Tag Archives: PR Agency

Business, Cardiff

Growing Welsh PR agency makes senior appointments

Leading Welsh PR and marketing agency Effective Communication has promoted two longstanding staff members to director roles to help drive further growth while maintaining the very best service delivery.

 

Effective Communication, which was established by Alastair Milburn in 2004 and supports organisations with their PR, marketing and digital communications, has promoted Katherine Kennedy to operations and people director and Rhys Gregory to commercial director.

 

PR specialist Katherine joined Effective in 2012. In her time at Effective, she has worked on countless client campaigns and has latterly played a vital role in shaping the business as it looks ahead and continues to adapt its service offering to reflect changing habits and platforms.

 

Katherine said: “In my new role I will be responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the business and ensuring that we deliver for our clients, while supporting and developing our extremely talented team.

 

“We were recently shortlisted as Employer of the Year at the Cardiff Business Awards and this is some recognition for all the hard work we’ve put in to make sure that Effective is a great place to work.”

 

Rhys, who specialises in digital marketing and communications, also joined Effective in 2012.

 

Rhys said: “When I first started at Effective we were in the very early stages of developing the social media and digital side of our business. Since then, the digital arm of the business has grown to such an extent that it is now a major component of our offering.

 

“Effective as a business is constantly evolving and, in many ways, it is hardly recognisable as the company I joined in 2012. It has been very gratifying to work alongside Alastair and the team to help the business grow and evolve.”

 

Alastair Milburn, managing director of Effective Communication said: “As we approached our 20th anniversary in the third quarter of 2024, it felt like the perfect time to take stock of the business, assess all that we have achieved to date, and consider what we want to do next. My ultimate goal is to continue to build a business that is sustainable, resilient and thriving, and Katherine and Rhys are integral to those plans.”

 

Effective was founded in 2004 by the then South Wales Echo editor Alastair Milburn.

 

For more information about Effective Communication, visit www.weareeffective.co.uk

News

Award winning journalist joins Fortitude Communications as PR consultant

Tom Parry has been appointed as a consultant at PR agency Fortitude Communications and will focus on helping charities to achieve high-impact communications campaigns.

With more than 20 years in the media, Tom developed an unrivalled reputation for delivering major features that put key issues and campaigns high up on the national agenda and often led to positive transformational change for charities and aid agencies.

At Fortitude, Tom will play a pivotal role in developing the agency’s charity practice and provide senior strategic communications counsel to charities, not-for-profits and social enterprises.

Having fostered strong relations in the sector, Tom has already provided training and strategy advice for organisations including the International Fund for Animal Welfare, World Vision, the Red Cross and Save the Children. He also co-hosted a series of sessions tailored to charity press and communications teams called ‘NGOs and the Media’.

Tom’s work, which has focused on humanitarian issues and social affairs, has been recognised via various prestigious industry awards. In 2017, he was awarded the Features Journalism accolade at the British Journalism Awards and the International Press category in Italy’s coveted Premio Luchetta. Tom was 2014 Feature Writer of the Year at the UK Press Awards, for which he was shortlisted for eight consecutive years, three times as Environment Reporter of the Year.

“There are many excellent charities in the UK that deserve a greater voice to help them highlight their cause, attract support and achieve positive change,” said Tom. “High-impact communications strategies delivered well have the potential to transform good causes. I’m looking forward to helping charities we believe in grow.

“It is a crucial time for charities in an increasingly crowded market-place and I’m eager to collaborate with Fortitude to deliver first class communications and media relations support for good causes.”

Greig Box Turnbull, director of Fortitude said: “Tom’s track record in delivering hard-hitting front-page charity-based stories that set the news agenda is highly respected both in the third sector and the national media. Tom is a fantastic addition to our team and means we can now offer compelling communications and media relations support to charities that want to deliver public campaigns and significantly raise awareness of their cause.”

Tom has also written two non-fiction books and worked as a production consultant in a Channel 4 documentary series. He is currently a Visiting Lecturer on the MA International Journalism course at London’s City University.

Fortitude is an Oxford based PR and external communications agency founded by former Mirror journalist and Oxford United managing director Greig Box Turnbull. It has clients across a range of sectors including sport, leisure, charity and corporate.

 

News

Planet-conscious PR agency partners with recycled cashmere company

A Yorkshire-based, purpose-driven PR agency has been appointed to handle the PR for the second-hand cashmere brand, Nearly New Cashmere Co.

LIT Communication is supporting Nearly New Cashmere Co with a tailor-made digital PR strategy and media relations to help grow the digital presence of its eCommerce store. They’ll also be raising awareness on a local and regional level for the fashion company’s physical retail store in Masham, Yorkshire Dales and their busy schedule of pop-up events.

Established in 2018 and based in West Yorkshire, LIT Communication is a conscious copywriting and PR agency specialising in ethical communications, public relations management and strategy. The agency is a remote-first, 4-day working week business that supports clients from all over the globe to drive organic business growth and brand awareness.

Nearly New Cashmere Co was founded in 2015 by Alison Orr after she decided to pursue her passion for second-hand buying and selling. Now, the sustainable fashion retailer has a growing team and continuously finds innovative new ways to restore and recycle discarded 100% cashmere that would otherwise face a future in landfill – transforming them into high-quality, unique cashmere pieces. The company is on a mission to be the go-to destination for luxurious, sustainable cashmere clothing and accessories at affordable prices. 

Sophie Marsden, Director of LIT Communication, explains: “We’ve recently started to focus on working with climate-conscious and sustainable companies and are delighted that Alison and the team at Nearly New Cashmere Co have chosen us to manage their PR. 

“While we don’t exclusively work with eco-friendly businesses, we are being much more selective about the types of clients that we work with. The opportunity to work with people like Alison and her team, whose values closely align with ours, is fantastic. We can’t wait to communicate the brand’s story and raise awareness of the positive impact that second-hand fashion can have on the planet.

“Our values must align with that of our clients, and we would rather grow slowly without compromising on that. I’m not afraid of turning down briefs from companies that aren’t a good fit for us.”

Nearly New Cashmere Founder and Co-Director Ali Orr commented: “PR is a significant investment for our small business marketing budget. So, we needed to choose a team that could help us multiply our output and maximise every penny spent on marketing. It was clear from their pitch that this would be the case with LIT Communication. Like us, LIT Communication is a small but ambitious team, so it was an easy value-led decision.”

“We have ambitious plans to grow the business. We have a strong returning customer base but plan to make big strides at increasing the top of our funnel in the next 1-2 cashmere seasons. With the cost of paid ads increasing, we plan to achieve this with an email and SMS-based loyalty programme and PR.”

The new client win follows a successful first nine months of the year for LIT Communication after securing new PR contracts with Systemise Fulfilment, Bobble Digital, and That Works Agency.