Proud PR News

Proud Hires Mr Wright

Posted by admin on April 24, 2012   |   No Comments

George Wright

Proud PR has expanded once again with the appointment of George Wright to its team of senior-only consultants.

During his career George has led campaigns for some of the technology sector’s biggest brands, including VMware, Cisco, BT and Micro Focus, as well as many financial brands such as Dun & Bradstreet, Neonet (later acquired by Orc Software), Calypso and Quod Financial. Having rapidly climbed the ranks in tech and B2B agencies such as Brands2Life and Cognito, he completed the CIPR diploma in 2008.

George is experienced at integrating social media elements into traditional PR campaigns, including search engine optimisation (SEO), blogger relations, social media engagement and video content production. His focus and specialism has always been the B2B technology sector, where he works to really get under the skin of his clients’ products and services to develop simple and engaging stories out of otherwise complicated and dry B2B brands.

He started with Proud PR in March 2012 with a maternity cover remit; working across clients such as Flexiant, Intershop and Infinity, but will soon assist with new clients in the data management and security sectors.

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Stevens Boosts Telco Credentials at Proud

Posted by admin on April 12, 2012   |   No Comments

Kirstie Stevens

Proud PR has boosted its credentials in the telco sector with the addition of Kirstie Stevens to its team. A former group PR manager at COLT and corporate communications manager at Global Crossing, she boasts experience in multinational organisations in both the technology and environmental services markets.

Fluent in both French and Spanish, she has expertise in developing and implementing cross-border communications strategy and messaging at both a group and regional level that aligns with business objectives and has qualitative KPIs.

Stevens’ experience covers all aspects of corporate communications including media and industry analyst relations, as well as internal, financial and marketing communications. She will head up the global PR programme for Proud PR client, Actelis; the broadband acceleration company.

 

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Actelis Selects Proud as Global PR Lead

Posted by admin on March 14, 2012   |   No Comments

Appointed to increase exposure of broadband acceleration solutions

Chris Heinemann

Actelis Networks®, The Broadband Acceleration Company™, has engaged Proud PR to implement a media, influencer and partner communications programme in Europe and North America. With more than three billion copper telephone lines embedded throughout the world, carriers and enterprises are looking for pragmatic ways to best leverage the investment in their existing copper infrastructure to cost-effectively meet evolving broadband needs.

Proud PR will focus on increasing awareness and exposure of Actelis’ unique ability to quickly and cost effectively accelerate deployment of new broadband services for businesses, municipalities and residential subscribers through its industry-leading and award-winning product line of Ethernet access equipment and Broadband Accelerators (BBAs).

Proud PR will handle the media relations campaign and strategy using its industry knowledge and media expertise to strengthen Actelis’ brand awareness and increase market share in existing and emerging markets. Natalie Sutton, owner and director at Proud PR, is leading the program, along with Chris Heinemann, director of marketing communications at Silicon Valley-based Actelis.

“Actelis’ mission has always been to accelerate the adoption of innovative broadband solutions that deliver the greatest rate, reach and reliability over existing networks,” commented Heinemann. “We believe that our relationship with Proud PR will help Actelis expand its global brand as ‘The Broadband Acceleration Company,’ helping the company clearly articulate Actelis’ brand promise that we are here to accelerate our customers’ success.”

“One of our strengths as an agency is taking technical messages and creating compelling content that reaches and resonates with targeted audiences,” said Sutton. “Like its worldwide customer base, Actelis’ portfolio of products is diverse and complex. As an agency, our task is to take these complexities and create a unified message that leverages the brand platform. We believe this partnership will enable Actelis to resonate across a wide group of targeted stakeholders and, ultimately, generate qualified leads that will lead to new business.”

Actelis’ broadband solutions are used by its customers to build Dedicated Networks, DSLAM Backhaul, Mobile Backhaul, Metro Ethernet Extension, Transparent LAN and Transportation (ITS) networks. Actelis’ broadband solutions are also being deployed to provide residential broadband anywhere POTS service can be delivered. In fact, the company’s BBA was named INTERNET TELEPHONY’s 2011 Product of the Year. Additionally, the World Vendor Awards recently shortlisted Actelis’ DRB technology for two awards in the categories of Technology Foresight and Best Specialist Vendor.

Proud PR, founded in 2003, also counts organisations such as Flexiant, Intershop, Infinity, Kensington, M2 and Qmatic amongst its client base.

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Proud PR to Lead Content Strategy and Influencer Programme for Flexiant

Posted by admin on February 28, 2012   |   No Comments

George Knox

Specialist cloud orchestration software provider, Flexiant, has selected Proud PR to lead the Company’s content strategy; delivering content to fulfill the inbound marketing programme as well as providing strategic analyst relations, public relations counsel and media relations.

The appointment is a result of Proud PR’s expertise in providing content that can be used throughout the marketing mix and sales cycle. It was supported by its track record with rapidly growing and innovative technology clients such as wholesale data centre operator, Infinity, as well as the team’s experience past and present with data centre and managed services issues for clients such as Dimension Data, Global Crossing, Netezza (now an IBM company) and Telehouse.

“We are pleased to be working with Proud PR during this very exciting time for the company,” said George Knox, CEO at Flexiant. “With the demand for cloud services set to explode, an increasing number of service providers (SPs) are turning to our unique cloud orchestration solution to help them optimise revenues and stay competitive. Our fully automated software suite allows SPs to automate the provisioning of cloud servers on-demand and delivers multi-hypervisor support as well as automated metering and billing.”

“Proud PR has proven to be an excellent match in helping us find clarity in communicating Flexiant’s story because of its impressive array of senior counselors,” he concluded.

Natalie Sutton, Director at Proud PR added,  ”We are excited to be working with such an inspirational and visionary company like Flexiant and feel that we have a good fit. We will execute a robust communications strategy for Flexiant which will raise the company’s leadership profile and cut through the huge volume of cloud washing in the market place.”

Proud PR, founded in 2003, also counts organisations such as Actelis, Infinity SDC, Intershop, Kensington, M2 and Qmatic amongst its client base.

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Proud PR Expands Again with Addition of Silja Ingham

Posted by admin on January 24, 2012   |   No Comments

Silja Ingham

Proud PR has expanded once again with the addition of senior PR consultant, Silja Ingham.

A fluent German speaker, Silja started her career at SAP. She has since worked at tech PR agencies Grant Butler Coomber and OneChocolate Communications. Clients have included Amdocs, Audiocode, Clearswift, Intuit, Irisys, Mindjet, Netviewer, Pegasystems and  Redwood Technologies to name but a few.

She loves writing, pitching stories and joins Danielle Cook and Natalie Sutton on the PR team for Intershop across Europe.

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Kate Banyard Joins as PR Consultant

Posted by admin on January 13, 2012   |   No Comments

Kate Banyard

The Proud family has expanded yet again with the addition of Kate Banyard to its team of PR consultants.

Kate has worked both agency and client side. She cut her agency teeth at telco, mobile and retail technology specialist, Companycare Communications back in 2000 and went onto the business-to-business world of Clarity PR in 2004.

Kate has since worked in-house for distributor, Steljes and Original Software, a testing automation company. A fan of analyst relations as well as the social media landscape, Kate is also highly proficient with online PR and writing for SEO.

She starts in January and will, amongst other things be driving the reviews programme for one of Proud PR’s newest clients, Kensington.

Kensington is the inventor and worldwide leader in laptop security locks, an acknowledged leader of Trackball innovation and offers the broadest range of premium branded iPad, Tablet, iPhone and Smartphone productivity solutions.

Proud Supports Launch of DATACENTRE.ME; the Global One-Stop Shop for Data Centre Industry

Posted by admin on December 12, 2011   |   No Comments

DATACENTRE.ME today announced that following three months of intensive marketing and development, its unique source of online information for data centres is now live.

The web site, that can be found at http://www.datacentre.me/ is a global one-stop shop for the data centre industry and provides daily updates for specialist news, reports and events, as well as valuable insights into training courses, recruitment, networking opportunities, partnerships, recommended reading and publications and recommended PR companies.

