Owned by Interpublic Group (part of Constituency Management Services)
Harris Diamond, CEO
Number of offices: 17 in the US, 75 worldwide.
Staff numbers and turnover: Not supplied
Senior hires: Include Pam Jenkins, Washington DC, president, health public affairs; Michael Schiferl, Chicago, SVP/director of media relations; Tim Marklein, EVP and GM Northern California operations, from Hewlett-Packard; Robert Dowling, EVP and head of technology practice, New York. Key European hires include Tim Sutton, chairman, Weber Shandwick Europe, and David Yelland, formerly editor of The Sun, senior vice chairman.
Key departures: Joe Kessler, president of California; Lutz Meyer, president, international operations.
What region is growing? New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, London, Hong Kong and China.
Mergers and acquisitions: Acquired Worldwide Communications and Television (broadcast communications)
Number of practice areas: 25
Which are new? Global strategic media group, Axis (multicultural communications)
Key account wins: Allstate; Cisco Systems; Electronic Arts; Electrolux; Federal Reserve Board; KFC; Genentech; MasterCard; MasterFoods; Paris 2012 Olympics; Schering AG; Tylenol; Unilever (multiple brands)
Key account losses: Kinkos (due to Fed Ex merger); Scottish Enterprises
Accounts that expanded into new markets: Weber Shandwick saw a large increased in multinational markets, a trend that has had a positive effect on business. Clients expanding their accounts with the agency include Agilent; Honeywell; MasterCard International; Siemens; ExxonMobil; Microsoft; General Motors; Hitachi; Unilever
Outlook: Characterizing 2004 as, "the best year we've had since 2000," CEO Harris Diamond says the firm experienced growth in "basically every practice area." The firm's focus on growing existing clients, coupled with an aggressive new business effort, has helped it continue its momentum that came into evidence early last year. The firm, which was PRWeek's Agency of the Year this year, has been competitively hiring, though Diamond would not say whether they would be filling the US president position, vacated with the promotion to a global role of Andy Polansky.
