David RichardsQuestions Raised Over PR Company's Tech Client Claims
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UPDATED: Sydney based Spectrum Communications have been left with egg on their face after falsely claiming on their web site that they still act for several IT clients who dumped them months ago.
Among the brands listed as clients are Acer and Google.
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A visit to their web site also shows that one Michael Henderson is the Group Managing Director despite the fact that Henderson quit the company months ago to take on a role at a rival public relations agency.
Annie Baxter, Communications Manager at Google, said that Spectrum Communications had not represented the search company for “several months”.
Acer executives said that they had not had a relationship with Spectrum for over 12 months.
A visit to the Spectrum web site shows Henderson as the Group Managing Director of the company and a key decision maker.
Henderson, who joined the Spectrum Group in 2008, quit in May 2010 to take up a role at DEC public relations.
He said “I have no involvement with Spectrum, I was not aware that they are still claiming that I am involved with the company I left earlier this year, I will raise the issue with them”.
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Spectrum who currently acts for Intel and Research in Motion, the makers of the Blackberry phone did admit when contacted by ChannelNews that information on their web site was wrong.
Naomi Beams a founding director at Spectrum Communications, which is a Company who claim that they are a leader in the communications business, said “This story has done a lot of damage. The only mistake we have made is not updating our web site”.
She failed to explain why a “leading” communications Company in the technology market had chosen not to update their web site when they lost or won clients or, when senior executives whose skills they were using to promote the Company quit the operation after account losses.
She also failed to acknowledge whether the Company had an obligation to present current and truthful information on a marketing vehicle as important as a web site.
In their PR blurb to clients Spectrum claims: “We understand the business of communications is a serious one, Spectrum is creative, intuitive and accountable”.
Back in 2007 when Spectrum Communications did have Google, the Blue Freeway Group told the ASX that revenues from the Spectrum Group were forecast to contribute an additional $2.8m to the group.
At the time BlueFreeway acquired 51% of the Spectrum Group for a sum of approximately $1m, with additional payments as per the standard BlueFreeway earnout model over a three-year period.
Some of those earn out payments are due this month.
Among the other clients listed by Spectrum on their web site is iBurst, Commander, Lanier, Commander an old Telstra brand and Blu ray Disc.
The latest news update on the site is dated 18th July 2007.