Aarti Shah 21 Nov 2014 // 12:09AM GMT
BELLEVUE, WA — T-Mobile has brought on Porter Novelli and Shift Communications to work alongside incumbent Waggener Edstrom following one of the year's most watched tech PR review.
The mobile carrier put its US business up for review in Q1 and has now divided its PR work amongst four agencies: newcomer Shift has been named social media AOR — which includes the company’s digital crisis work and executive visibility — and Porter Novelli has been brought on for consumer, retail, regional and crisis PR. Meanwhile, incumbent Waggener Edstrom retains the network and business markets and Sard Verbinnen continues to work on financial PR.
“As the 'un-carrier,' we asked agencies for an un-PR pitch as part of recent RFP, and we were really amazed by the level of talent from everyone who presented responses,” T-Mobile’s VP of communications Janice Kapner said in a statement. “We were looking for smart and talented agency partners and wanted to find the right mix of the best of the best, with diverse expertise in social media, creative and unexpected PR work, and of course — agility.”
Kapner joined as T-Mobile’s VP of comms last September from Microsoft. She also posted via Twitter that she was “ecstatic to include a new group to the table, @SHIFTcomm, who will be supporting us with our Social Media PR activities.”
WagEd’s EVP of the technology practice Kim Davis said T-Mobile continues to be an important client for the firm.
“Following the recent RFP, Waggener Edstrom is focusing our efforts on T-Mobile’s network and business markets efforts,” she said. “T-Mobile was looking to align a set of core agencies that would partner well, and we have already been in touch with our agency peers and look forward to working together.”