Difference between revisions of "Brunswick Group"

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[[Image:Brunswick.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Brunswick offices, Lincolns Inn Fields, central London ]]  
 
[[Image:Brunswick.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Brunswick offices, Lincolns Inn Fields, central London ]]  
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'''The Brunswick Group''' is an international PR and lobbying firm, headquartered in London. Its founder is [[Alan Parker]]. Brunswick specialises in financial PR, and Parker is considered to be one of the UK's leading financial PR men (alongside [[Roland Rudd]]). It has a blue-chip client list that is the envy of most other agencies.
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'''The Brunswick Group''' is an international PR and lobbying firm, headquartered in London. Its founder is [[Alan Parker]], friend of [[Gordon Brown]]. Brunswick specialises in financial PR, and Parker is considered to be one of the UK's leading financial PR men (alongside [[Roland Rudd]]). It has a blue-chip client list that is the envy of most other agencies. It is one of a handful of key financial PR agencies in the UK, including: [[FD]], [[Buchanan]], [[Citigate Dewe Rogerson]], [[Pelham PR]], [[Finsbury]], and [[Maitland]].
  
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Brunswick is seen as both a major force and an enigma - it has steadfastly declined to participate in PR Week's fee income rankings, for example. Its founder, Alan Parker, rarely grants interviews and is uncomfortable when he becomes the focus of a story. ‘It's bad manners to get between the client and the footlights,' he says.<ref>[http://www.brandrepublic.com/InDepth/Features/804439/TOP-150-PR-CONSULTANCIES-Brunswick---bashful-bullish/ TOP 150 PR CONSULTANCIES: Brunswick -- bashful but still bullish], PR Week, 24 April 2008</ref>
  
 
==Services==
 
==Services==
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Brunswick has ranked at the top or near the top of league tables for financial communications consultancies. They advise on media and investor relations, mergers and acquisitions, competition and regulatory issues, crisis management, international communications and corporate campaigns.  
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Brunswick has ranked at the top or near the top of league tables for financial communications consultancies. It advises clients on public affairs, media and investor relations, mergers and acquisitions, competition and regulatory issues, crisis management, international communications and corporate reputation.<ref>[http://www.brunswickgroup.com/index_main.php?s=2&t=0 Brunswick's website], accessed March 2009</ref>
  
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==Political Connections==
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On public affairs, Brunswick says:
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Brunswick paid more than £5,000 to the [[Labour Party]] for 'tickets for dinners' in 1999-2000 and gave £9,000 in August 2001. The company also donated the services of an employee to the Government to help work on the Financial Services and Markets Bill - legislation which will regulate business in the City and which would provide invaluable information to Brunswick's clients."<ref>[http://www.red-star-research.org.uk/subframe3.html from the Red Star Research]</ref>
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:"Our team includes former senior government advisers and political campaign staff who understand the context in which decisions are taken in government, the relative influence of the stakeholders involved and can advise on the most effective communication of a client's case. We work closely with in-house government relations teams and external lobbying firms to help broaden public support for our client's position and build a better understanding of their business among their relevant government audiences."<ref>[http://www.brunswickgroup.com/index_main.php?s=2&t=0 Brunswick's website], accessed March 2009</ref>
  
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==History==
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CFO Europe reports in March 2006:
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The Brunswick Group was founded in 1987.
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:Brunswick has long been seen as epitomising the influence-and-access game in deals circles, something that it is exporting to other centres. Notably, in 2001 Brunswick recruited as head of its US operations [[Steve Lipin]], a former Wall Street Journal M&A reporter with a reputation for aggressively leveraging his newspaper’s franchise to get news scoops on deals. [Brunswick] has had its share of controversy over its aggressive tactics. Also in 2001, for example, a former client, [[Jupiter Asset Management]] (which had been acquired by [[Commerzbank]]), threatened to sue Brunswick after the PR firm sent a dossier to several London newspapers claiming that Jupiter was in financial trouble.<ref>[http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/5518719?f=singlepage CFO Europe, 7 March 2006</ref>
  
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==People==
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==Political Connections==
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*Brunswick founder, [[Alan Parker]] is a close personal friend of [[Gordon Brown]] and his wife Sarah. The prime minister is godfather to one of Parker's children and Sarah used to work at Brunswick. It was Parker who recommended [[Stephen Carter]], former Ofcom chief executive and (briefly) the chief executive of Brunswick, to be the PM's new chief of strategy. When Brown visited China and India at the beginning of 2008, he was accompanied not only by Carter but Parker as well, prompting one observer to ask - was the prime minister getting two advisers for the price of one?<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/14/mediatop100200873 Alan Parker profile], Guardian, 14 July 2008</ref>
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==Clients==
 
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Although Brunswick are reluctant to advertise client details, they represent firms including [[British Airways]], [[BT]], [[EMI]], [[Marks & Spencer]] (dropped recently) [[Marconi]] (ditto), [[Safeway]], [[Casenove]] (City Stockbrokers), [[Blue Circle]] (fought off [[Lafarge]] takeover - cost £27m for all advisors) [[Standard Life]] (£1m+ fighting off demutualization), [[Newcastle United]], [[Malcolm Glazer]], [[MK Dons]], [[Railtrack]] (before administration) and [[HBoS]] and range from some of the world's biggest companies, retained on an international mandate, to small and unquoted businesses. Also running the PR for London's bid to host the Olympics in 2012. They have offices in London, New York, Germany and Johannesburg.
 
