WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) selected global financial communications network AMO for outreach in Africa, Europe, and Latin America. Last week, PRWeek reported that the IMF chose Hill & Knowlton for Middle East and Asia outreach.
AMO's Madrid-based firm Llorente & Cuenca will handle outreach in Spain and Latin America, Euro RSCG C&O in Paris will handle the work in Africa, and outreach elsewhere in Europe will be handled by network partners in their respective countries.
“Our role is to help them reach out to those countries with more proximity to [the] key audiences that are most affected by the IMF,” said Charles Fleming, president of AMO France.
Africa and Latin America are “priority regions,” Fleming added.
Like the H&K contract, AMO's is for one year. The combined contracts, valued at about $1.5 million, are split about evenly between the two firms, according to IMF spokesperson William Murray.
“The two companies were chosen from a dozen leading international firms that competed through an open process,” Murray wrote in an e-mail. “The selection was made by a staff team and not the managing director, following the Fund's usual rigorous procurement procedures.”
Although some reports noted that Euro RSCG C&O had a relationship with IMF MD Dominique Strauss-Kahn, both the IMF and AMO said that the connection played no role in the selection.
