Formed at the start of October, the company has appointed ex-Ericsson communications head Nina Eldh as head of corporate communications, with Tetsuo Kanno and Peter Bodor as PR managers leading the comms drive.
According to Bodor, also from the Ericsson side of
the business, the company is not planning to hire one global agency.
He said the communications team is currently devising a structure in which
a global network of firms
can be hired, but did not rule out offering a lead role to
one agency.
Although no agencies have as yet been shortlisted, Bodor confirmed several had made unsolicited approaches to the company, which itself made preliminary enquiries of a number of agencies when the merger was first mooted.
The firm, which is in the process of relocating to London, where its comms team
will be based, is currently recruiting for an internal communications head and a PR assistant.
Although agencies will be taken on, Bodor said: 'We're intending to keep some of
the work in-house and it's important to keep core PR strategy in-house.'
Bodor added that the firm would start with a 'small and efficient' team, but declined to comment on which areas of PR external help would be hired for, or when the pitches will take place.
Sony and Ericsson, which own equal shares in the new firm, sold more than 50 million mobile phone handsets between them last year, worth in excess of £5bn.
The first Sony Ericsson branded phones will appear in the third quarter of next year, with the firm targeting market leadership within five years.
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