Halpern has been hired to create and ‘roll out’ a global comms strategy for the brands, according to Edrington global brands PR manager Sharon McLaughlin McLaughlin, who joined in a newly created role last month, said Halpern would be working to boost the brands’ global position on a new lifestyle PR-focused remit.
Fees for the account are understood to be in the region of £150,000.
The agency won a competitive pitch that culminated in a three-way shootout against two ‘London-based agencies’, according to McLaughlin.
The account will be run by travel and lifestyle director Lysbeth Fox, who joined Halpern last month.
Fox said that in addition to media relations, the campaign would involve celebrity endorsement and product placement at ‘high-profile events’.
McLaughlin said Halpern aimed to create a database of celebrities to promote the brands and would aim to ‘get the distributors of the brand
in different markets involved, along with [their] PR agencies’.
She said she and Halpern had a ‘list of names in mind’ and would be seeking to recruit ‘Orlando Bloom-type people’ as ‘celebrity endorsers’.
McLaughlin added that PR campaigns for the brands would continue to be ‘male-biased’ and targeted at 30- to 45-year-olds.
Ongoing sponsorship activity will continue to be handled internally by Edrington’s six-strong corporate affairs and brands PR team, based at West Kinfauns, Perth. Fox was previously MD of Talk Luxury, which she left last year. She has spent the interim period living in Los Angeles.
