EDELMAN CUTS DEAL
FOR TV ADS IN EUROPE
Edelman has struck a unique deal with client CNBC in Europe that will see the largest independent PR firm advertising its services on the continent.

David Brain, president of Edelman in London, told O'Dwyer's the firm handles public affairs work for the business news network in Brussels and does PR in London, Frankfurt and Paris.

"As the relationship developed, we asked about putting something on the air," he said. "We do all the normal things one would associate with marketing the firm and this seemed like another avenue."

Brain said he believes the spots, which should begin airing within a month, are the first for PR.

HWH SNAPS UP CASIO.
New York-based HWH PR has picked up Casio's PR account in North America, a sweeping assignment that encompasses several product lines.

The PR work has been estimated at $1 million+.

Lois Whitman, president and COO of HWH, told this NL her firm was recommended by an executive at client Kyocera. Whitman noted Casio has not retained an agency of record in recent years. HWH won the account in a review against one other finalist.

The company, with HWH's help, plans to launch new cameras in the fall, including what it claims will be the world's smallest digital camera.

In the U.S., Casio is based in Dover, N.J.

FENTON REACHES
ACROSS THE AISLE.
Fenton Communications has been tapped by a new 527 group of Republicans threatening to withhold their votes for President Bush in November unless the GOP moves its platform to what they say is a more moderate position.

The group, Back to the Mainstream, has launched a website and ad campaign playing up issues like environmental protection, stem-cell research and the federal budget deficit.

Fenton put together a news conference for the group in New York on Aug. 30.

Former governors of New Mexico, Washington, Virginia, Michigan and New Hampshire were among signatories of a full-page ad in the New York Times Aug. 30 urging the President and Congress to do things like "restore fiscal responsibility," appoint mainstream judges and rebuild U.S. alliances.

Fenton has consistently aligned itself with liberal groups like Moveon.org and Air America Radio.

HIMLER LEAVES B-M
FOR NEW EDELMAN POST.
Peter Himler, a 17-year veteran of Burson-Marsteller and its Cohn & Wolfe unit, will join Edelman Sept. 13 as EVP/chief media officer, a new post.

Himler was managing director of B-M heading the "Strategic & Corporate Media" team in the U.S. corporate/financial practice. He also was B-M's global spokesperson.

Pam Talbot, U.S. president and COO of Edelman, said Himler is "ideally suited" to deal with the proliferation of media channels, the explosion of micro-media, and the convergence of news and entertainment.

"He has been an established force in dealing with the news media for as long as I have known him," she said.

Himler, who is president of the Publicity Club of New York, will head the more than 20 members of the national media relations team.

He recently completed an eight-year assignment heading the PR campaign to build the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Triggs Heads Health Unit in London

Edelman has also brought in a B-M exec to head its European health practice. Kate Triggs, a 15-year veteran of B-M who headed the firm's corporate, technology and health practices in London, was picked for the new position of executive VP and European managing director, health.

NIMH WANTS MARCOM ADVICE.
The National Institute of Mental Health is asking for input from marketing communications firms as it considers issuing an RFP to support its broad PR, media relations and information dissemination efforts.

The Bethesda, Md.-based government body has issued a "sources sought" notice to solicit input on, among other tasks, communications planning, media relations, media training, and print and electronic educational campaigns.

Responses are due by Sept. 13. Suzanne Stinson (301/443-4116, [email protected]) is handling input from firms.

Patton Boggs has picked up a $400K government relations pact with Cameroon, which is holding a presidential election in October.

The firm is to represent Cameroon in dealing with the U.S. Congress, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Overseas Private Investment Corp. Joseph Brand heads the account.

C&W BACK IN WINDY CITY.
Cohn & Wolfe has re-entered the Chicago market, where it billed as much as $3 million during the late 1990s, for the first time since closing up shop in 2001.

The WPP unit has lured back healthcare PR veteran Sherri Jaffe to spearhead the push. Jaffe re-joins the firm from TAP Pharmaceutical Products, where she was group marketing manager after a three-year stint at C&W.

She takes the title EVP and managing director.

Jaffe is a nine-year veteran of Pfizer -- a key C&W client -- where she was a product manager for Zoloft.

The firm will initially focus on healthcare and consumer areas with a handful of staffers.

