Financial services group Prudential won more favourable press
coverage than any other UK company in the third quarter of this year,
according to Presswatch. Prudential achieved second place in the first
two quarters.
The results are all the more impressive when compared with last year,
when Prudential languished at the wrong end of the quarterly company
survey due to negative coverage over pensions mis-selling.
According to Presswatch marketing manager Paul Harvey, the dramatically
improved performance has been driven by the success of its e-commerce
venture, Egg.
’The vast majority of coverage Prudential has received in the last
quarter has been Egg-related with plenty of mentions in best shares to
buy columns,’ he said.
However, as from the next set of results, Egg will be listed as a
separate venture.
In second place comes BP Amoco, which has continously appeared high in
the listings over the past five years.
Meanwhile, trailing the list of nearly 2,000 companies is the BBC, which
continues to receive masses of negative publicity. The Corporation
suffered particularly during the third quarter when it came under attack
by high-profile employees such as Des Lynam and Noel Edmonds.
Leader, p8.
