Spectrum loses Google PR account to Red Agency
Google has shifted its Australian PR business from the North Sydney-based Spectrum Communications to Red Agency, Mumbrella can reveal.
The move ends a two year relationship between the search giant and Spectrum, which is part of the Blue Freeway group. A spokesman for Google confirmed the change but declined to comment further.
Red Agency, which is owned by Euro RSCG and also based in North Sydney, has several clients in the media and technology sectors including Fairfax, DMG Media and GPS firm Mio.
Much of Google’s PR is handled by an in-house team led by its head of corporate communications and public affairs Rob Shilkin.
Spectrum MD Michael Henderson told Mumbrella: “We’re obviously disappointed they’re moving on, but this is often the case when new people come on board with an agenda for change. Spectrum Communications has done a fantastic job for Google over the last two years and we’re very proud of the achievements we’ve made in building their brand locally.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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I’m interested to know who else was in the running – Rumours are Text, Red, Spectrum and one other were in the final short-list. Any insights? Surely agencies like n2n or Howorth were in the mix…
Interested by their choice – Certainly a massive win for Red.
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In my opinion, Red have a hard act to follow. I had the pleasure of working with Spectrum on Google editorial contributions on several occasions and, personally, think they did a great job.
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eeer. Just a question. It wouldn’t have anything to do with the new CEO of Google being ex Fairfax and red being his preferred PR agency from back in his Fairfax days?
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Hi Carrob,
If you mean Karim Temsamani, he might argue with the “new” bit. He’s been at Google for 14 months now: http://google-au.blogspot.com/.....board.html
Cheers,
Tim
So why does revenue continue to deteriorate at BlueFreeway? The BlueFreeway 4C was released on the ASX site last week. The Chairman has had the company for a year now and continues to pursue the Greg Daniel strategy. Over twelve months after the problem head office is gone the share price is down 97% from $0.60 to $0.02, the number of companies in the group has dropped from 25 to 16, debt is up from $33 million to $43 million, and the business in the 1st half of 2009 generates a negative operating cash-flow of $7.6 million versus a positive operating cash-flow during BlueFreeway’s first 12 month debut in 2007. Is there any good news? How much has the largest shareholder invested in the Daniel strategy and what is his investment worth now?
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