SUNNYVALE, CA--IT storage giant NetApp is poised to hand its EMEA and Asia-Pacific PR accounts to Hill + Knowlton Strategies and Weber Shandwick, respectively, following a comprehensive global review.
The company began the review in late 2011, in a bid to whittle down the 17 firms that previously sat on its worldwide roster.
Porter-Novelli retained the Americas region, before NetApp kicked off a review of EMEA and Asia-Pacific earlier this year.
It is understood that as many as 20 firms were invited to take part in the EMEA component of the review, with Hill + Knowlton eventually prevailing. In Asia-Pacific, the Holmes Report understands that Weber Shandwick has been appointed.
For both EMEA and Asia-Pacific, NetApp has sought a firm with a range of capabilities - including public relations, internal comms, social media and crisis management - and broad geographic coverage of its key markets. Firms will report to the relevant regional PR and marketing heads, and work with local PR managers and NetApp’s global lead agency.
The review is being overseen by NetApp’s senior corporate comms director Jodi Baumann, who declined to comment.
The company recently completed a year-long exercise to implement a new global awareness strategy, in a bid to bring more cohesion to its overall PR efforts.