  
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Founder [[Alan Parker]] (son of former [[British Rail]] chairman Sir [[Peter Parker]]) owns 88% of Brunswick's Channel Islands holding company, [[Wynnstay]], giving him control of the agency and a stake in the company worth an estimated £114m. Parker's personal assets are thought to be around £6m.
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*Conservative leader, [[David Cameron]] also attended Parker's wedding, alongside the Browns. Parker was pictured on holiday in South Africa in 2008 with Cameron.<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/14/mediatop100200873 Alan Parker profile], Guardian, 14 July 2008</ref>
  
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:It is generally accepted that modern financial public relations was the brainchild of [[Alan Parker]], the reclusive founder of Brunswick, an independent London-based agency that is consistently at the top of European deal advisory league tables. (See table below.) Parker was a rock band manager until his father, Sir [[Peter Parker]], former head of [[British Rail]], got him a job in PR. He founded Brunswick at the end of the 1980s and is credited with bringing investment banking-style professionalism to the trade. Brunswick’s influence spread within the London financial community, and latterly to Wall Street and continental Europe, where firms have copied its approach.
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*Previously, in 1999-2000, Brunswick paid more than £5,000 to the [[Labour Party]] for 'tickets for dinners', and in 2001 gave £9,000 to Labour.<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/1999/sep/09/uk.politicalnews1 Where the party got its money from], Guardian 9 sept 2001</ref>
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*Brunswick also donated the services of an employee to the Government to help work on the Financial Services and Markets Bill - legislation which will regulate business in the City and which would provide invaluable information to Brunswick's clients."<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4033309,00.html 'Staff for favours' row hits Treasury], Guardian, 25 June 2000</ref>
  
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:Brunswick has long been seen as epitomising the influence-and-access game in deals circles, something that it is exporting to other centres. Notably, in 2001 Brunswick recruited as head of its US operations [[Steve Lipin]], a former Wall Street Journal M&A reporter with a reputation for aggressively leveraging his newspaper’s franchise to get news scoops on deals.
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==Relations with the media==
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Brunswick and Parker have "a network of close contacts at the top of British companies and a similar network within the financial press. As an intermediary between these two networks he tries to shape perceptions of companies or business people."<ref>Robert Peston, Who Runs Britain?, Hodder & Stoughton, 2008</ref>
  
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:The firm has had its share of controversy over its aggressive tactics. Also in 2001, for example, a former client, [[Jupiter Asset Management]] (which had been acquired by [[Commerzbank]]), threatened to sue Brunswick after the PR firm sent a dossier to several London newspapers claiming that Jupiter was in financial trouble.<ref>Tony McAuley [http://www.cfoeurope.com/displayStory.cfm/5459866 The sweet smell of success: Financial public relations advice has become a must-have for any company with a share price, but it remains a mysterious art] CFOEurope.com. February 2006.</ref>
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The significance of a financial PR to journalists is explained by David Michie in 1997:
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:'Even the most energetic reporters know that they have to be somewhat deferential in the presence of a powerful publicist. No one on a national beat can afford to be on the wrong side of [those who]..represent a third of the most quotable sources in the country in the more liberal British media, reporters are less deferential to anyone; but even so the same principle holds true the most important corporate spin doctors include Alan Parker, creator of Brunswick.<ref>Michie D., 1997, " The Invisible Persuaders: How Britain's Spin Doctors Manipulate the Media", p.26</ref>  
  
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==People==
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Besides hiring senior journalists, Brunswick provides other services to media professionals as the Independent notes in 1995:
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[[David Brewerton]], former City editor at ''The Times'' became one of the first financial journalists to move into financial PR when he joined Brusnwick. He is reported to have played a key role in blocking [[Hanson]]'s takeover of [[ICI]].<ref>[http://media.guardian.co.uk/top100_2004/story/0,,1249255,00.html]</ref>
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:It looks like marshmallows around the camp fire in Lincoln's Inn Field for the Daily Telegraph's City office. Staff have been three-line whipped for a bit of weekend bonding on 18 November at what looks suspiciously like the offices of Brunswick, the PR agency. A mysterious memo to staff from [[Neil Collins]], the City editor, explains: "It's an away day to discuss the future of the City Pages. Although attendance is not compulsory those of a paranoid disposition will regret not being there and the rest of us might have a good time (although some work will be done). There will be no counselling. At this stage I do not intend to answer press inquiries. . . A wise move. While they would not confirm it, the navel gaze is apparently being run by [[Professional Presentations]], a human resources consultancy based in Brunswick's offices and run by Lucy Parker, sister of the PR agency's Alan Parker.<ref>CITY DIARY, Independent, Nov 2, 1995</ref>
  
