PR Pitches and M&A update: November 2022

Welcome to the PRmoment Podcast.Here’s the latest of our bonus pod series where I chat to Andrew Bloch about PR Pitches and merger & acquisition trends in the UK PR scene.Andrew is a co-founder and non-executive director at Frank PR and is now Head of PR at the new business consultancy firm AAR. He is also a partner at PCB Partners where he advises on buying and selling marketing services agencies.Before we start the PRmoment Awards 2023 are now open for entries - do check out the awards site PRmomentAwards.com for all the info you need.Finally thanks to our PRmoment Podcast sponsors, The PRCA.Here’s a summary of what Andrew and I discussed:2 mins Andrew gives us his PR pitch wins update with wins for Ketchum, Tin Man, Splendid, Ready 10, Coolr, Four, Talker Taylor, Good Relations, PHA, and Tigerbond.5 mins Andrew gives his suggestions on how many agencies in-house teams should include in a pitch.11 mins “The M&A market is volatile at the moment but there are still deals being done”“Debt is difficult to raise (in the private equity market) due to interest rate rises and this means people are being cautious and that is scuppering some deals and some are taking longer”“On the trade side (of M&A activity) the trend of building deep specialisms is continuing”12 mins M&A updates include news from Prime Global’s acquisition of Earthwear and RSK’s acquisition of Copper13 mins Andrew updates us on a couple of PR MBOs at Rise at Seven and BECG14 mins A discussion of Carrie Rose and Stephen Kenwright’s story of growth at Rise at Seven and how it’s come to an end.16 mins Andrew talks about Lord Suger and Mark Wright’s sale of Clime Online for an amount reputed to be around £10 m17 mins News of Clarity’s acquisition of Political Intelligence18 mins A wrap-up of why Next Fifteen’s acquisition of M&C Saatchi failed