Bohemia launches PR arm, Ross Purdy to lead
Ross Purdy will head up the PR division
Media agency Bohemia has launched a PR arm off the back of two new client wins – games company Namco Bandai Partners, and product supplier GWA Bathrooms and Kitchens.
The business will be driven by Ross Purdy, who moves across from an in-house role at software developer Take 2 Interactive and has also previously worked at client Namco.
The fledgling STW-aligned agency which opened its doors in October last year is strategy led. Founding partner and former Ikon director Brett Dawson said: “We are founded on the premise of thinking and strategy and that is really why PR is so pertinent. In a lot of our research and approach we see and understand the power of people as a channel in their own right.”
He added that a PR offering was always on the cards: “It just made sense, I had always envisioned PR being a critical component of our offering, I just needed to convince a a couple of clients to fund it.”
Prior to Namco and Take 2, Purdy worked in a strategy role at Toyota.
Dawson told Mumbrella the focus will stay on the consumer side. “We will never position ourselves to do crisis management and corporate PR, it is more from a campaign consumer point of view. It will be how we can respect, understand and use the power of PR.”
He added: “With the power of editorial these days, to get a good idea to pop you need more than a good lunch and a relationship with a sales director, which was how the old world used to work.”
Bohemia is not the only strategy led media operation to extend its scope to PR. Naked Communications added PR to its services several months ago.
Great move by Bohemia, Ross is a gun and no doubt is the reason they are starting with those clients. Good on you Purd’s
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Well done Ross!
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I’m intrigued with the statement that although Bohemia does consumer PR, the new PR operation doesn’t touch crisis management. That sounds like salt without pepper. What happens if the product collapses and injures the customer, if an installer cuts his arm off in someone’s kitchen, or the client is sued for product non performance? Do you tell the client they are on their own, or call in an experienced PR person who accepts and understands that crisis management should be part of every PR program?
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How old is Ross? He looks like he’s still at school.
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Dennis raises an awesome point. I see more and more PR outfits getting involved in the ‘fluffy’ side of things (and to be fair, some do ‘fluffy’ very, very well), however, even the fluffiest of clients can have a crisis or something else that falls well outside the experience of ‘fluffy’ PR types. As Dennis asks, what happens then?!?
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