ALLISON ACQUIRES
SMITH PR IN L.A.
Allison & Partners has acquired Smith PR, a Los Angeles-based firm with clients like Cakebread Cellars and Safeway. Both firms are part of the Pinnacle Worldwide network.

Steve Smith, who founded his self-named firm in 1994, serves as managing director of San Francisco-based A&P in Los Angeles.

Scott Allison, president of A&P, told this NL he has known Smith for about a year through Pinnacle, and liked the fit with A&P in L.A. He noted the acquisition adds Smith's consumer PR specialty to his firm's professional services, technology and entertainment work in the city.

Allison said his firm brought Smith's staff of five or six aboard in L.A., where A&P now has 17 staffers. Smith had counted as many as 16 employees in the last few years.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

BRODEUR REPS SECRET SHOPPERS.
National Shopping Service, a 33-year-old player in the billion-dollar "secret shopping" industry, has tapped Brodeur Worldwide after a search for a PR firm of record.

Steve Pearce, director of business development for NSS, told O Dwyer's the company was looking for a technology savvy firm with international reach, as NSS wants to network overseas through the industry's trade association, the Mystery Shopping Providers Assn. [MSPA hired Hart Assocs. earlier this year for PR.]

Pearce, who said the move is the company's first large-scale PR effort, began the process with a Google search for top firms with tech savvy. He said he had trouble locating contact information for the first firm he pursued (his calls were returned three days later), but easily hooked up with Brodeur.

"They treated us as a major player, sent a three-man team to see us, and otherwise made it an easy decision," he said.

The Omnicom unit's San Francisco office will head the account, which encompasses media and analyst relations and an array of other PR duties.

WESTIN TOUTS
CAMPAIGN SUCCESS.
A five-year marketing communications campaign promoting Westin Hotels & Resorts Heavenly Bed is credited by the company with boosting customer satisfaction and the creation of a brand icon.

The bed, which was conceived by Barry Sternlicht, chairman/CEO of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Westin's parent, has been featured in ads and in stories in The New York Times, USA Today, and Forbes, and on "The Today Show."

The company said more than 19 million guests have tucked themselves into a Heavenly Bed, and some 30,000 guests have insisted on taking the bed and linens home since the bed was introduced in 1999.

Sternlicht said the "industry thought we were nuts when we introduced this fluffy, all-white bed and did this huge PR campaign where we trotted the bed out to landmarks around the world including the New York Stock Exchange."

He said Westin's Heavenly Bed was the first of many Starwood innovations that gave the hotel industry, which had been cutting corners, "a much needed wake-up call and helped our brands differentiate themselves in a powerful way."

Nadeen Ayala, a spokesperson for Starwood, said all of the PR for the Heavenly Bed has been handled in-house by Westin's corporate PR department.

SWIFT BOAT VET
BRINGS IN PR HELP.
Xenophon Strategies is handling the PR defense of Rear Adm. William Schachte Jr., a Vietnam vet who has attacked Sen. John Kerry's war record but has come under fire for Republican ties to a lobbying contract and a contradictory statement about Kerry's role in Vietnam.

News reports have connected Schachte to a lobbying effort via Washington, D.C., firm Blank Rome that resulted in a $40 million federal contract this year. BR's chairman is co-chair of President Bush's re-election campaign in Pennsylvania and a partner is chair of the Republican National Convention's arrangements committee.

Schachte is registered with the Senate to lobby for Fastship, which won the lucrative military shipping contract.

D.C.-based Xenophon shepherded Schachte through an interview with conservative columnist Bob Novak and has issued a statement on his behalf which said he has never met either of the BR officials connected to Bush, had nothing to do with the contract and hasn't worked for BR in a couple of years.

Novak's Son Handles PR for Book

Meanwhile, Novak has been touting the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth book Unfit for Command without revealing that his son heads marketing and PR for its publisher. Alex Novak is director of marketing at Regnery, which claims to be the largest conservative publisher in America.

Novak told The New York Times that disclosing his son's position is "irrelevant," adding he's functioning as a columnist with a "strong point of view."

BOOK SHOW EYES
NATIONAL AUDIENCE.
Diane Sullivan, the producer of New England's "Books Of Our Time," believes this author-interview program would make an ideal replacement for C-SPAN's "Booknotes" show, which is going off the air Dec. 5.

