Agency roundup: Partners PR; Wolfenden; and more

York-based agency, Partners PR, has won a brief to help raise the profile of social care recruitment firm AJ Recruitment as the business continues its growth journey.

Founded in 2004 by Jo Guy with 30 years’ experience in social care, and operating from a base in Leeds, AJ Recruitment is a family run business working with privately owned and third sector social care providers across the UK to secure temporary staff.

The team also focuses on helping clients tackle challenges such as continuity of staffing and staff retention and has introduced initiatives designed to help clients save time and money on their recruitment agency spend.

Partners PR director Karen Tinkler said AJ Recruitment is a dynamic business with plenty to say.

She added: “The ethos from the start has been to recruit people Jo would trust to look after her own family, which has served the company well. 

“The company is also embracing digital transformation to support clients with staffing challenges and has some exciting launches coming up, which we’re excited to get involved with.

“I also love that Jo and the team practice what they preach and are committed to creating a high performing team in their own business, nurturing and developing talent from within.” 

Guy added: “We have ambitious growth targets this year and a number of new initiatives in the pipeline, which we want to make some noise about.

“Partners took time to understand our business and develop focused PR support to make sure we reach the right people with our message, and the campaign is off to a strong start.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what we can achieve together.”

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Leeds-based search marketing agency, Wolfenden, has bolstered its senior team with a trio of hires from fellow Yorkshire agencies including Rise at Seven and Boutique.

Armarni Lane joins as digital PR manager, bringing a wealth of experience from growing the digital PR offering at Clicky Media and leading on key accounts at Rise at Seven including Nasty Gal and Chill Insurance.

At Wolfenden, Lane will be responsible for ensuring the strategic success of the agency’s day-to-day digital PR output.

She said: “With some exciting new business in the pipeline, this feels like the perfect time to be joining Wolfenden.

“I’m looking forward to working alongside our PR director and the rest of the senior team on shaping the next phase of our offering, establishing the agency firmly as a northern powerhouse of PR.”

The agency has also welcomed Lucy Askew as senior digital PR account manager, who joins from in-house digital PR and SEO roles at Aira and Hillary’s Blinds; and Sarah MacLeod as senior account manager following paid and organic search account management roles at various agencies, most recently Boutique.

The new team additions support the agency’s focus on becoming a true strategic business growth partner for its clients.

Managing director, Daisy Wolfenden, said: “Over the past year we have made huge strides in solidifying our offering to clients, introducing a solutions team as well as training and new approaches across our production teams to deliver a data-led, more comprehensive digital marketing offering which takes our results beyond just channel KPIs.

“Rather than focusing solely on team growth, we have made a conscious effort to carefully recruit the right experience which supports this more strategic, business-led offering.

“Bringing Armarni, Lucy and Sarah on-board reflects this approach and they each bring with them not only plenty of experience, but a strong synergy with our direction. I couldn’t be happier to welcome them to the team.”

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Gamma Communications plc, a technology-based provider of communication services across Europe, has appointed Leeds and London-based Fox Agency to lead its pan-European brand activity.

Gamma is the UK’s third largest B2B communications provider carrying over 25% of UK business traffic on its network.

Following recent acquisitions, the company is now seeking to raise brand awareness and expand its market share across key European markets.

Fox Agency, an integrated B2B tech marketing and PR specialist, was appointed following a competitive pitch process and will seek to elevate the Gamma brand amongst key audiences across UK, Germany, Netherlands, and Spain markets.

The first phase of activity will cover local market research and customer insight, brand and campaign planning, overarching creative concept, and content creation with localisation.

Campaign execution will then span PR, experiential, digital-out-of-home, digital, programmatic, social, and through-channel marketing.

Julian Horberry, head of strategy at Fox Agency, said: “Given our B2B telco expertise and pan-European reach, Gamma is a perfect fit for Fox Agency.

“From the very first meeting we bought into their ‘communications with a conscience’ proposition and we are really looking forward to supporting growth across key European markets.”

Chris Wade, chief marketing & product officer at Gamma, added: “We required an agency that has proven experience reaching pan-European audiences, as well as a real understanding of the B2B telco market.

“With Fox Agency, we have found a partner that will push us both strategically and creatively, and will support our growth journey across the UK, Germany, Spain, and Netherlands.”