NM TOURISM CZAR PLANS PR REVIEW
New Mexico is expected to put its tourism PR and advertising contracts out for bid later this month as a new tourism secretary seeks to put her stamp on the state’s marketing efforts.
James Orr/N.M. Tourism Dept. |
Development Counsellors International won a competitive pitch process last May to guide the low-six-figure account, ousting incumbent Ballantines PR.
Monique Jacobson, a former marketing exec for PepsiCo who was named state tourism secretary in January, said RFPs are expected by the fall.
Jacobson said, noting that current contracts were up for renewal at the start of the 2012 fiscal year, when they were extended three months until the end of September.
Karyl Leigh Barnes, senior VP/partner at DCI, told O'Dwyer’s the firm is planning to respond to the RFP.
Jacobson is concerned with New Mexico’s ranking as 24th on a list of places people want to visit, noting she thinks it should be among the top three in the U.S.
Twelve firms pitched last year’s PR review.
Publicis’ M&C Saatchi is the incumbent for New Mexico’s $2.5M-a-year advertising account. PR billings are set at $120K this year.
BANK LOBBY TAPS PR CHIEF
The American Bankers Association will have a new PR face in September as the trade group for the $13 trillion banking industry replaces 20-year veteran Ginny Dean.
O'Keefe |
The Podesta Group’s Stephanie Matthews O’Keefe will take over as executive VP of communications for the Washington, D.C.-based group on Sept. 6.
ABA president and CEO Frank Keating said the group is fortunate to recruit the former investment banker “at such a critical time for the banking industry.”
O’Keefe has been a principal and director of business development for the past year at Podesta, which she joined in 2010 after a year as senior VP/comms. for the Export Import Bank of the U.S.
Her longest tenure has been with the non-profit development group Local Intitiatives Support Corp., where she stepped down in 2009 as senior VP, external affairs, after 15 years. She was also an investment banker at Credit Suisse First Boston.
A West Virginia native, O’Keefe was state director for the 1996 Clinton-Gore re-election campaign.
ABA represents the $13 trillion banking industry. |
