Toshiba Moves PR Back to Howorth

We are proud to announce Howorth’s newest client, Toshiba (Australia) Pty Limited. The team at Howorth will manage PR for Toshiba’s notebook and AV businesses across Australia and New Zealand.

“We are looking forward to working with the Howorth team again and leveraging its consumer expertise in PR and social media,” said Ms Thomas, National Marketing Communications Manager, Toshiba (Australia) Pty Limited.

Howorth previously worked for Toshiba for six years and teams-up with Toshiba again from 13 February 2013.

Contact details for the Howorth PR team will be communicated in due course.

OgilvyEarth rings opening bell at New York Stock Exchange to celebrate Carbon Disclosure Project report

OgilvyEarth Global President Kim Slicklein today joined Paula di Perna, the Strategic Advisor of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), to ring the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange.  CDP is a non-profit organisation that provides a global system for thousands of companies and cities to measure, disclose, manage and share environmental information. It does in part this by working with 655 institutional investors holding US$78 trillion in assets to encourage companies to improve environmental disclosure and performance.This is instrumental in global efforts to drive greenhouse gas emission reductions and promote sustainable water use.

The ringing of the bell marked the launch of CDP’s annual S&P 500 report looking at how the largest US companies are managing their financial risks from environmental issues. OgilvyEarth is CDP’s official Communications Partner and the two organisations work closely together to ensure that CDP’s important environmental messages resonate.

CDP is a great partner for OgilvyEarth here in Australia.  CDP’s Australian office is located at Ogilvy House in Sydney, and CDP shares OgilvyEarth’s commitment to professional excellence. In a 2012 survey of 850 sustainability professionals carried out by GlobeScan/SustainAbility, CDP was ranked as the most credible rating system in the world, beating the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and FTSE4GOOD.

See the ringing of the NYSE bell here:

https://www.cdproject.net/en-US/News/CDP%20News%20Article%20Pages/CDP-rings-opening-bell-for-New-York-Stock-Exchange.aspx

You can find out more about CDP on their website: https://www.cdproject.net/

Work on some of Australia’s top technology brands with a lively and creative team

Utilise your existing experience and make your mark at a standard-setting agency with the brightest minds.

Leading technology agency – Howorth – is looking for an ambitious Account Manager or Senior Account Manager who can build a career working with some of the world’s best technology brands. You need to be passionate about enterprise technology and telecommunications, with at least 5+ years experience.

We’re looking for someone who loves a busy team environment and is passionate about creative ideas and achieving results that make a difference. You’ll need to be a ‘grown up’ and take responsibility for numerous projects and provide excellent client service using your industry knowledge and PR skills.

Here’s the expertise you have, that we’ll build on:

· Tight project management – including from formulation to evaluation.

· Strong communications/editing skills and the ability to teach and guide junior colleagues.

· Credible counsel and creativity that make your clients trust you.

· Good understanding of B2B social media experience

· Management skills that build the productivity of your team.

· Thorough insight and control of your clients’ budgets.

· Heavy hitting media skills and experienced understanding of key business & technology media.

You will also benefit from Ogilvy PR’s impressive benefits. Interested? Please email your CV to jennifer.street@ogilvy.com.au

The Canon G-Case Project

What do Jodhi Meares, Jules Lund, Akira Isogara and Romance Was Born have in common? They all hung out with us at an exclusive launch for Canon’s new PowerShot G1X in Sydney.

Canon came to us with a challenge – drive the G1X beyond the tech and photography pages and push it into the consumer lifestyle space where the target market likes to read, watch, listen and tweet. Our mission was to make the PowerShot G1X relevant to their lifestyle.

How did we do it? We rounded up 20 of Australia’s most creative minds to take part in what we called The G-Case Project. We called on a range of influential Aussies, from artists to designers and media personalities. In exchange for their very own G1X, we asked them each to re-design a camera case inspired by the camera itself.

The Project resulted in an awesome array of creative camera cases – or what we called G-Cases. To showcase the G-Case Project we held a VIP media event at a hole-in-the-wall gallery in Sydney, where top-tier fashion, travel, retail and consumer lifestyle media and influential bloggers, met, mingled and talked all things Canon.

For Canon, The G-Case Project was unlike anything the brand had embarked on in Australia before. It propelled the G1X onto the agendas of consumer lifestyle media and bloggers, and got the brand talking about its products with key influencers in the Australian market.

Ogilvy PR Launches OgilvyEngage, In Australia

Ogilvy Public Relations has launched the agency’s corporate social marketing practice, OgilvyEngage, in Australia.

OgilvyEngage develops strategies and communication campaigns that enable companies to motivate and assist consumers and other stakeholders to adopt socially-beneficial behaviours that are good for individuals, good for society, and good for business.

