Sarah Atkinson, Vice President Communications Europe at CA Technologies, said : “Kaizo had the most thorough approach to running a social media campaign. They will work with our team to establish a strong online presence in all our target areas. They really understand what it takes to create and sustain online conversations.”

Crispin Manners, who leads the CA Technologies team at Kaizo, said: “Unlike a number of brands out there who see social media as a new channel for broadcast communications, CA Technologies wants to stimulate direct online conversations to build relationships with customers, partners and online influencers. We are looking forward to helping establish CA Technologies as the best practice approach to B2B social media communications.”

About CA Technologies
CA Technologies (NASDAQ: CA) is an IT management software and solutions company with expertise across all IT environments – from mainframe and distributed, to virtual and cloud. CA Technologies manages and secures IT environments and enables customers to deliver more flexible IT services. CA Technologies innovative products and services provide the insight and control essential for IT organizations to power business agility. The majority of the Global Fortune 500 relies on CA Technologies to manage evolving IT ecosystems. For additional information, visit CA Technologies at www.ca.com

This is the argument being put forward by The Libel Reform Campaign, following a spate of high profile law suits – most notably, that of Simon Singh. Simon, a well known science writer has spent the past two years under the media spotlight as his infamous libel battle with the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) unfolded. In 2008, Simon wrote an article for The Guardian, where he alleged the BCA promoted “bogus treatments” for certain infant conditions like asthma, colic and earache. When he refused to make a retraction or apologise, the BCA launched legal action against him.

Last week, we met up with Simon Singh to discuss his case. He told us how, despite winning the lengthy lawsuit, his victory had been bitter sweet, leaving him with a two year career void and legal bills of £60,000. Simon’s law suit sparked uproar within the science community and supporters are now calling for a reform of the UK libel laws.

His case has highlighted the weaknesses in UK libel laws. The extortionate costs involved mean that those accused are often forced to back down, withdraw and apologise for material they believe is true, fair and important to the public.

With the current libel laws journalists face an unpopular ultimatum: self censorship or the risk of hefty legal fees. It seems to me, that this goes against everything journalism represents. The best works of journalism are those that spark debate and controversy, after all, it’s a journalists job to leave no stone unturned – why should they apologise for this?

Much like dating, forming perfect brand partnerships can be a bit of pot luck. Everything looks good on paper - audiences are matched, promises are made, contracts, products and services are exchanged and off you go. At least in theory…

In actual fact it is the X Factor style spark that really makes for the brand love-in and gets you bang for your proverbial buck. Never has this been truer than for our client Flip Video. All about capturing different perspectives and behind the scenes footage of life, Flip needed to find a partner that had access to creative, urban communities and shared its passion for sharing the moment in a memorable way. We didn’t just want ‘brand ambassadors’; we wanted to build a Flip movement.

Enter Secret Wars, the world’s premier live art battle. Working in a similar way to Fight Club, Secret Wars battles take place across the world and are organised and promoted through word of mouth. Hosted in the darkest corners of cities across the world, from a basement bar in London’s East End through to a deserted meat market in Malmo, these events are about street artists creating live art in a competitive and yet cool environment.

We’ve armed the artists with Flip cameras so they can film behind the scenes footage, artist profiles and audience reactions as they make their way from city to city (not all of the footage is suitable for public consumption!). Not only do we have the usual branding at the events but, more importantly, we can use the content across all media, from Facebook and Twitter through to Metro and MTV.

Watch this space for how the partnership develops in the coming months but in the meantime check out Secret Wars on Facebook and watch the videos on the Flip UK fan page.

Ms MacLeod joined Kaizo, the PR and Digital trading arm of Argyll, in August 2009. Since then, she has made a major contribution to expanding business with existing and new clients, and as a highly effective member of the management team.

Rosemary Brook, executive chairman of Argyll, said: “Steph has brought great drive and enthusiasm to the company and we are delighted to welcome her to the Board so that she can participate even more fully in the development of the Argyll business.”

Ms MacLeod joined Kaizo from Bite Communications Ltd, where she was the Director responsible for the Consumer division. She has 14 years’ experience in corporate, consumer and business-to-business communications consultancy, working for agencies including Fleishman Hillard and Firefly Communications.

Ms Stephanie MacLeod previously held the role of director at the following company within the last 5 years:

• Bite Communications Group Limited

The Company confirms that there is no further information about Stephanie MacLeod requiring disclosure under Rule 71 and/or paragraph 18 of Appendix 1 of the PLUS Markets “Rules for Issuers”.

