Ask Jeeves drafts in Brands2Life to tackle niche view

PR Week UK, Wednesday, 23 July 2003, 12:00am,

Ask Jeeves is to outsource its press office to Brands2Life and has hired the agency to run a corporate and consumer campaign, following a 12-month PR agency hiatus.

The company, which unveiled results this week, hired the agency following a three-stage pitch that involved five agencies.

The brief centres on a bid to counter a niche perception of the Ask Jeeves brand, and comes amid a wide shake-up of internet search firms.

Last week rival search engine Yahoo! bought search company Overture, while US outfit FindWhat.com recently bought into Europe through a merger with European giant Espotting Media.

The PR drive comes following an Ask Jeeves ad push that ended last month.

Brands2Life is to raise the firm’s profile in a highly competitive market, with pure search engine Google cemented in the number one position. Other rivals include Alta Vista, Yahoo! and MSN.

The agency will have a seven-strong team running the account as an ‘extension’ of the Ask Jeeves press office, headed by PR manager Claire Tordoff.

Tordoff joined the US-owned firm in April 2003, eight months after the redundancy of director of comms Nick Mason-Pearson.