EDINBURGH-based PHPR Ltd, led by Penny Haywood Calder MCIPR, is one of the first three agencies to be elected to a new international network of ’boutique’ public relations firms: PRBI (website: prboutiques.com).
PHPR was elected by the 12 founder agencies and brings the new collaborative global network of expert PR agencies within the reach of Scottish businesses engaged in international business.
Says a spokesperson: “Public Relations Boutiques International (PRBI) gives members the capability to jointly pursue international new business opportunities as well as partner to provide an extended range of services to each member firm’s clients.”
Haywood Calder, MD, led PHPR through the PRBI assessment and formal election process.
She said: “Despite running a small agency, I have a lot of experience handling international PR. I immediately understood from the ‘boutique’ appellation that this was an international PR network offering a real advantage: small agencies committed to providing excellence with experienced owners leading from the front.
“That’s very much our philosophy and my first impressions were more than confirmed when I spend several days in New York with some of the finest PR practitioners I have encountered at our first PRBI annual conference.”
Welcoming PHPR, PRBI president Lucy Siegel, said: “We are all acutely aware that the members we vote to accept now are the people we will rely on later to help us serve our clients. Penny has nearly 30 years experience with large and fast growing B2B clients and we were delighted to accept PHPR into PRBI.
“Clients of large agencies are too often assigned to junior and inadequately supervised personnel. We started our companies to provide clients with hands-on work by seasoned professionals. We are oriented to producing meaningful client results. Our competitive billing rates reflect our overhead; not those of big, top-heavy agencies with distant shareholders.”
Added Bill Cowen, the group’s vice-president and president of Metrospective Communications, in Philadelphia: “Big agencies may market their ‘wholly-owned networks’ as an advantage, but the people in those networks many times have never met or worked together. We’ve built a global team. We know each other and make time to meet and collaborate on many levels.
“As a network, we collectively offer an extensive array of professional services, but we’re free to go outside our network if need be. We have the best of both scenarios, so the big winner is always the client – and that’s what’s most important to all of us.”
To provide seamless client service to an ever-expanding global marketplace, PRBI plans to increase its membership.
“Our bylaws require that each new member be approved by every other member, and we are placing the bar high for approving new member applications,” Siegel said.
ENDS (background info follows)
About PRBI:
Public Relations Boutiques International (PRBI)
About PHPR Ltd.
Based in Edinburgh, Scotland, PHPR communicates the ‘difficult to explain’ to key audiences, with particular emphasis on B2B clients in technical, financial, property, security and IT sectors.
PHPR runs PR for sales and brand support, and delivers reputation-enhancing strategies to ‘boost business brilliantly’.
PHPR runs communications programs for clients from all over the UK, helping them reach markets across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and beyond.
From intensive media relations strategies, effective media training, through to on and offline PR, DVD and streaming video production, to web content, marcoms, and events, PHPR finds the most effective channels to deliver your messages through a mix of experienced staff and freelance associates, plus favoured suppliers.
Carbon neutrality: PHPR is committed to being a low-carbon company and has operated an environmental policy since 1986. In addition to energy conservation, composting, re-use and re-cycling, PHPR offsets fuel and energy, including business travel.
About PRBI
PRBI is an international network of boutique public relations firms whose principals are experienced practitioners who have held senior positions in large PR agencies and corporations but now put service first and work directly with clients.
They have won the highest professional awards, and are active members of several public relations and business associations. PRBI member firms work for a wide range of clients in both public and private sectors, offering a comprehensive portfolio of public relations services.
The network currently has offices in major markets in North America, Europe and the Far East. For more information, visit www.PRBoutiques.com.
MEDIA RELEASE posted by PHPR. You too can post media releases (aka press releases) on allmediascotland.com. For more information, email here.
Contact: Penny Haywood Calder
Email: pressline@phpr.co.uk
Website: http://www.phpr.co.uk
