Home
It’s important to make the right communications choice to achieve the reputation you deserve.

The Bell Pottinger Group is a refreshing alternative to the conventional. Our collection of 25 companies, each with their own character and passion, are designed to collaborate. They have just one objective - to make our clients better known, better regarded and more successful.

Together we have the power to deliver the most contemporary answers to the most complex challenges. We have a reputation for delivering the most informed solutions - even for the most specialised audiences.

The Bell Pottinger Group: what could we do for you?

Our skills
Our people are leaders in their field, working together to hit every audience, in any circumstance, through any medium.

Brand building communications
Within the Bell Pottinger Group we have a huge array of experience in brand building communications – B2C, B2B and stakeholder. We work with ambitious, ground-breaking companies to help them define their brand stories, and help manage the complexities of building brands in this fluid and challenging marketplace.

We know that brands need to stand up to scrutiny from every angle. They should be prepared to tell their story to customers, stakeholders and employees alike. Listening to customer feedback, and being seen to act on it is now a basic practice of effective brand management

In this environment, brand communications take on a whole new significance.
If you would like more information on our brand building capabilities, or discuss who might be best-placed to support you, please make contact with Kevin Murray, Chairman of the Bell Pottinger Group.

Financial public relations
Financial public relations is being redefined as part of a larger business trend that is putting listed companies increasingly under the spotlight. Issues such as corporate governance and executive performance are as much a part of the communications brief as the more traditional analyst and investor relations functions.

Against a backdrop of financial market volatility, understanding the ebb and flow of business performance is critical to long-term success.

Bell Pottinger Corporate & Financial is our specialist in this field, advising FTSE 100s and a wide range of mid-cap businesses on financial reporting, M&A and fundraising initiatives.

To find out more about our expertise, or to discuss your own financial public relations challenges, please contact Charles Cook or Stephen Benzickie in Bell Pottinger Corporate & Financial..

Corporate public relations
Organisations rely on public relations to develop, protect, manage and maintain their corporate reputations. Effective communications are vital to consumer and stakeholder relationships, and ultimately financial success.

The Bell Pottinger Group provides specialists to help define and develop compelling communication strategies. We have sector experts and public relations practitioners who have a track-record of bringing insight and experience to every imaginable challenge. Whether it’s developing and implementing a long-term campaign, or providing support on a short-term project, we can build a bespoke team to give you the support you need.

If you would like to discuss issues relating to your corporate reputation, please contact Kevin Murray, Chairman of the Bell Pottinger Group.

Business to business public relations
Defining a compelling message, and telling it clearly in a crowded, and confusing marketplace, is one of the greatest challenges organisations face. The Bell Pottinger Group has been responsible for some of the most high profile and successful B2B campaigns around. Sound strategy, creativity and meticulous planning are all required to work in harmony to deliver the results our clients expect.

By bringing together our sector experts along with our strategic and creative thinkers, we can develop and deliver B2B campaigns that will help take your business forward.

To find out more about how we support B2B communications, or to discuss a specific need, please contact Simon Jones, a Director in the Bell Pottinger Collective.

Consumer public relations
The Bell Pottinger Group is well-known for its consumer public relations businesses, and those reputations have been built over many years of successful campaigning on behalf of our clients. From food to automotive, healthcare to airlines or TMT to retail, we have a pedigree of working with blue-chip brands in every major sector.

It is our understanding of how brands work, and the role communications must play in supporting consumer choice that has made our client work so successful, and why we continue to lead the industry with strategic insights and creative ideas.

To find out more about our consumer public relations track record and resources, or to discuss how we might be able to support your requirements, please contact David Telling, a Director in the Bell Pottinger Collective.

Issue and crisis management
Crisis planning and issue management are close to the top of every Communications Director’s agenda. The Bell Pottinger Group provides experts in crisis management along with sector specialists who, together, can help develop resilient plans and implement them rapidly. Our state-of-the-art Operations Room allows clients involved in an intensive crisis to monitor and plan 24/7.

This is a service we provide to many of our clients 365 days a year. But is not purely about reacting. We are able to help clients identify potential crisis issues beforehand and often head them off. It’s of crucial importance that robust and effective plans are in place in advance, whether that’s dealing with the impact of a new technology or coping with the threat of a bird flu outbreak.

For more information on our crisis management services, click on the link. If you would like to discuss our capabilities in more detail, please contact Claire Cater, a Director in the Bell Pottinger Collective.

Executive counsel
Ensuring that executives are able to operate effectively in the public domain is a specialist skill, and one where the Bell Pottinger Group has extensive experience. We work with many high profile business leaders to develop, manage and protect their personal reputations as part of the broader corporate reputation.