Sullivan points out several leaders of the book and journalism industries, including C-SPAN's CEO Brian Lamb, have mentioned how desirable it would be if a host of a new book show, or a group of hosts of a new show, were to "pick up the baton."

"Although the fact is not widely known, at least not outside of New England, there already is such a one-hour show," said Sullivan, a law professor at Massachusetts School of Law at Andover.

Lawrence Velvel, who is dean of MSL, is host of BOOT, which has won 25 TV awards in the last two years.

Sullivan, who is seeking the support of PR pros, wants to expand BOOT--which is seen 12 to 15 times per year throughout New England on Comcast--to about 35 year, and make it available nationally.

She believes if the show was expanded in geographic coverage and in the numbers of programs per year, it would fill the void that will be left with the ending of Booknotes, which aired for 800 Sundays in a row over a period of 15 years.
A top flight discussion program can only be helpful, artistically and financially, to all segments of the book industry, and would be helpful to readers as well, said Sullivan.

Velvel Praised

She said Velvel, who prepares an outline of five to 10 pages in length after reading a book very closely, has been praised by authors for his depth of preparation, the penetrating nature of the questions he asks, and the easy flow of the conversation.
Among the major authors that have appeared on the show are Joseph Ellis, David Blight, Richard Posner, Abigail Thernstrom, Murray Sperber, and Howard Zinn.

Ellis, who won a Pulitzer Prize for "Founding Brothers," said Velvel "combines the best interview techniques of Brian Lamb and Charlie Rose. The program deserves a large, national audience."
Posner, a federal judge who has written more than 30 books, said Velvel was "very well prepared, asked penetrating questions, yet gave the interviewee a full opportunity to explain his views. It is one of the very best TV book interview shows."

Historian Donald Miller, the author of "World War II," said "Larry was the best interviewer of all the interviewers I met on my book tour."

COLUMN HIGHLIGHTS
'STUPID' INVESTMENTS.
One of the most popular items on the CBS MarketWatch site is Chuck Jaffe's "Stupid Investment of the Week" column, which puts the spotlight on publicly owned companies that he believes are bad investments.

Jaffe, who is a senior columnist for MarketWatch and a regular commentator on the "Nightly Business Report," told Linda O Bryon, executive editor of NBR, there is no shortage of material to choose from, even among investments that might look good to some people.

Jaffe also hosts "MoneyLife," a two-hour daily radio show on WBIX-AM in Boston, and writes a syndicated column about mutual fund investing called "Your Funds," which runs in newspapers nationwide, and on the Internet.

He is a past president of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, a group representing more than 3,000 business journalists nationwide.

HOW TO PITCH MSI'S EDITOR.
MSI is a monthly IT magazine for manufacturing executives that explains how information technology can improve productivity in both the business and production processes of manufacturing.

Kevin Parker, who is editorial director of the Oak Brook, Ill.-based publisher, told Marketingsherpa.com that publicists should pitch information that is relevant to the use of new management concepts, business processes, technology infrastructure, and product technologies.

Though productivity increases have caused job losses, it is not a major topic of the publication, said Parker. "We re more concerned with the how or the who, what, when, where, and why than to the larger political question of how you deal with all those different things."

Much of the content focuses on multi-source feature articles and news stories.
He said the best way to pitch him is by e-mail ([email protected]), with a follow-up phone call within a day or two.

MEDIA ON TAP.
George Taber, president/publisher and founder of Business News New Jersey, is the luncheon speaker at IABC/N.J. Chapter's Sept. 21 meeting at Headquarters Plaza Hotel in Morristown, N.J.

L. Brent Bozell III, president of Media Research Center, a news watchdog group in Alexandria, Va., will tell the Fairfield County PR Assn. that the "days of the liberal media's dominance are numbered" at a Sept. 23 luncheon to be held at the Univ. of Connecticut Stamford.

Colleen Halpin, supervising producer of the "Jane" show, will provide information about Jane Pauley's new daytime talk show at the Publicity Club of New York's Sept. 24 luncheon at the 3 West Club, N.Y.

