In the UK, the Forestry Commission is on the hunt for new agencies to help as part of a landmark rethink of its communications work. The organisation is looking to bring in agencies to handle PR for the whole of England in a brief worth £750,000 overall. Source: PR Week (UK)
Agencies will be brought onboard to represent six newly designated regions.
As part of a major shift, the briefs will include promoting the commission’s forest spaces and engaging private landowners and stakeholders – work previously kept separate.
Stuart Burgess, a senior press officer at the commission said that the Commission has always had a mix of internal and external PR professionals and have brought in agencies before, but that now they were doing it now across the country as a whole.
“This will mean that for the first time we will be drawing together agency work with the commission’s own timber forests and its work with those in the private sector. This will include woodland owners and forest owners, as well as businesses that use timber products.
“It seems to us to be an efficient way of doing it, and it seems to be the right time to make that efficiency saving,” Burgess said.
The move comes after a recent report by an independent panel found that England’s national forests should remain in public ownership and represented very good value for money.
The Government had to perform a U-turn in February 2011 when plans to sell off state-owned woodlands and axe the Forestry Commission were met with public anger.
Although the commission, which has only just launched the tender, will be taking on a number of agencies, it is expected one agency may be able to cover more than one region.
The £750,000 covers all of the work across all of the sectors for three years.
“The agencies will need to demonstrate a strong mix of PR and marketing skills within both the geographical and topical areas, such as environmental and conservation work.
“We want to get more people out and enjoying the forest but we also want to work with others to improve woodland and get new woodland planted,” he said.
