Citizen Paine—the former PainePR, which rebranded in mid-2011—has been producing a dazzling array of creative work for a couple of decades now, so its seven nominations for North American SABRE Awards (more than any other midsize firm) were no great surprise. Those campaigns included work in the US for Procter & Gamble (the Future Friendly and Give Education CSR efforts, digital work for Old Spice, social media outreach for Pampers), Aflac (crisis management) and Duracell (cause marketing), as well as a Canadian project by Citizen Optimum for Future Shop. But the firm’s 2011 repositioning deserves at least as much attention. Chief executive Daryl McCullough says the new brand “reflects the democratization of communication and the changing landscape of how people receive and share information.” And it clearly resonates with clients. Says Bryan McCleary, director of external relations at P&G’s baby care division: “At P&G, we are trying to move away from thinking about people as consumers, to start to think about them as citizens and human beings, and the name really speaks to that need.”

Honorable mention: DKC, EuroRSCG Worldwide, Taylor, WCG

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The PRSA Los Angeles Chapter annually recognizes outstanding programs and materials created by public relations professionals who work in the Greater Los Angeles area.  This event is the largest gathering of leaders from Los Angeles public relations agencies, corporations, non-profit and government organizations.

Citizen Paine programs up for honors include those in categories of crisis communications, corporate communications, ongoing product or service programs, social and influencer marketing, multicultural communications and digital public relations. 

Winners and special honorees will be celebrated in true Los Angeles award show style as Michael Seel, producing director for the Hollywood Awards and American Cinema Editors Awards, returns as producer /director for the chapter’s 2011 PRism Awards Show. He is joined by Art Arellanes, a respected producer of network and cable award show specials and sporting events including the highly rated CMT Music Awards, popular MTV Video Music Awards in America, Latin America and Europe, the MTV Sports and Music Festival and numerous VH1 Music Specials. Together Seel and Arellanes bring more than 45 years of award show producing experience to the PRism Awards.

Citizen Relations formally bonds PainePR from the U.S., Optimum from Canada and Band & Brown and Brando from the U.K. and is further supported by strategic alliances in Asia Pacific, Latin America and India. After more than five years of collaboration, today’s launch is a significant milestone, unifying more than 200 practitioners and hundreds of affiliated experts around the world under the power of one new global agency brand. 

“Citizen Relations reflects the democratization of communication and the changing landscape of how people receive and share information. Our efforts are fueled by deep insight-led understanding of people, their cares and influences, and we’re specially engineered for the new networked world,” said Daryl McCullough, chairman of Citizen Relations.
The four founding agencies are all members of the EDC Communications group of companies that also includes Dare and Elvis Communications. Regionally, the Citizen Relations agencies will be known as Citizen Paine in the U.S., Citizen Brando in the U.K. and Citizen Optimum in Canada; they will be grouped under the Citizen Relations brand globally. Jeffrey Group, SPRG and Creative Crest are strategic partners of Citizen Relations in Latin America, Asia and India, respectively.

“Citizen Relations is engineered to bring our award-winning regional brands, talent and service model to a global scale,” said McCullough. “ We leverage the full suite of assets available to modern communications professionals, from traditional media and influencers to social media and digital offerings, along with the always-on reputation and brand management that companies are seeking.”

“Citizen Relations is not another loosely-formed agency network,” said McCullough. “Our lead partners share common ownership, and together we’ve created an innovative global collaboration model that provides focused resources, an innovative organizational model, and fresh insight-based thinking that PR clients, regionally and globally, need to meet complex communications challenges today and tomorrow.”

The Citizen Relations international PR credentials are not new, as the teams are already providing a variety of global and regional strategy, creative and program execution services to international blue-chip clients and brands.

For more information about Citizen Relations, please visit www.citizenrelations.com.

Formed by uniting four Vision7 International PR agencies, renowned in North America and Europe, Citizen Relations represents the merger of Optimum in Canada, PainePR in the U.S., and Band & Brown and Brando in the U.K. It includes nearly 200 professionals in eight cities and hundreds of strategic resources in more than 60 cities across the world, which enables it to deliver large-scale campaigns, not only on a worldwide level, but on a regional and local scale, as well. Citizen Relations’ unique vision is based on collaboration, imagination, agility and boldness, to meet the new realities of the digital age. Citizen Relations is a member of the EDC Communications group; EDC is an operating group within the holding company Vision7 International.

In today’s marketplace, brand-building public relations face daunting challenges. In this post-recession environment, the frivolous is frowned upon and a hyper-focus on metrics puts pressure on all business functions — including public relations — to drive ROI and grow market share.

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