Jim Kelly, managing editor of Time magazine, will deliver the opening address at the 30th annual Folio: Show, which will be held Nov. 15-17 at The Hilton in New York.

(Media news continued on next page)

LUKINS DOES NEW
FOOD COLUMN IN PARADE.
Sheila Lukins new monthly column for Parade magazine, which debuted Sept. 5, focuses on food trends and at-home entertainment ideas.

Lukins, who has written several cookbooks, offers her opinion and perspective on what's happening in kitchens, dining rooms, restaurants and at the supermarket.

Her recipe column "Simply Delicious" will continue to run monthly in Parade, which goes into 36 million homes as an insert in many Sunday newspapers.

Lukins, who has been Parade's food editor since 1986, works at home, and can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].

PLACEMENT TIPS
David Segal, who was covering the music beat for The Washington Post, was given a new assignment in New York as a writer for the paper's "Style" section.

He told The Washingtonian that he will be "looking for color and intrigue, personalities and yarns."

Sally Jessy Raphael is co-hosting a new daily talk show on the Internet with her husband Karl Soderlund at www.sallyjr.com.

"She fills the hour with humor, insight, and interviews, sharing home, entertaining, and travel tips," said Pat Springer of AJ PR, which is handling publicity for Raphael's latest media venture.
Soderlund can be pitched at 212/734-1919; karl @sjr.com.

Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim are co-sponsoring a new award for journalists who do stories about urinary incontinence.
UI is a widespread global disease that affects one in every three women at some time in their lives, according to the International Continence Society.

The Embrace Award is open to journalists from all media. The closing date for all submissions is June 1, 2005. Info.: Award Secretariat, embrace@ embrace-award.org.

AA REPORTERS
TO HAVAS PLACEMENT UNIT.
Hank Kim, who is senior editor in Advertising Age's New York bureau, and Richard Linnett, a staff reporter in the bureau, are leaving to lead a new U.S. product placement unit of MPG, the media buying unit of Havas.

The new unit, MPG Entertainment, is devoted to devising new ways for integrating an ad message with a TV program, movies and other entertainment properties.

They plan to use other media as well as TV, and concepts that use things marketers already have, such as a well-known brand icon like Schering-Plough's Coppertone Girl.

PEOPLE
Don Tennant has replaced Maryfran Johnson as editor-in-chief of Computerworld magazine.

Craig Stedman has been tapped to replace Tennant as news editor.

Ian Birch, a former editor of Us magazine, was named editor-in-chief of TV Guide.

Alberto Chehebar was named editor of Loft, a men's lifestyle magazine for Hispanics.

Celeste Fraser Delgado was named managing editor of the magazine's U.S. Hispanic edition, which is based in Miami Beach.

Dawn Roode, previously managing editor of Latina magazine, to Child magazine in the same title.

Jesse Oxfeld, previously editor-in-chief of Media-bistro.com, was named online editor of Editor & Publisher magazine's website, replacing Carl Sullivan, who is leaving to join Newsweek.com.

Juan Arango was appointed executive editor of Hoy, a Spanish-language daily newspaper with editions in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

John Dodge, previously editor-in-chief of Health IT World, has joined EDN magazine in New York as editor-in-chief.

David Ewalt was named telecom reporter at Forbes.com.

Michelle Lee has joined In Touch Weekly as articles editor.

Iris Sutcliffe was appointed managing editor of Budget Living magazine.

Allegra Hatch, previously fashion feature editor at Women's Wear Daily, has joined Star magazine as features editor.

Arthur Schwartz has resigned as host of "Food Talk," a food show that airs at 11 a.m. on WOR-AM in New York.

Ken Frydman, a former spokesman for The New York Daily News, has created a TV drama, called "City News," which is based on a metropolitan tabloid newspaper.

Steve Coll is stepping down as managing editor of The Washington Post to spend more time as a writer.

Frank Fisher, previously The Associated Press chief of bureau in Jackson, Miss., was appointed bureau chief for Iowa, based in Des Moines, succeeding Kristi Crew, who left to become assistant managing editor of Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

Andy Ellis takes over as editor of Men's Health this October.

David DiBenedetto, previously deputy editor of Field & Stream, named editor of Salt Water Fishermen.