Tom Beall, Managing Director of OgilvyEngage, joined the Australian team this week to introduce the new practice at a breakfast panel event, Ogilvy On… win, win and winning. Moderated by ABC’s Tony Jones, Tom was joined on the panel by Carey Badcoe, Chief Executive of Australian Business and Community Network; Greg Bourne, Acting Chair of Australian Renewables Energy Agency; Wayne Burns, Director of The Allen Consulting Group; Tim O’Leary, Chief Sustainability Officer at Telstra; and Michael Traill, Chief Executive of Social Ventures Australia.

Tom said that while some think that influencing public behaviour movements to support socially desirable outcomes is the distinct purview of governments or nonprofits, changes to the economy and to society are mandating new approaches. “Adding behaviour change leadership from the private sector to that of government and public interest organisations will create a multi-faceted approach with exponential benefits”, he said.

OgilvyEngage will be led in Australia by Lelde McCoy, Managing Director of Ogilvy Public Relations Melbourne. Lelde has more than 25 years’ experience in strategic planning for integrated brand and reputation communications and behaviour change campaigns. Her teams have worked on some of Australia’s most important social issues including road safety, obesity, smoking control, cancer prevention, responsible alcohol consumption and sustainability and looks forward to extending her portfolio in the area of corporate social marketing.

Lelde said: “OgilvyEngage will help companies assess behaviour change opportunities, better understand the motivations of their consumer audiences, and design results-oriented messages, strategies and programs. And this can increase the impact of their CSR commitments. For example, changing the components of personal behavior, such as attitudes, motivations, or abilities, can prompt people to take medications regularly, encourage the routine purchase of healthier food products, motivate home safety preparedness, increase financial responsibility, and more.”

In conjunction with the global launch of OgilvyEngage in May, the agency has released the latest in its thought-provoking Red Papers series™. From Cause to Change: The business of behaviour discusses how companies can reap meaningful and measureable business performance and return on investment from socially-beneficial behaviour change programs.

Ogilvid Film Festival

Drawing on Ogilvy Public Relations’ mantra of What If?, last night we launched our inaugral Ogilvid Short Film Festival.

What If? is an attitude we adopt at Ogilvy PR that challenges the status quo and drives our culture forward. Through askingWhat If? we improve the quality of our thinking and creativity, and strive to constantly push boundaries and discover new ways to communicate. We believe that if we keep asking What If?, at some point we will be rewarded with the response Why Not?

The objective of Ogilvid is to realise the importance of content in our every day lives as communicators. The brief was to create a short film around a compelling and engaging idea. Teams focused on bringing theirWhat If? idea to life through great storytelling rather than big budgets and hi-tech equipment.

After months of hard work, our 13 teams showcased their final works to an expert panel of judges at the Ogilvid Gala last night, and without further ado, please congratulate the winners…

Read more

All aboard at Howorth!

Substantial organic business growth and new client wins in the first five months of 2012 has seen five new people join Howorth.

Ant Kelaher in the position of Associate Director from Splendid Communications; Sophie Kriefman as Account Manager from Grayling UK; Danielle Zhu as Senior Consultant from Taurus; Justine Taylor as Consultant from The Narrative; and Isabella Lynch as Account Coordinator from Microsoft.

Howorth’s Managing Director Graham White said: “The first five months of 2012 have seen a lot of good growth come from a number of our existing clients, as well as some exciting new client wins/projects. As a result, we continue to make critical appointments, drawing in experience from many different sectors that include consumer, corporate and B2B PR.”

New client wins in 2012 include Brighthost, Australian Wool Innovation, Coca-Cola Project Catalyst, Veda, SkillsDMC, Yelp, Yammer and Telstra International.

Ant (pictured standing middle), joined Howorth at the end of January, and leads the Microsoft account and provides senior strategic counsel to brands that include Ancestry.com.au and Canon.

Ant also plays a critical role in the growth of Howorth’s consumer technology practice and his experience at Splendid Communications as client services director on brands like Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, Baileys, Red Bull, 20^th Century Fox Home Entertainment and MAC Cosmetics, brings a wealth of consumer expertise to the team. Prior to Splendid, Ant worked at MySpace as Marketing Communications Director, which included the launch of numerous social networking products, the MySpace Music streaming service, the delivery of around 40 music and 20 film events, and the development of  major partnerships in the entertainment industry.

Danielle’s (pictured sitting right) joined Howorth in February and works on both pan-regional and local clients including Intel, Thunderhead and Kronos – Danielle’s ability to speak fluent Mandarin has already proven invaluable in her regional role for Intel!

