancy and PR First. Teneo continues to work on financial comms.
“Everyone loves a retail client.”
Simply Business appoint Golin.
Danone appoint Freuds.
“This is a whopper… a fame making brief.”
“The best agencies have had very good years organically (growth.)”
Pret A Manger appoint Frank. Headland continues looks after corporate pr
Levis appoint Burson – corp reputation brief across the EU.
Stanley 1913 appoint The Romans – pr and influencer for drinkware brand (best known for Stanley cups – the quencher) UK, France, Germany, Netherlands. Product launches, brand partnerships. Apply creative with local relevance.
PG Tips appoint The Romans – retained pr and social- engaging tea lovers across UK. PG Tips now part of Liptons (formerly Unilever) Rebrand – new blends, packaging etc. previously a project client. Digital and social now a third of all biz for Romans.
Cayman Islands Tourism Dept appoint Allison.
Essity appoint PR Agency One. B2B comms brief to raise the profile of the group and reinforce position as industry and category leader across brands.
Fed Olsen Cruises appoint The Academy – consumer pr. Targeting new and existing passengers. Previously in-house.
Tui (First Choice/Marella Cruises) appoint Ogilvy for a long term comms strategy and earned first activation. First Choice merged with TUI in 2007.
Nest, the UK Government backed pension scheme, appoint H+K (now part of Burson) – Corporate reputational support services. Also work with Blurred to help promote purpose PR strategy.
Uni of Warwick appoint Shook
This month's round up of M&A activity:
“This has been a boom month for the PR M&A sector.”
Croud sell majority stake to ECI (PE) – Croud is a full service marketing company. Croud is estimated to be worth £180M+. Fee income of £23.5M.
“Croud is one to watch for sure.”
Coolr sell minority share to Growth Capital Partners (GCP.) Founded in 2017 by Adam Clyne. 120 full time employees (FTEs.) This acquisition will help deepen service offering and scale quicker including i