- The Driving Standards Agency (DSA) has appointed former BBC journalist John Atkin as its head of press office. Atkin was most recently head of PR and comms at Birmingham City University and before that news and sports editor for the BBC in Derby. Atkin oversees four staff. The DSA's overall mission is to achieve a 40 per cent reduction in riders and drivers killed or seriously injured in road accidents, in the age group up to 24 years, by 2010.
- KPMG LLP has hired Mandate to help build its profile in the education sector. Mandate will be responsible for creating a media campaign that drives awareness, as well as demonstrating KPMG's track record in delivering benefits to the public sector.
- Hillingdon Council has launched a recycling campaign in an effort to boost the borough's recycling rates. The theme of the new campaign will be 'missing', to highlight the household items that are missing from residents' recycling bags and commonly found in refuse sacks. As part of the launch and to kick start the campaign, there will be mountains of rubbish piled high in the main town centres in Hillingdon to raise awareness about how much waste a typical household produces a year.
- The University of Glasgow has made two new additions to its media relations office from the private sector. Eleanor Cowie joins from Weber Shandwick, while Stuart Forsyth makes the move from the BIG Partnership. Both were account managers with their agencies and have been appointed as media relations officers.
- Marketing Birmingham is leading a campaign called Live and Learn to attract new students to the city. It involves the three largest universities in the city working together rather than in competition. So far Marketing Birmingham has used Markettiers4dc to conduct a student survey on what makes a modern student and the students have made their own cinema ad.