Danielle’s previous PR experience includes driving media relations campaigns for insurance giants QBE, as well as a range of domestic and global technology companies.

Sophie (pictured standing right), joined Howorth in May and works on Microsoft, Tourism Australia, Veda, SkillsDMC, Intel Capital, eFINITY and Australian Wool Innovation.

Sophie joined from Grayling in the UK and brings four years’ agency and in-house experience from a range of technology, corporate and financial clients. This includes The Economist Intelligence Unit, ACE Insurance, DFJ Esprit, Sophos, Telekom Austria and Lloyds Banking Group. She also worked in-house for SAS. Sophie has already put her solid media relations skills to good use by securing some great coverage for Microsoft’s Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals, which take place in Sydney in July this year.

Isabella (pictured sitting left) joined Howorth in May and is working on Microsoft, Citrix and Canon. While this is Isabella’s first PR role, most recently she spent two years at Microsoft working in the Executive Briefing Centre and Consumer Immersion Experience.

Justine (pictured standing left) is Howorth’s latest recruit, and is working on brands that include Canon, Austrade, SkillsDMC and Australian Wool Innovation.

Justine made the move from The Narrative, where she worked on a range of corporate, technology and consumer accounts including Chan & Naylor National Accounting Firm, Patron Financial Advice, Tiger Airways, Sumo Salad and Zylux. Justine has also developed some great social media expertise for JMC Academy.

“We welcome our new team members and wish them every success in their new roles,” adds Graham.

Howorth unveils three new hires

On the back of continued growth, Howorth has appointed three new employees across its specialist practices. Robin Clark joins in the position of account director in the technology team, Tegan Knight in the position of account manager in the consumer and lifestyle team, and Steven Reilly in the position of senior account manager in the corporate and business-to-business team.

Howorth’s managing director, Graham White, said: “Howorth experienced a record year in 2010 and we’ve seen continued growth and momentum in 2011, adding a number of new clients and further organic growth within our existing portfolio. As a result, we’ve had to further expand the teams and we’re delighted with the new talent coming into the agency.”

Clark (pictured left) is relocating to Sydney from Weber Shandwick, London, where he has spent eight years working his way through to the position of account director, leading a number of international technology and corporate accounts including Capgemini, Microsoft Research, Microsoft EMEA and Monster Europe. Clark’s first role in PR was at Apple in 2002, when he was offered a role as a PR assistant following a successful internship. At Howorth, Clark will be working on clients that include Telstra, Intel and Hitachi Data Systems.

Reilly (pictured middle) joins from the Sydney Opera House where he has been working as a communications specialist for the past five years. Two key highlights include the Oprah Winfrey Show with Tourism Australia and the YouTube Symphony Orchestra with Google, which gained 33 million viewers, overtaking U2 as the most viewed live performance on YouTube. Other key events included APEC Australia and the FIFA World Congress.

Reilly started his career in his native Scotland and prior to coming to Australia held communications roles at organisations including the UK Film Council, Scottish Screen and marketing agency 2Fluid Creative, At Howorth, he will be supporting the management and growth of Howorth’s B2B/Corporate practice, working on a range of business-to-business and corporate clients and including reputation, sustainability and CSR-focused programs.

Knight (pictured right) has been freelancing since arriving in Australia in September 2010, including TMTE Group, Hausmann Communications and Hill & Knowlton. He has also worked as a trade marketing assistant at ninemsn.  In London, Knight was a senior publicist at Romley Davies Publicity managing PR campaigns for Universal Pictures and 20^th Century Fox, as well as press management of the BAFTA Children’s Awards and the EMPIRE Film Awards. At Howorth, he will be working on a number of accounts in the company’s Digital Lifestyle Group including Microsoft.

Howorth is part of Ogilvy PR Australia, the country’s largest and most awarded public relations agency, which has scooped more than 50 Australian and global trophies in the past two years. In 2010, Howorth took top honours amongst all WPP-owned worldwide PR agencies, winning best PR campaign of the year.

Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence appoints seven new specialists on the back of strong and continued growth

Ogilvy’s social media practice 360 Digital Influence, part of STW Group, has added another seven employees to its team on the back of significant growth and demand for social media expertise. Ogilvy will also unveil a further two appointments in August.

Since the April 2009 arrival of Brian Giesen, Regional Director of Ogilvy 360? Digital Influence, the practice has grown to 14 specialist practitioners. In that short time, the practice has seen revenue growth of 440%.

Graham White, Managing Director of Ogilvy 360? Digital Influence Australia, said the practice has experienced rapid growth from day one. “Our growth, both in people and financial performance, reflects the ongoing demand from clients across the Ogilvy Group for strategic counsel and the creation and execution of powerful social media strategies – integrated with other marketing and communications disciplines.

