NEWS: OA&R consumer review prompted by departures

Ogilvy Adams and Rinehart is reviewing its consumer PR operation after

the departure of director Leona Mount and the loss of another client.

Mount, who ran the agency’s ‘lifestyle’ PR division left last week after

nine years with the agency at the same time as finance director Richard

Exact.

Meanwhile it emerged that Italian luxury goods manufacturer Bulgari has

pulled its estimated pounds 50,000 PR account out of OA&R. The work will

now be handled in-house by UK franchiser Club 21.

Bulgari’s decision to take PR in-house after six years with OA&R follows

a similar move by Dr Martens, which ended its pounds 200,000 plus

contract with the agency last year (PR Week, 6 October 1995).

Managing director Fiona Driscoll said the agency was ‘down in numbers

but up on fee income’ and pointed to the corporate division’s success

with two recent account wins from Chubb Insurance Europe and Czech

Invest

She said she was recruiting seven new people including a consumer

director to replace Mount, but added she wanted to ‘refocus the consumer

business’.

Mount’s departure is the latest of several from OA&R’s ‘lifestyle’ group

in the last six months. Account director Laura Middleton left for Marks

and Spencer at the end of November (PR Week, 24 November 1995), followed

by two account executives: Amanda Huntley and Suzi Meighan.

Meanwhile OA&R has appointed Kelly Smith as finance director to replace

Exact - who joins Whitbread as a finance project manager on 13 February.

This article was first published on Campaign