Caroline Hitchins, Founder and Owner of DATACENTRE.ME explained, “DATACENTRE.ME alleviates the need to visit several different websites in order to locate information relating to the data centre industry.  I have spent a considerable amount of time in the data centre events industry and felt sure that a website offering a free industry directory as well as other useful information would breathe fresh life into this already hugely buoyant market.“

The site has gained a great deal of traction in a short space of time in its mission to become the primary source of global information for data centre professionals.  Many companies having already registered for their FREE listing in the directory, and it has attracted sponsorship from Red Vista, part of The Mavin Group at Diamond level and EcoCooling and sineQN at Gold level.

DATACENTRE.ME is delighted to also be working with The Green Data Center Alliance, BrightTALK, Global Strategic Management Institute, Six Degrees, Proud PR, Global Security Magazine, The Data Centre Alliance, COMMS EXPO and DataCenterPeople.

Designed by Zero One Design DATACENTRE.ME can be followed on Twitter, facebook and at its LinkedIn Group.

Intershop Calls in Proud PR to Support European Expansion

Posted by admin on December 5, 2011   |   No Comments

Alistair Robbie

Intershop, a leading e-commerce software and services provider, has selected Proud PR to support its continued expansion across Benelux, France, Italy, the Nordics and the UK.

Founded in Germany in 1992, Intershop Communications AG is a leading provider of comprehensive state-of-the-art e-commerce solutions. Intershop’s Enfinity Suite 6 is high-performance packaged software for internet sales, complemented by all necessary services including comprehensive online marketing consulting and a transaction platform for order-, supplier-, product- and channel management from its daughter companies SoQuero and TheBakery.

Proud PR will work on a business-to-business PR brief aiming to make the brand stand out from rivals such as ATG (an Oracle company) and hybris software.

Intershop Marketing Director for EMEA, Alistair Robbie said: ‘The rapidly growing e-tail industry has led to us to develop a pan-European comms strategy that ensures Intershop maintains a clear voice and presence in key media and among other influencers such as bloggers, analysts and the social networks.”

The agency will target influencers, driving awareness and content-based lead generation for the company as well as establishing Intershop as an authority in multichannel commerce.

Proud PR Director, Natalie Sutton said, “Up to this point Intershop has grown organically and gained local exposure through its impressive portfolio of customers like Deutsche Telekom, HP and Xerox. We’re going to help tell its story, grow its users and make sure it doesn’t get left behind.”

M2 Named One of Four Finalists in the MEN Business of the Year Awards

Posted by admin on October 21, 2011   |   No Comments

Proud PR’s client and favourite managed print services vendor, M2 is through to the finals of the M.E.N (Manchester Evening News) Business Of The Year Awards 2011. The first stage of the awards process was a presentation to the M.E.N. panel in August which promoted the enterprise, competitiveness, innovation, strong management, motivated employees and customer service running throughout the M2 business.

John Taylor, CEO of M2 fronted the presentation and was supported by the M2 Value Award Winners, the first and last colleagues to join M2 and Dan Morton from Pannone, one of the company’s key customer accounts.

After a successful visit from the judges, M2 has been short listed as one of four finalists. The final stage will be a presentation to Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Pinsents Masons, The Co-operative Bank and the M.E.N panel early in October. The winners will be unveiled at a gala dinner at Lancashire County Cricket Club on the 17th November.

Qmatic UK Named Finalist in Retail Systems Awards

Posted by admin on September 5, 2011   |   No Comments

Leader in customer flow management (CFM) solutions and Proud PR client, Qmatic has made the shortlist of finalists in the 2011 Retail Systems Awards. Nominated alongside its partner, Hintech in the ‘best use of in-store marketing technology in retail’ award, the judges will be reviewing a project involving digital media and kiosks at Homebase.

The ‘Create the Look’ and ‘Plant Finder’ project aims to improve the customer experience, help consumer purchasing decisions and increases sales for the UK’s largest home enhancement retailer.

Qmatic's 'Create the Look' solution at Homebase

See the full shortlist of awards finalists here.