Maxim Kashulinsky, 31, who used to be Forbes deputy chief editor, was named chief editor of Forbes Russian edition, succeeding Paul Klebnikov, who was murdered on July 9.

"Customer Relationship Management" is a term that all PR pros should learn.

It's what Omnicom and some of the other big ad conglomerates are practicing.

OMC, in fact, says $2.9 billion or 33% of its 2003 revenues came from CRM.

Basically, CRM is "creaming" your customers.
Go right to the rich, satisfying, tasty cream of the biggest, most profitable customers and do everything you can to build these accounts, is the philosophy of CRM.

It's time for PR firms to steal a page from the congloms that have bought many of them out and make sales and profits their main goal, concentrating on the best customers of clients.
OMC CEO John Wren tells every analyst teleconference that OMC focuses on its 250 biggest clients. All strategy, acquisitions, etc., are bent to this goal, he says.

The annual report says that while overall revenues rose 14% in 2003, revenue from the ten largest clients rose 19%.

"By expanding the breadth of our relationships with these clients, we not only increase revenues, but we also enhance the overall consistency and stability of our operations, which in turn drives our financial performance," says the management statement.

For a tutorial on CRM, visit www.crmbuyer.com.

The first step in a CRM program is conducting an "account segmentation process to determine your key accounts and enable you to focus on them." A problem, CRMbuyer admits, is the "smallest accounts, because the resources that had been assigned to them are reassigned to more promising targets."

OMC only recently converted to the CRM philosophy. A couple of years ago it broke out its segments as advertising, 43%; specialty ads, 12%; direct marketing 16%; promotional marketing, 13%, and PR, 16%.

But in 2003, it said advertising was 43%; CRM, 33%; PR, 11%, and specialty ads, 11%.
It's odd that PR declined to 11% even though OMC added a couple of hundred million in PR revenues to a total of $955M in 2003.

CRM obviously took over direct marketing, promotional marketing and part of what had been under PR.

The key point is that "PR" is not invited to the CRM party. OMC, which is about as press averse as any company we have ever covered, is saying customer relations is to be done without any interference from the press or PR.
<%-2>It's a huge category of income but something that <%0>is between clients and their customers, says OMC.
This is the way OMC conducts its own PR or lack of it. Wren has given only one press interview in more than two years.
PR firms must get into this same game or ad agencies will take over the burgeoning CRM category. PR firms can also help clients to build their biggest accounts in numerous ways while not neglecting press relations. Having zero press relations is not the reasonable thing to do.

Al Ries, author of The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR, says "marketing communications" is an excellent banner for firms that have been calling themselves "PR firms" but that have developed a broad range of practices and skills and feel that "PR" is too identified with press relations.

He was opposed to ad agencies using this term, he said, because many of them lacked a PR capability.
We advise PR firms that have marketing expertise to operate under the banner of "marketing communications" because this designation has two of the favorite words of client companies -- marketing and communications. "PR" has almost disappeared from corporate life.

To compete against ad agencies pitching CRM, PR firms must show the same dedication to boosting sales and profits. PR firms that lack advertising and design skills can link up with such specialists.

PRSA and the PRSA Foundation filed their income tax returns Aug. 6 showing that COO Catherine Bolton was paid $264,260 in salary and $28,000 in pension payments in 2003 and that Ray Gaulke, former COO of PRSA who has a five-year contract extending to Dec. 31, 2004, received $60,000 in "program consulting fees" from the Foundation.

The 2002 tax return listed Bolton's pay as $264,880 and did not mention pension payments. In 2001, pay was listed as $283,000 and contribution to pension "0" ... the PRSA board, meeting July 22-24, should have waited for the nominating committee to pick the new proposed officers (reform candidates Cheryl Procter-Rogers and Jeff Julin), before extending Bolton's contract for two years...PRSA's search for a new professional development director (page 7) is further indication that Robert Levy's departure in June was sudden. The top PD spot will now be open for months although PRSA has an experienced PD staffer in Judy Voss ... the interview that new PRSA PR director Janet Troy gave to the Bergen Record (9/1 NL) revealed that Troy was not accredited nor even a member of PRSA and had little knowledge of the Society. It could be that PRSA could not find a PRSA savvy PR pro who would take the job in view of the high turnover in this position.

-- Jack O'Dwyer