Auckland PR outfit Alexander Communications has picked up a trio of new accounts.
It’s won Konica Minolta, Brokers’ Independent Group (BIG) and Solutions Financial Services accounts.

Alexander Communications director Kate Alexander said each of the accounts will entail a strong focus on business to business communications.

She sees the tri-fold coup as a strong start to the year for her firm, amid many reports of redundancies and tough going.

“We’re proud that we’re continuing to grow at around 40% [2008-2009 financial year] and we expect the curve to continue,” she said.

Meanwhile, the PR arena continues to be a bit of a mixed situation. We’ve seen in-house redundancies as well as in consultancies. Sarah Paykel’s PR company and Republic of Acumen are two that have made cut-backs.

TBWA\PR has brought on a new staff member to replace one who’s left (bucking the trend of simply not replacing people) and DraftFCB’s PR team has added one to its desks.

Kathy Cunningham, who owns Empire Events/PR, has jumped ship to be part of the team at Ogilvy PR, where she’ll fill the role of executive director alongside ex-Mango man Brendan Boughen (account director with 13 years’ experience) and account manager Jane Finch. (Ms Cunningham will continue to maintain Empire’s events.)

In other news, there’s a fun PR account up for grabs and pitching’s been fast and furious. I can’t tell you who it is though – or who’s involved – as I’ve been sworn to secrecy by two of the pitching agencies and (gasp!) the incumbent reportedly doesn’t know. Ooooh-err. Fisticuffs in PR land.

Meanwhile, over at Bullet PR, chief leprechaun Nicholas O'Flaherty has penned a salient blog post on using Twitter to great effect and adding value.

And at Intermediary PR's blog, Jennifer Boyes explains why PR can do more with a budget than advertising. Ooooh, controversial.