~ LEWIS hires respected travel and hotel PR Julia Perowne to run new division ~

Leading global PR agency LEWIS PR is to create its own consumer-focused division, which will represent high-profile brands around the world. It will focus initially on premium travel brands.

The new consumer practice will be run by Julia Perowne, currently international client director for Massey Partnership, a travel and hotel PR specialist, based in London. Julia has worked in the travel and hotel PR sector for six years, representing leading international brands, individual hotels and tour operators, including COMO Hotels and Resorts, Black Tomato, Hotel du Vin, Malmaison and Nantucket Island Resorts.

The new practice, which will have at its disposal the vast array of LEWIS PR’s social media expertise, will utilise Julia’s extensive global travel knowledge and that of newly-appointed chief operating officer for LEWIS, Paul Charles. He joins in January after finishing his current role as director of communications at Virgin Atlantic.

LEWIS PR specialises in a range of public relations services to support major campaigns, including fully-integrated digital media and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) activities. It already has a number of B2C clients, including Pret a Manger. The new consumer division will blend LEWIS PR’s expertise in social media with innovative consumer PR campaigns.

The agency also recently became the first PR agency to launch its own app for the iPhone.

Commenting on the appointment, founder and CEO Chris Lewis said: “The LEWIS heritage has, for 15 years, been in the IT sector, but we now intend to grow further through a new consumer-focused team. I am convinced that Julia will help us to transform our offering and we’re delighted that she’s joining our award-winning team.”

“I’m thrilled to be joining the LEWIS team and helping to create a dynamic global consumer practice,” added Perowne. “I know the unique and innovative approach that LEWIS has will be hugely successful within the travel and wider consumer markets and I can’t wait to start working with such an experienced team.”

~ ISP adopts new PR strategy to raise brand awareness and generate sales ~

Eclipse Internet, a Business Internet Service Provider (ISP), has hired OCTANE PR, LEWIS PR’s sister agency, to promote its brand and offerings to the UK’s SMEs.

Eclipse Internet offers a range of award winning internet services to the SME market including broadband packages, e-commerce, backup and hosting.

OCTANE PR will work with Eclipse Internet to develop off-and online PR activities to elevate the brand in the broadband, business and national press, positioning the company as the SMEs friend and trusted source of advice.

Simon Harper, head of marketing at Eclipse Internet said: “As Eclipse Internet continues to grow, we decided the time was right to elevate our brand and take it to the next level with an effective PR strategy. OCTANE PR was an obvious choice for us because of its extensive experience in the ISP space and enthusiastic, media-centric approach.”

Kate Axelby, associate director at OCTANE PR will lead the campaign. “This is a great win for OCTANE. We are well versed in providing strong media relations campaigns for companies in the broadband and SME space so this is real sweet spot for us. We look forward to raising Eclipse Internet’s presence in the media and helping to grow its business across the SME space,” she commented

Leading global PR agency, LEWIS, has appointed Paul Charles, former PR Professional of The Year, and currently Director of Communications for Virgin Atlantic, in the new role of Chief Operating Officer. Paul takes up his post in January and will report to CEO Chris Lewis.

Paul has advised Virgin Atlantic President Sir Richard Branson since he joined the airline in 2006 and, most recently, spearheaded Virgin Atlantic’s successful 25th birthday campaign.

Paul has been a non-executive Director of LEWIS PR, whose global roster of clients includes Sanyo, Pret A Manger,and Audi, since 2005. Before joining Virgin Atlantic, Paul was Director of Communications at Eurostar and a presenter and reporter for BBC News on programmes including Radio 4’s Today, Radio 4’s MoneyBox, BBC World Business Report, Radio 5 Live’s Financial World Tonight and BBC1’s Breakfast News.

Paul commented: “I’m thrilled to be joining a great team at LEWIS PR in this important new role. It’s a fantastic business which has journalistic values at its core and which continues to go from strength to strength even during the downturn. LEWIS has a very exciting future ahead of it and will play a key role in the consolidation re-shaping the industry. I was honoured and privileged to work at Virgin Atlantic, one of the world’s greatest airlines, and will always remember the exciting times I had there.”

Commenting on his appointment, the founder and CEO of LEWIS PR, Chris Lewis, said: “Paul joins us at a very significant stage for the agency, and he will be instrumental in supporting our next stage of growth. Paul’s depth of corporate communications expertise will prove instrumental in the development of agency strategy, but also provide a great source of knowledge for both clients and staff.”

LEWIS PR employs 250 people at 39 wholly-owned offices across the US, EMEA and Asia Pacific, with regional headquarters in London, San Francisco and Singapore. In 2009, revenues were more than $31million.

OCTANE PR, a division of the LEWIS Group, has been appointed to oversee PR for the Nottingham-based online game developer after a three-way pitch.

Monumental Games Limited (MGL) was founded in 2005 and is a leading presence in the Massively Multi-Player Online (MMO) gaming space, having created a base technology platform that greatly reduces the complexities involved with the development of Virtual Worlds.

OCTANE’s brief involves attracting new talent, raising the client’s profile with gaming publishers and executing a thought leadership campaign to build credibility when commenting on MMO issues. A variety of social media tactics will also be deployed to build communities around the upcoming game Hunter’s World.

Paul Mayze, COO at Monumental Games, commented, “The OCTANE team demonstrated a firm understanding of our brand and we were impressed by their savvy approach to social media. Their pro-activity was clear from the outset and the agency’s culture is a great fit with that of Monumental Games.”

Kate Axelby, associate director at OCTANE PR, added: “Monumental Games is an excellent client to have in our portfolio. The gaming industry is an exciting to be involved with and we are looking forward to creating a real buzz for Monumental Games in the run-up to their next game release.”
The campaign kicks off immediately.