Organisations have had to become more transparent in response to the greater emphasis being placed on effective corporate governance. This has often made executives themselves the story, not just the organisations they represent. In parallel, some forward-thinking organisations have seized the opportunity to leverage the profiles of the personalities that lead the business.

To discuss this area of expertise in more detail, please contact Tim Ryan, CEO of the Bell Pottinger Collective.

Change communications
To survive, organisations have to cope with change. To succeed, they have to thrive on it. Managing change is one of the most daunting challenges, but all too often the power of effective communication to help the process is often over-looked.

Around the Bell Pottinger Group, we have built up many years experience of managing change communications, and helping our clients along the road to reinvention. This can take many forms, whether it’s creating a customer service focus, modernising culture and working practices or simply improving internal communications, our people have been there and done it. They have the know-how to deploy powerful communications to make all the difference between an acceptable and a successful change initiative in a complex organisation.

To discuss in more depth how our capabilities in this field may be of benefit to you, please contact Kevin Murray, Chairman of the Bell Pottinger Group.

Social media
Social media is fundamentally changing the way communications work. It’s no longer a minority of consumers using websites, blogs, chatrooms, wikis and folksonomies to share information and shape their world.

Whether the news is good or bad, this expanding medium has to be managed.

Modern, effective communications require an understanding of how knowledge networks operate, how best they can be listened to and communicated with. Knowing where the trusted and authoritative sources lie is key as often they can provide early warning on issues that will impact the mainstream further down the line.

In the Bell Pottinger Group we have a number of thought-leaders in the field of social media, supported by market-leading technologies that allow us to rigorously monitor this environment.

To find out more about how we can help manage this complex issue, please contact Simon Jones, a Director in the Bell Pottinger Collective.

Media relations
We pride ourselves on the quality of relationships we have with the press, broadcast media, and online media. These strong relationships ensure that we are able to manage coverage for our clients (although we would never be so naïve as to guarantee it!) across every aspect of the media spectrum.

We are used to working internationally, and have extensive experience of working for companies, governments, NGOs, trade bodies, regulatory bodies and high profile individuals.

To discuss how our media relations skills may benefit you, please contact Alan Schofield, a Director of the Bell Pottinger Collective.

Public affairs
Effective public affairs activity is increasingly part and parcel of most communications strategies. Within the Bell Pottinger Group we have a number of expert resources that can be deployed to the benefit of our clients. Many of our people have experience of working with, and advising, national and local government organisations. As such, we have an in-depth understanding of policy processes and the influences driving them.

Our insight into the political process enables us to best serve our clients’ interests. This makes the Bell Pottinger Group a leader in its field.

To discuss how our public affairs expertise could help you, please contact Alan Schofield, a Director of the Bell Pottinger Collective.

Corporate responsibility
With the ever-increasing importance of the CSR agenda, this is now an area that requires specialist knowledge and understanding, blended with creativity and lateral thought. The Bell Pottinger Group has recently been joined by The Smart Company, a specialist in the field which has been part of the Chime group of companies for over 5 years.

As part of the Bell Pottinger Group, The Smart Company works with our clients to assess their CSR strategies and develop new and innovative approaches. They can also join our wider client teams to develop fully integrated communications strategies, of which CSR is a major part.

To find out more about our CSR skills and how they might be able to work for you, please contact Amanda Jordan, Chair of The Smart Company.

Design, branding and corporate literature
We love to see ideas turned into reality. Nowhere is this more tangible than in the world of branding and design.

The Bell Pottinger Group provides a wide range of design services. Core to this is corporate reporting in the form of Annual Reports, Annual Reviews and CSR Reviews. Crucially however, we don’t just concentrate on the pictures; in our view the content is king, and we work hard to make the messaging work in support of the brand.

Within the Bell Pottinger Group, we have consultants to advise on brand strategy. Our design teams lead the industry in developing corporate identities. Then we produce literature designed to impress – whether online or elsewhere.

To find out more about how we might be able to support your requirements in this area, please contact Peter Higgins, the Managing Director of RARE Corporate Design.

Sport & Sponsorship
Bell Pottinger Sport & Sponsorship is one of the UK’s leading agencies specialising in sports and entertainment sponsorship. Our experience is in delivering strategic, creative and implementation services for brands and rights holders in all forms of sponsorship around the globe. We work in partnership with our clients’ marketing teams to deliver high profile, hugely impactful and tightly-focused campaigns that generate maximum value from sponsorship investments, forged through relationships with rights holders, suppliers and excellent contacts with sports, consumer, business and trade media in the UK, Europe and globally.

Our strategic and creative thinking is second to none, and we provide an extensive range of tactical services that can be quickly personalised to meet the needs of each individual client, including media relations, all aspects of event management and digital marketing.

To find out more about how we can help manage this complex issue, please contact Susan McMahon , the Managing Director of Bell Pottinger Sport & Sponsorship.