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Other hirings in recent years include the FT's media editor, [[Tim Burt]], [[Andy Browne]] from the Wall Street Journal (Asia) to work in Brunswick's Beijing office, as well as former Sun editor [[David Yelland]].
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However, Brunswick is not beloved by all financial journalists, as this City Diary entry in 2001 shows:
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:The phones were out of order at Brunswick - the PR company that is to the City what lint is to pockets (annoying and hard to get rid of) - for most of yesterday. Net productivity in the City soared as a result. (If anyone at Cable & Wireless fancies making £50 in return for cutting them off again, give me a call.)<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2001/feb/13/2 City Diary], Guardian, 13 February 2001</ref>
  
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==History and structure==
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The Brunswick Group was founded in 1987. It has developed a robust international network - for instance, after establishing a strong presence in New York, Brunswick cracked the US West Coast by opening a San Francisco office and picking up clients of the calibre of Gap, Google, Sun Microsystems and Cisco.<ref>
  
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In 2001, Parker recruited [[Bill Clinton]]'s former aide, [[James Rubin]], to Brunswick's political affairs unit. Rubin reportedly left in April 2004, according to the Observer:
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The Brunswick Group has been through many different names and identities. Records available at companies House show that Brunswick used to be called [[Lincoln Research Ltd]].  Its name was changed to [[Brunswick Public Relations Limited]] on 6 March 1997.  <ref> Companies House 363s Annual Return for Brunswick Public Relations Limited, 18 June 1997.</ref> Other companies in the group or of which [[Alan Parker]] or [[John Andrew Fenwick]] are Directors have also gone through name changes.
  
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:Former state department spokesman James Rubin was hired in a blaze of publicity by top financial PR firm Brunswick some time ago. That gave founder Alan Parker the right to brag that he had bagged one half of the world's most glamorous media couples (Rubin is married to London-based CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour).
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==Subsidiaries==
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*[[Cantos]] <ref>[http://www.cantos.com] </ref>
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*[[Lincoln Centre]] <ref> [http://www.thelincolncentre.co.uk/home.html]</ref>
 +
*[[Merchant]] <ref> [http://www.merchant.co.uk/mgl/mgl_home/]</ref>
  
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:Now rumour has it that Rubin has quietly quit, although not many people at Brunswick's Holborn HQ will have noticed. 'He was in the office about as often as Johnny Vegas is in the gym,' says a Brunswick insider. <ref>Media diary, '[http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1202662,00.html Parker feels the rub as star signing quits]', ''Observer'' Business Pages, Pg. 7, 25 April 2004.</ref>
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==People==
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*[[Alan Parker]], Founder. Parker owns 88 percent of Brunswick's Channel Islands holding company, [[Wynnstay]], giving him control of the agency and a stake in the company worth an estimated £114m. Parker's personal assets are thought to be around £6m.
 +
*[[Tim Burt]], former FT media editor.  
 +
*[[David Yelland]], former Sun editor.
  
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Later the firm's arts events subsidiary was joined by the former partner of [[Hobsbawm Macaulay Communications]] and wife of [[Gordon Brown]], [[Sarah Macaulay]]. Sarah Macaulay is 'the fashionably reserved co-founder of Hobsbawm Macaulay Communications'(ref?). She marketed [[Emily's List]], the campaign to increase the number of women MPs."
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===Former staff===
 +
*[[Rupert Younger]], now [[Finsbury]]
 +
*[[Andrew Grant]], now [[Tulchan Communications]]
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*[[Sarah Macaulay]], wife of [[Gordon Brown]], worked in Brunswick's arts events subsidiary. Macaulay founded the charity [[PiggyBankKids]] in 2002, which is run from Brunswick's offices. Macaulay is the co-founder of [[Hobsbawm Macaulay Communications]]. She marketed [[Emily's List]], the campaign to increase the number of women MPs.
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*[[David Brewerton]], (retired). Former City editor at ''The Times'' became one of the first financial journalists to move into financial PR when he joined Brusnwick. He is reported to have played a key role in blocking [[Hanson]]'s takeover of [[ICI]].<ref>[http://media.guardian.co.uk/top100_2004/story/0,,1249255,00.html]</ref>
 +
*[[James Rubin]], [[Bill Clinton]]'s former aide, was recruited to Brunswick's political affairs unit in 2001. Rubin reportedly left in April 2004, according to the Observer: to Brunswick's political affairs unit. Rubin reportedly left in April 2004, according to the Observer:
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:Former state department spokesman James Rubin was hired in a blaze of publicity by top financial PR firm Brunswick some time ago. That gave founder Alan Parker the right to brag that he had bagged one half of the world's most glamorous media couples (Rubin is married to London-based CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour). Now rumour has it that Rubin has quietly quit, although not many people at Brunswick's Holborn HQ will have noticed. 'He was in the office about as often as Johnny Vegas is in the gym,' says a Brunswick insider. <ref>Media diary, '[http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1202662,00.html Parker feels the rub as star signing quits]', ''Observer'' Business Pages, Pg. 7, 25 April 2004.</ref>
 +
*[[Andy Browne]] from the Wall Street Journal (Asia) to work in Brunswick's Beijing office
  
