Paver Smith to be Influential in rebrand

PR and marketing agency Paver Smith’s long-expected rebrand has been unveiled with the Liverpool-based business now named Influential.

The move has been expected since the departure of co-founders Dougal Paver and Rachel Smith last year , but managing director Sara Wilde-McKeown says the move reflects more than just a name change.

“A brand should be bigger than in individuals in the business and I would not have changed the name for the sake of it. We have a wider service offering now having added marketing and digital marketing to the strong journalistic background of the business.

“Influential is about being what our clients want us to be for them, and we are excited to be moving forward and looking to grow.”

Mrs Wilde-McKeown said the business is recruiting for an account director and will look to add senior level consumer PR expertise early next year.

Influential, she adds will take “logical steps” with organic growth the focus before any mergers or acquisitions.

The agency, which has offices in Manchester and London as well as its main base in the Plaza in the heart of Liverpool, counts construction group Morgan Sindall, wealth manager Quilter Cheviot, and Redx Pharma among its major private sector clients.  It also has substantial regional briefs for the accountancy firm Grant Thornton, National Lottery operator Camelot and the Liverpool One retail and leisure complex.

The most recent recruit to Influential’s executive team Karen Swan, joined the board in May. She has more than 20 years’ marketing, brand and insight experience.  In her previous role she was head of marketing at Cheshire date security company GB Group. Prior to this, she was the director of strategic marketing at Trinity Mirror Regionals, where she worked with Sara Wilde-McKeown.

The Influential board is completed by directors Jon Brown and Chris Hulme, both former journalists, and chairman David Heal.

The agency’s major project wins in 2014 already reflect its wider service offering and include a substantial public health consultation exercise for Greater Manchester Health Network (GMPHN) – the Healthier Together campaign.

Influential also won the brief to deliver a new marketing strategy for the public sector agency Marketing Liverpool and ACC Liverpool conference and convention centre around its Ambassadors programme.

It is also working on a marketing and communications programme for the Liverpool Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).