Collaboration
Bell Pottinger is not a bland, homogenous kind of group. Each company in our portfolio has its own passion and beliefs. But when we combine, the result is the most dynamic solution to complex communications issues that the PR industry can offer.

How we work
If collaboration is so important, why you might ask, do we have so many different agencies? Wouldn’t it just be easier to put everyone under roof?

Our clients tell us that if the people working on their account are proven and successful in their own business, then it says something about the quality of those people. This is important for us. It keeps us alert, competitive and hungry for success – and that gets passed on to our clients in the form of great ideas, advice and service.

The collaboration between agencies, when it happens, doesn’t happen by accident. There is chemistry involved. It’s something we have tested and worked at to do well and deliver real value.

Recently, we took the decision to strengthen our approach this approach even further. We have done this by forming The Collective.

The Collective is a group of highly experienced communicators who understand how to operate in an environment that no longer respects the neat boundaries between communication disciplines. Sitting at the heart of the Bell Pottinger Group, The Collective is able to bring together and lead the combined skills and experience of the entire group into specially formed client teams.

Ethos
Our collaborative approach is proven. It gets the results our clients need. Results such as helping justify a price premium, to developing a more customer focused culture, or, from dealing with a crisis to establishing an international brand.

Our view is that whatever the objective, there is always one thing that’s needed – a change in behaviour. And a change in behaviour is brought about by a change in beliefs, which is where communications comes in.

The theory may be simple, but the reality is often more complex. For communication to change beliefs, it has to be relevant, powerful and compelling. It has to come from an insight into, and empathy with the target audiences.

Knowledge

Our people continually innovate and invent new ways to make communications work for their clients in an ever changing media landscape. Here are some examples of our most recent thinking.

• CEO Reputation Management Study

• Reputation Management. Leading practitioners look to the future of Public Relations

• Nuclear Decommissioning Authority appoints Bell Pottinger

• Rio Tinto switches to Bell Pottinger Public Affairs

• Railtrack Shareholders Action Group (RSAG) - changing the Government's mind

• Energis - influencing the regulatory environment

• PPP Forum - defending an industry from political attack

• Littlewoods - developing political support for a take-over bid

• Association of Friendly Societies - changing legislation and the regulatory system

SECTORS
We have the approach and the people to match our skills to any organisation in the private or public sector. From automotive to energy or retail, from planning to transport or food and drink, we have proved our worth to our clients' bottom line.

We also have some of the leading specialists around - in healthcare (De Facto Communications, Ozone), property (Good Relations Property & Planning), sport (Bell Pottinger Sport & Sponsorship) and technology (Insight, Harvard, Sunesis).

Whether you are operating in a well defined niche, or you need to draw on the skills to connect with multiple audiences, we are able to help.

If you would like more information on our sector experience, or discuss who might be best-placed to support you, please make contact with Simon Jones of the Bell Pottinger Collective.

Bios

Kevin Murray
Kevin Murray is Chairman of the Bell Pottinger Group, the Public Relations Division of Chime Communications. Altogether, the Group has 350 people serving 600 clients, and is ranked number one in both the PR Week and Marketing league tables.

Kevin specialises in the field of strategic communications and reputation management and has years of experience advising chairmen and chief executives, as well as managing complex and global communications projects and departments. He has worked with clients such as BP, KPMG, BNFL, Stagecoach and Marconi.

Charles Cook
Previously he was the director of communications for British Airways and, before that, Director of Corporate Affairs for AEA Technology, the international science and engineering business that was floated off from the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.

Charles joined Bell Pottinger in 2005 and is Deputy Chairman of Bell Pottinger Corporate & Financial.

He specialises in providing board level strategic counsel to corporate clients, handling corporate financial transactions and managing top-end international media relations. He also has wide experience of international M&As across many different business sectors and heads Bell Pottinger’s Russian/CIS consultancy team.

Previously Charles was Head of Corporate Media Relations for BP plc and before that ran his own consultancy for a decade. He started his career as an award-winning national newspaper business journalist and is an alumnus of INSEAD business school, France.

Simon Jones
Simon is currently a member of the Bell Pottinger Collective as well as an executive director at Harvard, Bell Pottinger's technology, media and telecoms sector specialists.

He has 20 years experience in trade, business and consumer PR, with particular expertise in broadcast and senior corporate counsel and currently provides board level PR support to Sony PlayStation, Vodafone, BSkyB and Inmarsat.

Prior to joining the Collective, Simon was managing director of Harvard. He is also a former documentary researcher at Yorkshire Television.

David Telling
David joined the Chime Group seven years ago and is currently a partner in the Bell Pottinger Collective, where he and a select group of ex-managing directors are helping to drive the PR division into its next stage of growth.

David handles the Bell Pottinger Group’s largest integrated communications project for the Qatar Financial Centre, establishing its corporate reputation and leadership credentials within the global financial community. David also handles strategic communications for Ofcom.

