By Greg Hazley
Ogilvy PR Worldwide and the California High-Speed Rail Authority are set to part ways after less than two years on a four-year, $9M PR contract.
Michael Law, managing director of Ogilvy’s West Coast operation, said in a letter to the rail authority this week that the firm was unable to develop a solid working relationship with the state agency “and that impeded the kind of top-notch work we are accustomed to providing our clients.”
The Sacramento Bee reported that a former authority board member and state senator, Quentin Kopp, earlier this year urged officials to cancel the PR contract because of public criticism of the $45B rail project, which aims to build high-speed rail lines between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The rail authority account had a tumultuous start in 2009. Ogilvy beat Porter Novelli in November of that year after Mercury Public Affairs dropped won an initial RFP but quit the pact amid media pressure over its ties to the Schwarzenegger administration.
Ogilvy had billed more than $2M through February 2011, the first year of the expected four and a half-year contract. That work has included an overhaul of the authority’s website, drafting statewide distribution materials, reaching out to elected officials and community leaders, and producing hundreds of outreach meetings. It work has extended from Sacramento to Washington, D.C.
The PR contract is expected to be discussed at a meeting of the authority’s board this month.
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