Spectrum loses Google PR account to Red Agency

Tim Burrowes

February 2, 2009 11:41

Google has shifted its Australian PR business from the North Sydney-based Spectrum Communications to Red Agency, Mumbrella can reveal.

The move ends a two year relationship between the search giant and Spectrum, which is part of the Blue Freeway group. A spokesman for Google confirmed the change but declined to comment further.

Red Agency, which is owned by Euro RSCG and also based in North Sydney, has several clients in the media and technology sectors including Fairfax, DMG Media and GPS firm Mio.

Much of Google’s PR is handled by an in-house team led by its head of corporate communications and public affairs Rob Shilkin.

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Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.

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5 COMMENTS

Sarie 3 Feb 09

I’m interested to know who else was in the running – Rumours are Text, Red, Spectrum and one other were in the final short-list. Any insights? Surely agencies like n2n or Howorth were in the mix…

Interested by their choice – Certainly a massive win for Red.

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Jen Bishop 4 Feb 09

In my opinion, Red have a hard act to follow. I had the pleasure of working with Spectrum on Google editorial contributions on several occasions and, personally, think they did a great job.

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carrob 4 Feb 09

eeer. Just a question. It wouldn’t have anything to do with the new CEO of Google being ex Fairfax and red being his preferred PR agency from back in his Fairfax days?

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mumbrella 4 Feb 09

Hi Carrob,

If you mean Karim Temsamani, he might argue with the “new” bit. He’s been at Google for 14 months now: http://google-au.blogspot.com/.....board.html

Cheers,

Tim

amazed 11 Feb 09

So why does revenue continue to deteriorate at BlueFreeway? The BlueFreeway 4C was released on the ASX site last week. The Chairman has had the company for a year now and continues to pursue the Greg Daniel strategy. Over twelve months after the problem head office is gone the share price is down 97% from $0.60 to $0.02, the number of companies in the group has dropped from 25 to 16, debt is up from $33 million to $43 million, and the business in the 1st half of 2009 generates a negative operating cash-flow of $7.6 million versus a positive operating cash-flow during BlueFreeway’s first 12 month debut in 2007. Is there any good news? How much has the largest shareholder invested in the Daniel strategy and what is his investment worth now?

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