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===Staff===
 
  
 +
===Staff list===
 
Brunswick employs over 320 staff, including 40 partners. They advise on media and [[investor relations]], mergers and acquisitions, competition and regulatory issues, [[crisis management]], international communications and corporate campaigns. <ref> [http://www.brunswickgroup.com/index.php?s=4&t=0&office=all&sw=0] </ref>
 
Brunswick employs over 320 staff, including 40 partners. They advise on media and [[investor relations]], mergers and acquisitions, competition and regulatory issues, [[crisis management]], international communications and corporate campaigns. <ref> [http://www.brunswickgroup.com/index.php?s=4&t=0&office=all&sw=0] </ref>
 
<table width="90%" border="1" cellpadding="5%" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="white" align="center">
 
<table width="90%" border="1" cellpadding="5%" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="white" align="center">
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</table>
 
</table>
  
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==Previous names==
 
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The Brunswick Group has been through many different names and identities.  The aim of this is presumably to hide financial information and to keep it offshore.  Records available at companies House show that Brunswick itself used to be called [[Lincoln Research Ltd]].  Its name was changed to [[Brunswick Public Relations Limited]] on 6 March 1997.  <ref> Companies House 363s Annual Return for Brunswick Public Relations Limited, 18 June 1997.</ref>
 
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Other companies in the group or of which [[Alan Parker]] or [[John Andrew Fenwick]] are Directors have also gone through seemingly confusing name changes.
 
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==Subsidiaries==
 
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*[[Cantos]] <ref>[http://www.cantos.com] </ref>
 
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*[[Lincoln Centre]] <ref> [http://www.thelincolncentre.co.uk/home.html]</ref>
 
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*[[Merchant]] <ref> [http://www.merchant.co.uk/mgl/mgl_home/]</ref>
 
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===Projects===
 
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*[[PiggyBankKids]]
 
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==Activities==
 
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Business activities in the company's language:
 
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* Ongoing IR & PR: maintaining and increasing trust and understanding among investors, analysts and media commentators
 
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* Financial calendar: we will ensure your results announcements are correctly positioned and managed
 
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* IPOs & financings: launching companies in the public markets and creating the communications infrastructure for a new level of corporate disclosure
 
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* Crisis & litigation: defending a company's integrity, business practices and assets, and developing an effective path to weather the storm
 
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* Corporate transactions: maximising support for transactions, including M&A
 
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* Restructurings: ensuring that communications maximizes a company's future viability
 
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* Regulatory & public affairs: utilising communications to encourage support from regulatory agencies and governmental opinion formers
 
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* At 1st of May 2005 Brunswick Group started a trade union like support campaign for [[EICTA]]'s project [[Patents4Innovation]]
 
  
 
==Clients==
 
==Clients==
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Although Brunswick are reluctant to advertise client details, they represent firms including [[British Airways]], [[BT]], [[EMI]], [[Marks & Spencer]] (dropped recently) [[Marconi]] (ditto), [[Safeway]], [[Casenove]] (City Stockbrokers), [[Blue Circle]] (fought off [[Lafarge]] takeover - cost £27m for all advisors) [[Standard Life]] (£1m+ fighting off demutualization), [[Newcastle United]], [[Malcolm Glazer]], [[MK Dons]], [[Railtrack]] (before administration) and [[HBoS]] and range from some of the world's biggest companies, retained on an international mandate, to small and unquoted businesses. Also running the PR for London's bid to host the Olympics in 2012. They have offices in London, New York, Germany and Johannesburg.
  
