David RichardsSpeculation is mounting that Bite Communications, which was previously known as Upstream, has snared Hewlett Packard, one of Australia’s largest technology PR accounts.
In an email seen by ChannelNews, HP has announced that it has extended its relationship with Bite Communications to include Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Asia-Pacific, of which Australia is the largest country in the region.
Christina Schneider, HP’s director of international external communications, said, “Selecting Bite to drive campaigns in Asia Pacific is the next step in our strategy of collaborating with the world’s best agencies to meet HP’s business needs in each of our key markets.”
She added, “Last year we chose Bite in the Unites States based on its reputation for developing creative media relations campaigns that deliver results.”
Currently HP business is handled by Burson-Marsteller which is the same agency that last month lost the LG account to Pulse, an agency under the Ogilvy & Mather PR operations.
Executives at Burson-Marsteller Sydney referred all communication on the matter to HP in Singapore.
In January, Bite Communications chose not to pitch for the Toshiba Australia account because of a possible conflict with Hewlett Packard, according to executives at Toshiba.
And in another decision affecting Bite Communications, Cisco on Friday chose Text 100 as the PR agency for its consumer electronics division, which previously traded as Linksys. No formal announcement has yet been made.
Text 100 was last year was appointed to handle the launch of the Flip Camera from Cisco, which, despite a $2 million below-the-line marketing campaign managed by Text 100, is struggling to gain traction in retail stores, according to the latest GFK data.
According to Bite executives in San Francisco, Bite Communications will “oversee proactive media relations campaigns that support HP’s corporate innovation and sustainability initiatives. The addition of Asia Pacific builds significantly on the companies’ existing relationship, which began in August 2009 when HP awarded Bite the same corporate work in the United States”, the company said in a statement issued to ChannelNews.
Clive Armitage, CEO of Bite Communications, said, “At Bite, we have a desire to work with brands that want to create and drive meaningful and innovative communications, HP certainly fits that bill.”
HP is the world’s largest technology company with a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure.