NEW YORK: AVG Technologies, a security software company, has selected GlobalFluency as its North American AOR. The six-figure contract was awarded following a review of eight agencies, said Siobhan MacDermott, head of global IR and communications at AVG.
Work will include building brand awareness among small- to medium-sized businesses and differentiating it from competitors like McAfee, as well as raising awareness about its paid products. Tactics will include media outreach and speaking engagements for AVG's CEO, JR Smith.
“We're trying to leverage the fact that everyone knows that we give away a free product... and use that to build up information about our [paid] products,” MacDermott said. In addition to its AVG Free software, it also sells paid items like AVG Internet Security SBS edition.
AVG did not invite its previous AOR, Dovetail PR, to pitch because the company had outgrown the agency's size and capacity, MacDermott said. When reached for comment, Corey Oiesen, president of Dovetail PR, said AVG had been a great client and it wished it well.
GlobalFluency previously worked with McAfee when MacDermott led the communications function there. AVG is now working with several of the firm's partners worldwide.
MacDermott said the company will also use GlobalFluency as its full marketing agency for capabilities that expand beyond traditional PR.
“There'll be campaigns that focus on specific areas of need in the market,” said Donovan Neale-May, president of GlobalFluency. “There'll be... a lot more imaginative interactions with the marketplace.”
The account will be based in the firm's New York office.