 
*In July 2002 the ''Wall Street Journal'' reported that [[Martha Stewart]] had hired the Brunswick Group to massage her image in the wake of allegations that she profited from insider trading. <ref>[http://www.prwatch.org/node/1290] </ref>
 
*In July 2002 the ''Wall Street Journal'' reported that [[Martha Stewart]] had hired the Brunswick Group to massage her image in the wake of allegations that she profited from insider trading. <ref>[http://www.prwatch.org/node/1290] </ref>
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*[[St James's Place]] Wealth Management Advice <ref> [http://www.sjpc.co.uk/portal/internet/]</ref>
 
*[[St James's Place]] Wealth Management Advice <ref> [http://www.sjpc.co.uk/portal/internet/]</ref>
  
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==Controversies==
 
  
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'Even the most energetic reporters know that they have to be somewhat deferential in the presence of a powerful publicist. No one on a national beat can afford to be on the wrong side of [those who]..represent a third of the most quotable sources in the country in the more liberal British media, reporters are less deferential to anyone; but even so the same principle holds true the most important corporate spin doctors include Alan Parker, creator of Brunswick [[Des Wilson]] of BAA' (David Michie 1998: 10)
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* At 1st of May 2005 Brunswick Group started a trade union like support campaign for [[EICTA]]'s project [[Patents4Innovation]]
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Brunswick is one of 5 key financial PR agencies (others include [[Financial Dynamics]], [[Lowe Bell]], [[Citigate Dewe Rogerson]] and [[Maitland Consultancy]]) who handle over 80% of FTSE 100 clients. <ref><font color="red">Missing reference</font></ref>
 
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Brunswick is perhaps the most secretive and invisible of all the leading City / financial PR firms in the UK, it only recently published a website, and doesn't reveal who they work for. It is known in the PR world that they have a blue-chip client list that is the envy of most other agencies. (see The Guardian, Friday February 27, 2004 available at <ref> [http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1157401,00.html]) </ref>
 
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They do not advertise - business comes by referral and reputation.
 
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What do such important city spin doctors do? As one revealed:
 
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:I could give you the whole anodyne spiel about the work we do for our clients - financial calendar stuff but it's not really what they pay us for. Nine months of the year we take their retainer and give them back precisely sweet FA. What they are doing is taking out insurance. Because when the shit does hit the fan they know that we'll fix the media for them. We'll get the right stories in the right papers and we can do more to get their shareholders on side than anyone else (ref?)
 
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So what do they do for the retainers? They develop cosy relationships with journalists (many City PR's are ex-financial journalists); the offer exclusive access to clients for friendly journalists; they can deny access to other clients if a reporter produces negative copy; they conduct research on their clients competitors and supply this to the press; they have also been known to pass price sensitive information to journalists.(for examples of this practice see the aricle on the publicaffairsnews<ref> [http://www.publicaffairsnews.com/issues/articleview.asp?article_id=185]</ref>
 
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March & September are busy times for City PR firms, known as results season, when listed companies must report their financial position to the Stock Exchange. City PR devotes much effort to perfecting the corporate message in financial statements. This is known as investor relations, a discipline hailed as the unsung villains of the Enron collapse, such was their role in misleading investors about the financial health of the corporation. As one ex-Brunswick employee confessed:
 
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:'Everyone hates their jobs during results season. There are a lot of extremely pissed off people who want out. But where else is there to go? At Brunswick you are encouraged to believe you are working for the best agency in town. You know there are plenty of others in the wings waiting to take your place' (ref?)
 
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on top of this hothouse atmosphere
 
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City spin doctors at Brunswick PR have thoughtfully inaugurated a regular "debating" evening for internees. As they already work 15 hour days there is no obligation to attend these long and pointless evenings. Or is there. "It is something of a three-line whip," twitches my uncomfortable source. Bad luck chaps. Latest hot topic: "Is there a future for newspapers?" (ref?)
 
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==Financial journalism==
 
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Related to this
 
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:It looks like marshmallows around the camp fire in Lincoln's Inn Field for the Daily Telegraph's City office. Staff have been three-line whipped for a bit of weekend bonding on 18 November at what looks suspiciously like the offices of Brunswick, the PR agency. (ref?)
 
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:A mysterious memo to staff from [[Neil Collins]], the City editor, explains: "It's an away day to discuss the future of the City Pages. Although attendance is not compulsory those of a paranoid disposition will regret not being there and the rest of us might have a good time (although some work will be done). There will be no counselling. At this stage I do not intend to answer press inquiries. . .'' (ref?)
 
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:A wise move. While they would not confirm it, the navel gaze is apparently being run by [[Professional Presentations]], a human resources consultancy based in Brunswick's offices and run by Lucy Parker, sister of the PR agency's Alan Parker.
 
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Not beloved by all financial journalists
 
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:The phones were out of order at Brunswick - the PR company that is to the City what lint is to pockets (annoying and hard to get rid of) - for most of yesterday. Net productivity in the City soared as a result. (If anyone at Cable & Wireless fancies making £50 in return for cutting them off again, give me a call.) (ref?)
 
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:Sir [[Peter Davis]], the Sainsbury chairman, was banished from BBC screens and airwaves last week after a row with his "over-protective" - the BBC's words, not mine - PR minders. Brunswick, the PR company for Sainsbury, was insisting that all the TV stations carry a "pooled" interview with Davis because of his busy schedule rather than speak to him individually. This is a recent trend, my mole at the Beeb tells me, and simply not on. Similar offers will likewise be rejected unless there is a compelling reason. Pooled reports are reserved normally for interviews with members of the Royal Family or the Gulf War - events by comparison with which Sainsbury's results rather pale into insignificance. (refs?)
 
