LONDON: Energy supplier NPower has dropped its three incumbent agencies to hand GolinHarris full UK PR duties ahead of a “challenging time.”
The agency won a pitch process for the brief, previously handled by a roster of McCann Birmingham, Frank PR, and Camargue, worth about £1 million (about $1.6 million) annually.
Golin will manage work covering industrial and commercial, SME, ECO/Green deals, and PR for the npower brand.
The agency hire took place after the recent arrival of Guy Esnouf from E.On as director of external communications.
“I am delighted to be working with GolinHarris,” said Esnouf. “We have a challenging time ahead of us, and I believe the knowledge and expertise displayed by the team will be invaluable in the coming months.”
“We have been accustomed to working with top-class agencies, and I would like to thank McCann, Frank PR, and Camargue, which have worked alongside us over the past few years, for their invaluable contribution,” he added. “We part with some real regret.”
Earlier this week, npower, which came in last in January's Which? survey of customer satisfaction of energy providers, raised its prices by 10.4%. It was the latest UK energy provider to do so amid rising anger from politicians and the public.
At the Labour Party Conference earlier this month, party leader Ed Miliband pledged to cap energy bill rises, while Prime Minister David Cameron has said he intends to “roll back” green levies pushing up bills.
This story originally appeared on the website of PRWeek UK.
