Former Virgin Net PR head Lisa Hulme has joined forces with
August.One account director Victoria McQuade to launch a specialist new
media agency with fee income in excess of pounds 250,000.
Big-mouths.com launches with five clients, including Ginger Online, a
division of the Ginger Media Group, and IC24, the new media division of
Trinity Mirror Media Group.
According to Hulme, the agency will focus on meeting the growing demand
from consumer brands for internet-experienced agencies.
’Companies as diverse as airlines and record companies are seeking a PR
agency to help their internet strategy, only to find the hi-tech
agencies too techie and the consumer agencies not knowledgeable enough,
which has created a gap in the middle,’ she said.
Hulme and McQuade are joint managing directors of Big-mouths.com, with a
50 per cent stake each. The two worked together at Text 100.
’The fact that I have spent the past five years working for an agency,
while Lisa has spent several years in-house makes for a good marriage of
skills,’ said McQuade.
At Virgin, Hume initially focused on Virgin Net but subsequently
consulted on internet PR across the group, including Virgin Megastores,
and independently for clients such as Ginger. Her replacement, Kevin
Caruth, has been appointed solely as media relations manager for Virgin
Net.
’Before leaving Virgin, Lisa had a wider group role, but now the
internet strategy has bedded down, that role is no longer necessary,’
said Will Whitehorn, corporate affairs director for Virgin Group.
