Royal and Sun gives Shandwick bulk brief

The UK’s largest general insurer, Royal and Sun Alliance, has

handed a pounds 400,000 fee account to Shandwick, consolidating its

consumer, trade and corporate activity into one consultancy.

The account win places the insurer as one of Shandwick’s top five

clients by fee income alongside Unilever, ICI, TNT and 3i.

Shandwick’s appointment follows a competitive pitch and has led to

Staniforth PR, First Financial, Band and Brown and Lansons

Communications losing their accounts with Royal and Sun Alliance.

Staniforth promoted personal insurance sales via brokers and health and

commercial insurance. Meanwhile, First Financial handled life assurance

and pensions, Band and Brown worked on direct personal insurance and

Lansons’ brief covered unit trusts and investments. Shandwick also

handled PR for the company’s commercial engineering operations.

Shandwick will take on all the PR activities with the exception of

corporate relations, which has been handled by Brunswick since 1997.

One of the consultancy’s first tasks is to build the company’s profile

in the media. It will begin by raising the profile of UK CEO, Paul

Spencer.

Chris Genasi, CEO of Shandwick’s corporate practice, said: ’Royal and

Sun Alliance has not been getting coverage in the media which adequately

reflects its leadership position. Shandwick will marshal all PR activity

to build a stronger corporate brand.’