For further information please contact:
Rosemary Brook
Chairman
+44 (0)20 3043 4169
rosemary.brook@kaizo.net

-END-

The event challenged communicators and press officers from the research funding organisations of 17 European countries to investigate new ways to engage their stakeholders in the research they fund.

The “science and social media” session involved the use of case studies and introduced a “social media toolkit” to raise awareness of the opportunities posed by social media to enable ESF member organisations to increase public engagement and develop their relationship with the researchers.

Emma Potter, Consultant at Kaizo, said: “With so many stakeholders to please and considering the current pressure on research budgets, it is no wonder that funding organisations have anxieties about using social media. This session was designed to put some anxieties to rest and demonstrating the opportunities posed by social media to this audience.”

——- ENDS ——-

For more information please contact:

Emma Potter
Kaizo
020 3043 4191
Emma.potter@kaizo.net

To coincide with the milestone, we commissioned a survey investigating young people’s (16-21 year olds) concerns about the recession. Check out our coverage in The Daily Telegraph, Press Association, News of the World… and, of course, the Coronation Street Blog!

The change of UK government and the new coalition’s plans to substantially cut public sector IT budgets saw Quantum quickly offering advice on how to optimise budgets by streamlining data storage and backup to be greener.

Quantum was also featured in Channel Pro with a compelling article about the returns on investment to be gained from deduplication technology and gained widespread coverage in other target channel publications such as CRN, Channel Insider, Channel Register and Channel Info.

Engaging with influential bloggers is an important part of the work we do and last night Paula and I attended an Arcadia fashion blogger event for client Flip Video.

The private room at The Ivy had been adorned with Macs flashing up the websites and blogs of Arcadia’s brands such asTopshop, Burtons and Dorothy Perkins.

We gave a new Flip MinoHD to each blogger and encouraged them to film content, demonstrating how to upload video content to their blogs. An edited video of a recent Miss Selfridge fashion shoot was playing on loop to show the kind content that can be captured.

We got speaking to the infamously anonymous Disney Roller Girl, who was very keen to start vlogging. Men’s style blogger Style Salvage and over-40’s fashion blogger Thats Not My Age were equally as excited when they found out a Flip was awaiting them at the dinner table. There was also “traditional” media in attendance, such as Angela Buttolph, Editor of Grazia Daily (pictured here with Grazia Fashion Editor-at-Large Melanie Rickey), who spent the latter half of the dinner quizzing each blogger on their personal style with her new Flip cam.

With more than 20 years of experience in PR and Marketing, Corinna Voss is Managing Director of the renowned Munich-based agency HBI International PR & MarCom. Among her experience, she has worked for several clients from the IT sector, tourism and renewable energies. She studied Political Science/Anglistics and Psychology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and did her Magister Artium in Political Science.

The appointment was officially confirmed at Worldcom’s AGM (Annual General Meeting) held in Shanghai from 18 to 21st May, and has become effective immediately. With 34 partner agencies in the EMEA region, many of them added during 2009 and the first months of 2010, Worldcom already covers a vast territory in Europe and the Middle East. In this context, Corinna has set up as an important objective the addition of new members in Africa. Besides, she will be working on the internal communication of the network at a regional level, in order to strengthen the relationship between members and ease the integration of the new partners.

“I’m looking forward to lead the consolidation of the network as a solid and experienced PR group”, Corinna said, after assuming her new position, and added: “We will continue investing and developing web 2.0 initiatives and also in creating synergies between agencies that allow us to deliver added value proposals for our clients in the vast variety of areas covered by our partners in EMEA”.

About Worldcom PR Group
Worldcom Public Relations Group is the world’s leading partnership of independently owned public relations counseling firms, with some 109 offices in 95 cities worldwide. Established in 1988, it was formed so that the strongest, most capable independent public relations firms could serve national, international and multi-national clients while retaining the flexibility and client-service focus inherent in independent agencies. Through The Worldcom Group, clients have on-demand access to in-depth communications expertise from professionals who understand the language, culture and customs of the geographic arenas in which they operate. Visit www.worldcomgroup.com for more information.

Worldcom EMEA currently comprises 34 agencies with strong expertise in consumer, healthcare, travel & tourism, technology, energy & environment, financial services, investor relations, public affairs and crisis & issues management. Clients include Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Panasonic, Sony Ericson, LG Electronics, the EU Anti-Tobacco Campaign, Verbatim and Palm. Visit www.worldcomprgroupemea.com for more information.