Prior to this, David managed two of Chime’s marketing agencies where he handled the successful Friends Provident demutualisation and flotation. He devised the strategy, launched and ran all the communications for online brokers DLJdirect, helped GNER re-build following some tragic accidents, and advised the Government on its ukonline web presence. Prior to joining Chime David spent 7 years working at Dewe Rogerson, working on Scottish Widows and the flotation of the National Grid among others, and has also worked for the agencies Valin Pollen, Reeves Robertshaw Needham and Ted Bates.

Claire Cater
Claire is Group Director of the Bell Pottinger Group and leads its crisis communications and health practices. She has eighteen years experience of corporate communication in both the public and private sectors and specialises in working with organisations which require an understanding of the interplay between media and politics at a local, national and international level.

Claire managed one of Britain’s biggest health scares in The Kent & Canterbury Smear Test issue, which involved 100,000 women, and also has experience high profile tribunals, medical negligence and corporate reputation challenges such as The Microsoft ‘Anti Trust case’. She also put teenage couch potatoes and childhood obesity on the media agenda six years ago. Other organisations she has worked for include The Home Office – Criminal Justice Reform, Menatep (Russia), Raytheon, Hong Kong TDC, The Energy Retail Association, Women of The Year, The Food and Drink Federation, the DoH and numerous NHS Trusts.

Prior to joining Chime, Claire was Head of Corporate Communications for The BUPA Group, where she ran a 24 hour PR service and was responsible for increasing press coverage by 800% in three years (thus moving its favourability from number four among its peers to the number one slot). Prior to BUPA she ran her own consultancy, which floated on NASDAQ in 1998.

Prior to joining Chime, Claire was Head of Corporate Communications for The BUPA Group, where she ran a 24 hour PR service and was responsible for increasing press coverage by 800% in three years.

Tim Ryan
Tim Ryan joined Bell Pottinger in May 2003 and is Chief Executive of Bell Pottinger Group.

Previously, he was Director of Corporate Communications at NTL, the UK’s largest cable media & telecoms company and prior to that was Director of Communications at SkyePharma plc.

Tim also worked as a UN diplomat in the Middle East during the early 90s and has served as an officer in the Australian Army.

Alan Schofield
Alan joined the Bell Pottinger collective in May 2006 and is an award-winning communicator with first-hand experience of both government and media.

Previously he was the Deputy Prime Ministers special adviser and press secretary, working at the heart of government. His other experience on Whitehall includes establishing the government’s internet presence and running the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Media centre.

Alan has also held positions as the Executive Editor of LineOne (now Tiscali), political correspondent for the BBC and as producer of ‘Breakfast with Frost’.


Amanda Jordan
Amanda is Chair of The SMART Company and is Chime's foremost expert in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

She has wide-ranging experience in corporate, voluntary and public sectors. Prior to SMART she led CSR at NatWest, was a business advisor to the Social Exclusion Unit and was until recently a Board member of the Corporate Responsibility Group.

Amanda is also a former member of the ODPM management board, a non Executive Director of the Banking Code Standards Board and Greater London Enterprise and non Executive Chair of OneLondon.

Peter Higgins
Peter has been with the Chime Group since its inception.

During his career he has led major corporate design projects for a number of Britain’s leading companies including GEC, HSBC and P&O and has also run large scale design programmes in Brunei, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.

Peter has 30 years experience in brand development and has produced identities and annual reports for some of the world’s biggest companies.

Susan McMahon
Susan is the Managing Director of Bell Pottinger Sport & Sponsorship and is renowned for her public relations and crisis management expertise.

Currently, Susan is co-ordinating an international sponsorship programme for Rolex across a number of sports and cultural projects and also led the team that executed a high profile international media campaign for the successful Beijing 2008 Olympic bid.

Other highlights in Susan’s 20 year career include directing major campaigns for Coca-Cola, Nike and Sega, as well as serving as Media Director for two Rugby Leagues World Cups and Project Director for the Rugby Union World Cup in 1999. She has also served as an adviser to British Swimming on the Hamilton Bland Court fraud case and on paedophile issues, and was responsible for the successful reputation management of Greg Rusedski when drug accusations were made against him

Contact Us
For advice on choosing the most appropriate Bell Pottinger Group agency or combined agency team for your needs, please contact our Chairman, Kevin Murray on 020 7861 2422.

Bell Pottinger Group
6th Floor, Holborn Gate
330 High Holborn
London WC1V 7QD

Switchboard and general enquiries
(0)20 7861 3800

Patsy Baker
Business Development Director:

Bell Pottinger Group
14 Curzon Street
London
W1J 5HN

Tel: 020 7861 8544
Email: PBaker@bell-pottinger.co.uk