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Exiting its Marks & Spencer post together with Roger Holmes and Luc Vandevelde was Brunswick, the PR agency which perhaps had good reason to feel aggrieved after it helped Marks & Spencer fight off [[Philip Green]]'s last threatened takeover. To add spice, [[Tulchan Communications]], which is run by ex-Brunswick senior partner [[Andrew Grant]], was handed the account instead. (ref?)
 
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==Astroturf==
 
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A [[Football Association]] arbitration panel meets on Monday to adjudicate on whether Wimbledon can relocate to Milton Keynes and the struggle between fans and chairman is becoming increasingly bitter and personal.
 
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[[Charles Koppel]], who has proposed the plan, faces the threat of legal action from Merton's council leader Andrew Judge after Koppel allegedly said Judge only wanted Wimbledon back in the borough because his girlfriend was a fan.
 
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Judge strongly denied this and said he wants the club to return to Plough Lane because it is their home. He also pointed to a council survey which found 86% of residents in favour of a return to Merton. The club then responded with a press release from the residents' association of Haydons Bridge, the location of the former ground at Plough Lane, at a meeting of which Koppel's comments were allegedly made. That said the comments about Judge were taken out of context even though they were made in a taped conversation. The Residents' Association's listed contact is [[Sandra Clegg]], an employee of Brunswick, the PR company Wimbledon is paying £200,000 a year to help engineer the move to Milton Keynes. (refs?)
 
  
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Brunswick PR in 2002 leaked damaging information on rivals to its new client [[John Duffield]] - who then ditched them! <ref><font color="red">this must surely be referenced?</font> </ref>
 
  
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==References, Resources and Contact==
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==Contact details==
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===Contact details===
 
 
[[Image:Map.gif|thumb|right|Map of Brunswick office]]
 
[[Image:Map.gif|thumb|right|Map of Brunswick office]]
 
:16 Lincoln's Inn Fields  
 
:16 Lincoln's Inn Fields  
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:Web: [http://www.brunswickgroup.com www.brunswickgroup.com]
 
:Web: [http://www.brunswickgroup.com www.brunswickgroup.com]
  
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===External links===
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==External links==
 
*Center for Media and Democracy, [http://www.prwatch.org/node/2095 Former Government Flacks Find Corporate PR Path], ''Spin of the Day'', July 29, 2003.
 
*Center for Media and Democracy, [http://www.prwatch.org/node/2095 Former Government Flacks Find Corporate PR Path], ''Spin of the Day'', July 29, 2003.
 
*Tom Acitelli, "[http://www.prweek.com/news/news_worldwire.cfm?site=1&ID=208949&site=3&/news/news_worldwire.cfm&setcookie=1 Royal Dutch/Shell enlists Brunswick amid audit, exits]", ''PR Week'',  April 26, 2004. (Sub req'd)
 
*Tom Acitelli, "[http://www.prweek.com/news/news_worldwire.cfm?site=1&ID=208949&site=3&/news/news_worldwire.cfm&setcookie=1 Royal Dutch/Shell enlists Brunswick amid audit, exits]", ''PR Week'',  April 26, 2004. (Sub req'd)

Revision as of 15:34, 2 March 2009

Brunswick offices, Lincolns Inn Fields, central London

The Brunswick Group is an international PR and lobbying firm, headquartered in London. Its founder is Alan Parker, friend of Gordon Brown. Brunswick specialises in financial PR, and Parker is considered to be one of the UK's leading financial PR men (alongside Roland Rudd). It has a blue-chip client list that is the envy of most other agencies. It is one of a handful of key financial PR agencies in the UK, including: FD, Buchanan, Citigate Dewe Rogerson, Pelham PR, Finsbury, and Maitland.

Brunswick is seen as both a major force and an enigma - it has steadfastly declined to participate in PR Week's fee income rankings, for example. Its founder, Alan Parker, rarely grants interviews and is uncomfortable when he becomes the focus of a story. ‘It's bad manners to get between the client and the footlights,' he says.[1]

Services

Brunswick has ranked at the top or near the top of league tables for financial communications consultancies. It advises clients on public affairs, media and investor relations, mergers and acquisitions, competition and regulatory issues, crisis management, international communications and corporate reputation.[2]

On public affairs, Brunswick says:

"Our team includes former senior government advisers and political campaign staff who understand the context in which decisions are taken in government, the relative influence of the stakeholders involved and can advise on the most effective communication of a client's case. We work closely with in-house government relations teams and external lobbying firms to help broaden public support for our client's position and build a better understanding of their business among their relevant government audiences."[3]

CFO Europe reports in March 2006:

