Hotwire

Hotwire, prweek.com, 02 January 2009, 11:15am

Hotwire secured third place in the 2008 Technology Top 40, following a busy year that saw it launch a corporate practice and digital shop 33 Digital. Led by group MD Kristin Syltevik, the agency remains a pivotal tech player, as evidenced by it early adoption of social media tools such as Twitter, and its increasing international business.

Name: Hotwire

Address: :33/41 Dallington Street, London EC1V 0BB

Telephone: 0207 608 2500

Email: kristin.syltevik@hotwirepr.com

Website: www.hotwirepr.com

Ranking in Tech Top 40: 3

% growth in Tech Fee Income: +4% (takes internal reorganisation into account)

Ranking in Top 150: 48

Tech fee income 2008: £5,400,000

Total fee income 2008: £5,200,000

Total staff 2008: 58

Who is in the hotseat:

Kristin Syltevik - Group MD

Sum up your agency's 2008 in three words: Digital, International, Fun!

Three best tech client or campaign wins: Novell, Ciao, Vignette

Tech highlights of 2008:
Eight years since launch, 2008 was a year to consolidate our international office footprint and to evolve the business in line with emerging client demands. Milestones included the launch of the corporate practice and 33 Digital.

Significant hires in the tech team in 2008: Andy West joined us as managing director of our corporate practice.

Staffing overall 2008: We continue to focus on new talent and staff development – we launched the Hotwire Academy with a dedicated development director and had a record 15 new graduates join the team.

Plans and predictions for tech PR in 2009: Three big topics are occupying our clients and the team: digital PR will mature as a tool; clients will consolidate agency relationships not just internationally, but across disciplines; measurement will be a massive focus.

Tech business or brand to watch in 2008 and why: We love Doyoupoken, a hot new social networking start-up that will finally kill off the business card.

Describe your agency’s digital offering: Digital PR permeates everything we do as an agency. We also have a new spin-off, 33 Digital (www.33-digital.com), which specialise in pure-play digital PR.

How are you keeping up to date with social media: Living, breathing and being in and at the forefront of the social media space. According to PRWeek, Hotwire is the most active agency on Twitter!

One thing you won’t know about the agency: On average, Hotwire’s top ten senior managers across our offices have been with the agency for over seven years (impressive, as we are not quite nine years old).