- Next Fifteen Communications
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Next Fifteen Communications Type Public Company Industry Communications Founded 1981 Headquarters Paris, Munich, Milan, Madrid, New York, Boston, Sydney, Tokyo, San Francisco, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Seattle, London, Hong Kong Key people Tim Dyson, Aedhmar Hynes, Clive Armitage, Hugh Birley, Grant Currie, Sarah Howe, Caryn Marooney, Products Public relations Revenue $120m Employees 900 (2006) Website http://www.nextfifteen.com/ Next Fifteen Communications Group plc (LSE: NFC) is an international holding company for a group of worldwide PR consultancies. It owns five independent subsidiary PR agencies that operate as autonomous businesses. These are: Text 100, Bite Communications, Lexis PR, The Outcast Agency, and M Booth & Associates. Next Fifteen also owns a research business, Redshift; a policy communications business, 463 Communications; and a digital consultancy, Beyond. Between them, these businesses have 47 offices in 19 countries, with a client list that includes many of the highest-profile international brands. The Group employs around 900 people and has become one of the world's most respected PR consultancies.
Contents
History
The Group was founded in 1981 in London by Tom Lewis and Mark Adams. Its first major client were Microsoft and Fortune Systems, which it launched in Europe in 1982.[1] In 1984 Tim Dyson joined the firm, later becoming its CEO. He oversaw its international expansion and flotation on the London Stock Exchange in late 1999.
Board of Directors
Next Fifteen is governed by a board of directors, which consist of Will Whitehorn, non-executive chairman; Tim Dyson, global CEO; David Dewhurst, Financial Director & Company Secretary; and Ian Taylor, Chairman of the Remuneration and Audit Committees.
Significance
The Group's subsidiaries are recognized by a number of industry organizations including the PRSA, PRCA [1] and Council of PR Firms.[2]
The Group has achieved this level of global recognition largely through organic growth but has in recent years supplemented that with some notable acquisitions, including Applied Communications (which was merged into Bite Communications) in the US in 2003, OutCast, also in the US, in 2005, and Lexis in the UK in 2005. In May 2007, Redshift Research was established as a further subsidiary. The Group continued to expand its presence in the consumer PR market with the acquisition of M Booth in August 2009. In October 2009, Next Fifteen acquired the Asian PR assets of Upstream Marketing and Communications Inc., which involved offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney, which have been added to the Bite business to form its APAC region. In August 2010, the Group acquired a digital agency called Type3 with offices in San Francisco and London. This business was merged with Context Analytics to form Beyond, a new digital consultancy.
Subsidiaries
Bite Communications
Bite Communications, which was founded in 1995, employs around 200 people from its offices in London, Paris, Stockholm, San Francisco, New York, Toronto, Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and Sydney. Bite clients are both B2B and B2C. Bite has built its business on a strategy of developing creative, results-orientated campaigns for market-leading brands and for fast-growing start-up brands. Its client list includes AMD, HP, Microsoft and Sony.
Lexis
Next Fifteen bought a 25% stake in Lexis Public Relations in 2005, and in 2008 increased its ownership to 100%. Now employing around 90 members of staff, Lexis is a full-service agency with consumer, corporate, healthcare, sport and youth divisions. These provide in-depth PR expertise, supported by planning, creative, digital marketing, sponsorship and design specialists. Lexis delivers award-winning campaigns for some of the UK’s best-known brands, including Barclays, Boots, Coca-Cola, Dove and EDF.
OutCast
OutCast is one of the most respected technology-PR firms operating in North America. From its offices in New York and San Francisco, it aims to provide public relations services to technology companies. OutCast works with companies including Amazon, EMC, Facebook, Intuit, salesforce.com, VMware and Yahoo!. Founded in 1997, OutCast joined Next Fifteen in 2005.
Text 100
Text 100 is Next Fifteen’s largest brand. Founded in 1981, it now employs around 450 people in 25 offices in major commercial centres around the world. It has built its reputation on its knowledge of the technology industry. Text 100 to work for some of the world’s most powerful companies, including Cisco, Lenovo, SanDisk, Skype, IBM and Xerox.
M Booth & Associates
Next Fifteen acquired New York-based M Booth & Associates in August 2009 which expanded Next Fifteen’s presence in the consumer PR market. M Booth specialises in building strong and powerful brands. It represents corporations and products across several industries – consumer goods, consumer health, beauty, fashion and retailing, travel and lifestyle, food and beverage, wine and spirits, online brands, corporate communications and technology. Its client list includes JCPenney, Unilever and Remy Cointreau USA.
Redshift Research
Redshift Research was established as a subsidiary of the Group in 2007. It is a full-service market research consultancy which conducts both business-to-business and consumer research. It has a strong record in the consumer technology and IT sectors, particularly in support of PR research.
Beyond
Beyond is Next fifteen’s digital consultancy launched in September 2010 by integrating Context Analytics, Next Fifteen’s research and analytics business; Type3, a recently acquired digital creative agency; and communications consultants from Bite Communications. Beyond’s mission is to rethink the traditional digital agency approach and use a combination of earned, owned and paid media to maximize relevant traffic to brand properties and experiences. It combines the capabilities of a traditional digital agency, but with an emphasis on the disciplines of listening and influence more often associated with PR agencies. Beyond has 65 employees, has offices in London, New York and San Francisco and works for blue chip brands such as Google, YouTube, Genentech, Cisco and Virgin Trains.
463 Communications
Next Fifteen owns a 76% stake in 463, a communications consultancy with offices in Palo Alto and Washington, DC. This senior-level firm helps corporations, industry groups and other agency teams develop data-based communications campaigns around key issues that establish business, technology and public policy leadership and brand building.
References
- MoneyWeek, January 24, 2006 - Confident Next Fifteen trades 'in line'
- The Daily Telegraph - The Questor column - Edited by James Quinn - Last Updated: 1:29am GMT 24 January 2007
- The Daily Telegraph, Market miscellany, Edited by Edward Simpkins (Filed: 26 June 2005)
External links
Categories:- Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange
- Public relations companies of the United Kingdom
- Companies established in 1981
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