Fleming Investment Trust Management (FITM) has hired Lansons
Communications to boost its presence in the personal finance market.
A wholly-owned subsidiary of Robert Fleming Holdings, FITM entered the
personal pension market for the first time in October, and faces stiff
competition from rivals Foreign and Colonial and Dunedin.
Lansons was appointed last week to develop a ‘creative and strategic’
programme for the company beginning in January. Lansons joint managing
director Tony Langham declined to give details of fees or of what form
the PR programme would take, but said it would be aimed at the national
business press, personal finance publications and trade journals for
financial intermediaries.
Day-to-day press work will be handled mainly in-house through FITM’s
extensive marketing department, which also deals with product
development, sales, customer services and advertising.
Ludgate, which dealt with press relations for the company for four
years, was asked to repitch for the renewed account but declined.
‘We felt the brief needed a change. We have enough internal resources to
keep in touch with journalists,’ explained FITM’s marketing director
Daniel Godfrey.
‘Ludgate had been doing that job very well but we wanted to take more
work on ourselves and needed a consultancy for more creative and
strategic input.’