“We’re seeing clients continuing to push more funds into ongoing social media activity. As such, we are also adding two more hires in August to ensure we can fulfil that demand and continue to be at the forefront of social media and digital engagement in Australia.”

Ogilvy 360? Digital Influence also became the most awarded social media team in the region after winning ‘Digital Agency of the Year’ by the region’s highly coveted Holmes Report Specialist Agencies of the Year Awards in April.

Giesen said the practice was extremely proud to receive this award as it recognised the consistent and disciplined delivery of outstanding work by the team.

“This is an excellent achievement which is particularly rewarding given the challenges of growing demand as digital influence skills and successful execution become increasingly important to all of our clients,” said Giesen.

“We’re thrilled to have another new wave of experienced talent joining us. They bring with them an array of knowledge and expertise in strategic digital planning, video content creation, analysis and analytics and community management.”

The seven new hires include two Digital Strategists and five Digital Analysts. They are:

• Lachlan Hibbert-Wells, joining as a Digital Strategist from Daemon Group where he was a Digital Planning Director;
• Megan Anhalt, joining as a Digital Strategist from US-based DoSomething.org, where she was Director of Media and Talent Relations;
• Mitch Phillips, joining from OMD as a Digital Analyst to work across a number of the practice’s consumer and natural resources sector clients;
• Gregory Tan, joining as a Digital Analyst from an online retail start-up in Melbourne;
• Mark Redshaw, joining as a Digital Analyst after three years as a researcher and sub-editor at online business information service, IRD Group;
• Melanie Vaz, joining as a Digital Analyst after working in Ogilvy PR since 2009. She is currently completing Award School through the Communications Council;
• Nathalie Bulsing, joining as a Digital Analyst following four years as a microbiological analyst in The Netherlands.

Ogilvy 360? Digital Influence is Ogilvy’s industry-leading social media and word of mouth marketing practice designed to help brands in an era of changing sources of influence. It is part of Ogilvy PR Australia, a joint venture between Ogilvy PR Worldwide and STW Group, Australia’s leading marketing content and communications services group.

Ends

For further information:

Tessa Sexton

STW Group

+61 421 098 674

JVC announces major new partnership with Ruby Rose

JVC is working with Australia’s favourite VJ, model, designer and DJ, Ruby Rose, throughout 2011 in a special partnership which will see Ruby Rose launch Sydney’s newest pop-up festival, Bustival.

A one-day, portable festival which will tour various Sydney destinations by bus, Bustival will be fronted and curated by Ruby Rose as the event’s DJ, and will launch at the start of Sydney’s summer festival season. Music fans, festival-goers and Ruby followers will be invited to co-create the experience, from the music Ruby plays, to the destinations the festival visits, driven by public voting.

In addition to Bustival, the JVC Ruby Rose partnership will also see Rose appear in a range of marketing activities, including an advertising campaign, a series of digital films, and retail POS material.

Launched by the Howorth Digital Lifestyle team who will handle the PR and publicity for the partnership and the Bustival event, JVC is also working in conjunction with a number of agencies on the wider marketing activity, including IM Advertising and The Punch Agency.

JVC’s partnership with Rose is the first time the brand has brought a major personality on board to support its portfolio of audio, visual and car entertainment products in Australia. As well as integrating the products into her lifestyle, Rose will feature in marketing activities and advertising for JVC specifically created for each product category. Rose will also engage with JVC’s key target demographic talking directly with users of technology.

Commenting on the partnership, Howorth Digital Lifestyle Director Amanda Kiddle said: “Bustival is a new kind of co-created experience that invites people to get closer to, and personalise, their own festival experience.

“Ruby Rose has a strong connection with Australians from all walks of life, and the partnership with JVC will enable fans to enjoy new kinds of Ruby Rose-curated content and experiences that are delivered through JVC’s extensive range of entertainment products.”

Comments Ruby Rose: “JVC products fit really closely with how I live my life so the brand was a natural fit for me. With a number of exciting new launches scheduled for this year, there’s a product that taps in to everything I’m interested in right now, from music to filming to learning to drive – so it’s great to be working with JVC and together bringing new experiences for my fans this year.”

Ruby Rose is currently hosting MTV STYLE Sunday nights at 6:30 PM on MTV and is a proud ambassador of Head Space Australia (www.headspace.org.au).  Ruby is also currently DJing Australia wide.

Details of the Bustival event will be released throughout the coming year, and fans can get further information on the event by following: http://www.facebook.com/JVCAustralia, http://twitter.com/JVCAustralia , http://twitter.com/RubyRose1, www.rubyrose.com.au and www.facebook.com/OfficialRubyRose.

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