Brunswick has long been seen as epitomising the influence-and-access game in deals circles, something that it is exporting to other centres. Notably, in 2001 Brunswick recruited as head of its US operations Steve Lipin, a former Wall Street Journal M&A reporter with a reputation for aggressively leveraging his newspaper’s franchise to get news scoops on deals. [Brunswick] has had its share of controversy over its aggressive tactics. Also in 2001, for example, a former client, Jupiter Asset Management (which had been acquired by Commerzbank), threatened to sue Brunswick after the PR firm sent a dossier to several London newspapers claiming that Jupiter was in financial trouble.[4]

Political Connections

  • Brunswick founder, Alan Parker is a close personal friend of Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah. The prime minister is godfather to one of Parker's children and Sarah used to work at Brunswick. It was Parker who recommended Stephen Carter, former Ofcom chief executive and (briefly) the chief executive of Brunswick, to be the PM's new chief of strategy. When Brown visited China and India at the beginning of 2008, he was accompanied not only by Carter but Parker as well, prompting one observer to ask - was the prime minister getting two advisers for the price of one?[5]
  • Conservative leader, David Cameron also attended Parker's wedding, alongside the Browns. Parker was pictured on holiday in South Africa in 2008 with Cameron.[6]
  • Previously, in 1999-2000, Brunswick paid more than £5,000 to the Labour Party for 'tickets for dinners', and in 2001 gave £9,000 to Labour.[7]
  • Brunswick also donated the services of an employee to the Government to help work on the Financial Services and Markets Bill - legislation which will regulate business in the City and which would provide invaluable information to Brunswick's clients."[8]

Relations with the media

Brunswick and Parker have "a network of close contacts at the top of British companies and a similar network within the financial press. As an intermediary between these two networks he tries to shape perceptions of companies or business people."[9]

The significance of a financial PR to journalists is explained by David Michie in 1997:

'Even the most energetic reporters know that they have to be somewhat deferential in the presence of a powerful publicist. No one on a national beat can afford to be on the wrong side of [those who]..represent a third of the most quotable sources in the country in the more liberal British media, reporters are less deferential to anyone; but even so the same principle holds true the most important corporate spin doctors include Alan Parker, creator of Brunswick.[10]

Besides hiring senior journalists, Brunswick provides other services to media professionals as the Independent notes in 1995:

It looks like marshmallows around the camp fire in Lincoln's Inn Field for the Daily Telegraph's City office. Staff have been three-line whipped for a bit of weekend bonding on 18 November at what looks suspiciously like the offices of Brunswick, the PR agency. A mysterious memo to staff from Neil Collins, the City editor, explains: "It's an away day to discuss the future of the City Pages. Although attendance is not compulsory those of a paranoid disposition will regret not being there and the rest of us might have a good time (although some work will be done). There will be no counselling. At this stage I do not intend to answer press inquiries. . . A wise move. While they would not confirm it, the navel gaze is apparently being run by Professional Presentations, a human resources consultancy based in Brunswick's offices and run by Lucy Parker, sister of the PR agency's Alan Parker.[11]

However, Brunswick is not beloved by all financial journalists, as this City Diary entry in 2001 shows:

The phones were out of order at Brunswick - the PR company that is to the City what lint is to pockets (annoying and hard to get rid of) - for most of yesterday. Net productivity in the City soared as a result. (If anyone at Cable & Wireless fancies making £50 in return for cutting them off again, give me a call.)[12]

History and structure

The Brunswick Group was founded in 1987. It has developed a robust international network - for instance, after establishing a strong presence in New York, Brunswick cracked the US West Coast by opening a San Francisco office and picking up clients of the calibre of Gap, Google, Sun Microsystems and Cisco.Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag Other companies in the group or of which Alan Parker or John Andrew Fenwick are Directors have also gone through name changes.

Subsidiaries

People

  • Alan Parker, Founder. Parker owns 88 percent of Brunswick's Channel Islands holding company, Wynnstay, giving him control of the agency and a stake in the company worth an estimated £114m. Parker's personal assets are thought to be around £6m.
  • Tim Burt, former FT media editor.
  • David Yelland, former Sun editor.

Former staff

Former state department spokesman James Rubin was hired in a blaze of publicity by top financial PR firm Brunswick some time ago. That gave founder Alan Parker the right to brag that he had bagged one half of the world's most glamorous media couples (Rubin is married to London-based CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour). Now rumour has it that Rubin has quietly quit, although not many people at Brunswick's Holborn HQ will have noticed. 'He was in the office about as often as Johnny Vegas is in the gym,' says a Brunswick insider. [17]
  • Andy Browne from the Wall Street Journal (Asia) to work in Brunswick's Beijing office


Staff list

Brunswick employs over 320 staff, including 40 partners. They advise on media and investor relations, mergers and acquisitions, competition and regulatory issues, crisis management, international communications and corporate campaigns. [18]

