- D.C.-based Weber Merritt filed a protest against the Federal Communications Commission’s award of a $3.5M contract to support the upcoming digital TV transition to Burson-Marsteller. A spokesman for WM told O’Dwyer’s that the protest was filed and acknowledged by the FCC and GAO. He told O’Dwyer’s the firm challenged the award because the RFP designated the contract as a small business set-aside for companies with less than $7M in revenue. B-M is a large multinational firm. The GAO typically must decide a case within 100 days of the protest, but because of the constrained time frame and “urgent” nature of the contact with Burson, the PR work is moving forward, reports O’Dwyer’s. WM said it will follow through on the protest, despite this fact.
Ketchum led the initial DTV PR campaign but an RFP was issued in April for the extension to take the work through the final stretch leading to the June 12 DTV transition date. Funds for the $3.5M pact awarded to Burson came from the federal stimulus bill.
- Fleishman-Hillard’s DC office adds Christina Pearson as a senior vice president. Pearson, who most recently was assistant secretary for public affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will focus on health-care public affairs. Pearson served as chief HHS spokesperson and communications strategist, overseeing all activities related to media, marketing and Web operations within the department’s 11 agencies, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the Food & Drug Administration. She was instrumental in the multi-faceted campaigns to bring greater awareness to pandemic influenza and enroll millions of seniors in the new Medicare prescription drug benefit.
- Kelly Harman, founder and president of Zephyr Strategy, was named winner in the entrepreneur category of Women in Technology’s Tenth Annual Women in Technology Leadership Awards.
- PR Flex, a new Baltimore-based on-demand provider of strategic public relations services, launched with a focus on serving the small and medium business market. "The idea behind PR Flex is to eliminate the mystery and cost barriers to accessing valuable public relations services," said co-founder Michael Sweeney, a veteran marketing and public relations professional. "There are thousands of start-ups and growing businesses out there that would benefit from great PR, but have never had the right introduction, education or budget to get started." Sweeney and co-founder Greg Abel both have worked extensively on the agency and client side of the PR and marketing industry.