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Apple fires my old PR agency

Thu, 18 Jun 2009

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Today’s news that Apple has fired its UK PR agency Bite has a bittersweet taste for me in my role as Editor of Macworld.

This is not because it’s one less port of call for Apple equipment loans or one less person to speak to when in search of comment or an Apple exec to speak to. To be honest, over the last five years Bite have actually fallen on the way side when it comes to Apple PR. In fact I’ve been wondering for some time what the agency was actually doing for the computer company.

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The thing is, prior to joining Macworld nearly six years ago, I was at Bite working on the Apple account. In those days Apple ruled my life almost as much as the latest Apple news now rules my life. Every waking moment was spent fielding calls from journalists looking for kit and comment. One of my first projects on behalf of Apple was Apple Masters, a wonderful three-day event where celebrities and kids from a selection of schools got together to make movies using iMovie. I launched Mac OS X. I was minder to the iPod when it launched, carrying it around all the publication houses for photoshoots and not letting it out of my sight. I remember discussing journalist interview schedules for the Macworld Conference in San Francisco at 10pm on Christmas Eve. This was 24-hour a day stuff.

Now-a-days Apple does all its UK PR in house. As a company that loves to be in control this is obviously the most suitable scenario. This move towards managing its PR in house happened about five years ago when the company started hiring for its internal PR team – before that Apple’s internal PR tended to be run by a student placement. To manage the European PR operation Apple took onboard the lovely Sheryl Seitz (my old MD from my Bite days) and to manage the UK PR effort they employed Tanya Ridd (my old Account Director).

At the time I’d have said Bite’s days were numbered, but perhaps in poaching Bite staff Apple had to sign something to say that they would keep Bite on board, at least for a time.

In the mean time Apple’s in house team actually got quite efficient at doing its PR here in the UK. They have a good team of people there who are helpful and honest. True, Apple is still a secretive company, don’t expect them to ever spill the beans “Apple doesn’t discuss unannounced products”, but now a days it feels like they are upfront about this, rather than in the old days when they just didn’t answer the phone.

I’m sorry for Bite that they have lost the account that gave them their name. But it doesn’t surprise me that it has happened. Perhaps it’s a good thing for Bite anyway: back in my day we were over servicing that account by over 50 per cent (they didn’t pay us anywhere near enough for the hours we spent working with them). But because it was such a key account for us we were prepared to give a little. I imagine that in recent years the money gained for the work Bite does has dwindled somewhat, but if I know Apple, its demands won’t have.

Posted by: Karen Haslam

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Comments received


You know who I are said on Thursday, 18 June 2009

And then one day a certain Bite person wrote to a friendly writer to say "I want to be a journalist"...the rest, as they say, is history.
:-)

Danny Kelly said on Thursday, 18 June 2009

Thanks for the insider info Karen, all very enlightening.

vader said on Friday, 19 June 2009

"I launched Mac OS X."
big it up sister...

Ex-PR said on Tuesday, 30 June 2009

Well is it 'now-a-days' or 'now a days' or just plain old nowadays...?

I think we should be told.

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