Mobile telephone operator One2One has completed the review of its public affairs account and handed the brief to PoliticsDirect.com.
The company - owned by German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom - has handed PoliticsDirect a brief ranging from opinion-former briefings and contact-building to research and parliamentary monitoring.
The agency pitched last month for the work, on a shortlist thought to have included both Lexington Communications and Consolidated Communications.
Consolidated held the brief on a temporary basis until last month.
The appointment was made by public affairs manager Craig Stevenson, a former Scottish Tory research officer, who took the government relations brief at One2One four months ago (PR Week, 12 May).
Stevenson joined One2One from British Nuclear Fuels, where he had been public affairs manager for four years. In his time at BNFL, the firm used The Communication Group for lobbying, with the account run by PoliticsDirect founders John Arnold and David Beamer.
Arnold will head the account, but most of the day-to-day work will be handled by new recruit Zaki Cooper, who starts later this month after a spell working for both a Labour MP and a US congressman as part of his university studies.
PoliticsDirect's work started last week at the Labour party conference and is based on an initial one-year contract.
The agency, also last week, signed a partnership deal with Dutch ISP World Online, to provide political content to its site. The revenue-sharing deal anticipates cash generated from advertising and retail opportunities being shared between the host and content provider.