Gill Ackers Fiona Antcliffe Mark Antelme Jérôme Biscay
Nitya Bolam Zoran Bozovic James Bradley Lucie Anne Brailsford
Craig Breheny Tom Buchanan Michael Buckley Tom Burns
Tim Burt Kevin Byram Caroline Cai Jinqing Roderick Cameron
Agnès Catineau Louise Charlton Nick Claydon Jon Coles
Paula Cooper Carl Count Hohenthal Giles Croot Laura Cummings
Melissa Daly Naomi Decter Nina Devlin Andrew Dewar
Deborah Done Alexander Engelhardt Andrew Fenwick Sophie Fitton
Anders Fogel Andrew Garfield Julie Giddens Susan Gilchrist
Jonathan Glass Ellen Gonda Christine Graeff Patrick Handley
Catherine Hicks James Hogan Kate Holgate Andrew Hood
Rurik Ingram Richard Jacques Thomas Kamm Thomas Knipp
Sabine Krueger Fiona Laffan Cindy Leggett Flynn Steven Lipin
Jennifer Lowney Sarah Lubman Keelin MacGreevy Joanna McDwyer
Justine McIlroy Robert Mead Miriam Meckel Kate Miller
Richard Mintz Robert Moser Stanislas Neve de Mevergnies Caroline Nico
Glen O'Hearne Paul Osgood Alan Parker Tim Payne
Laurent Perpère Patricia Perrier Robert Pinker Nigel Prideaux
Jeanne-Marie Prost Jonathan Rhodes Sheila Robinson Catherine Samy
Hartmut Schumacher Helen Scott Lidgett Anita Scott Paul Scott
David Shapiro Peter Sjovall Pamela Small Simon Sporborg
John Sunnucks Graeme Trayner Hartmut Vennen Wendel Verbeek
Frank Villaz Harry W Clark Christian Weyand Thomas Wimmer
Charles Young Rupert Young  


Clients

Although Brunswick are reluctant to advertise client details, they represent firms including British Airways, BT, EMI, Marks & Spencer (dropped recently) Marconi (ditto), Safeway, Casenove (City Stockbrokers), Blue Circle (fought off Lafarge takeover - cost £27m for all advisors) Standard Life (£1m+ fighting off demutualization), Newcastle United, Malcolm Glazer, MK Dons, Railtrack (before administration) and HBoS and range from some of the world's biggest companies, retained on an international mandate, to small and unquoted businesses. Also running the PR for London's bid to host the Olympics in 2012. They have offices in London, New York, Germany and Johannesburg.

  • In July 2002 the Wall Street Journal reported that Martha Stewart had hired the Brunswick Group to massage her image in the wake of allegations that she profited from insider trading. [19]
  • In March 2004, the controversy over the exaggeration of the oil and gas reserves of Shell Oil resulted in the resignation of the then chairman, Philip Watts, and Walter van de Vijver, who was responsible for exploration and production. In an attempt to manage the crisis Shell hired the Brunswick Group to help it manage the crisis. "Brunswick has recently come on board, but we don't really say much more about what they do," Corrigan told PR Week. [20]


  • At 1st of May 2005 Brunswick Group started a trade union like support campaign for EICTA's project Patents4Innovation


Contact details

Map of Brunswick office
16 Lincoln's Inn Fields
London WC2A 3ED
UK
Phone: 44 20 7404 5959
Fax: 44 20 7831 2823
Web: www.brunswickgroup.com

External links

References

  1. ↑ TOP 150 PR CONSULTANCIES: Brunswick -- bashful but still bullish, PR Week, 24 April 2008
  2. ↑ Brunswick's website, accessed March 2009
  3. ↑ Brunswick's website, accessed March 2009
  4. ↑ [http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/5518719?f=singlepage CFO Europe, 7 March 2006
  5. ↑ Alan Parker profile, Guardian, 14 July 2008
  6. ↑ Alan Parker profile, Guardian, 14 July 2008
  7. ↑ Where the party got its money from, Guardian 9 sept 2001
  8. ↑ 'Staff for favours' row hits Treasury, Guardian, 25 June 2000
  9. ↑ Robert Peston, Who Runs Britain?, Hodder & Stoughton, 2008
  10. ↑ Michie D., 1997, " The Invisible Persuaders: How Britain's Spin Doctors Manipulate the Media", p.26
  11. ↑ CITY DIARY, Independent, Nov 2, 1995
  12. ↑ City Diary, Guardian, 13 February 2001
  13. ↑ [1]
  14. ↑ [2]
  15. ↑ [3]
  16. ↑ [4]
  17. ↑ Media diary, 'Parker feels the rub as star signing quits', Observer Business Pages, Pg. 7, 25 April 2004.
  18. ↑ [5]
  19. ↑ [6]
  20. ↑ [7]"
  21. ↑ [8]
  22. ↑ [9]
  23. ↑ Company News Feed formerly Regulatory News Service, 23 January 2007
  24. ↑ [10]
  25. ↑ [11]
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