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Bell Pottinger Leveson Inquiry

James Henderson, CEO of Bell Pottinger Private, talks new content division, Leveson and advising Lord McAlpine

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By Stephen Lepitak, -

November 28, 2012 | 5 min read

James Henderson, CEO of Bell Pottinger Private, has for the last five months led the PR and digital group since its MBO from Chime Communications. This morning (28 November) it announced the creation of a new division, having merged both its digital and content arms. Henderson spoke about the new offer, as well as the company's advising of Lord McAlpine and the potential of the Leveson report.

What was the thinking behind setting up Bell Pottinger Wired?

We have always had a digital arm and about a year ago we employed Claire Southeard to head up content and so Bell Pottinger Wired combines James Thomlinson's digital expertise with Claire's content expertise. Now we have a one-stop shop that provides design, production, development, social and multimedia digital generally.

You only need to see the way that the media landscape has changed to see why such an offering is necessary. We're advising Lord McAlpine [following incorrect reports by the BBC's Newsnight and Twitter users] over the reputation that he has had in the online world. Companies today can't ignore online and we have to have an offering that allows any person to communicate as effectively as they can in the digital world.

What will this division aim to achieve?

The purpose of having the division is to really innovate new products to try and do leadership in its space. At the moment we're doing what our competition is also doing as well.

How do you aim to differentiate the Bell Pottinger offer?

It's not just about search engine optimisation or social media. It's actually providing content for allowing the production of internet TV content. The combination of the two is a differentiator.

Has the division already begun work with any clients?

We've been working with Fortnum and Mason – they did a lot of work around the Jubilee and also designed a lot of content for the media whereby selected media can log in and have unlimited access to the brand's imagery.

And what will Bell Pottinger Wired mean for the group?

What we need to do is to integrate this within all the different divisions of the group. Where I would like to get to is to talk to any potential client without really talking about their online reputation and how we can help them with that.

Are clients asking for these services?

It's something that clients are slow to adopt in some areas – for instance traditional financial PR – they have been slower to take to online. Clearly on the consumer, luxury, B2B side, theirs is much more permanent and much more of a need for them.

After the MBO, where do you see the Bell Pottinger Group being positioned?

We're five months in now into our MBO and we have done a certain amount of restructuring and integrating all of the businesses to work together more than they ever have in recent times. We are doing a lot more combined, integrated one brand Bell Pottinger pitches where we are providing for a number of clients a combination of regulatory, financial, corporate media and digital relations all under one roof. Someone that's worked really well for is Talk Talk – we do their financial, some consumer work around The X Factor, public affairs and corporate communications.

And what impact do you expect the Leveson report to have?

I think it all depends on what credibility it is given by other stakeholders. We saw media speculation last week on David Cameron saying that he had a different viewpoint, and that is going to be key.

How challenging have you found handling the Lord McAlpine situation of recent weeks?

We do a lot of crisis issues. We handled the Eva Rausing tragedy in July when Rausing was found dead and her husband was charged with murder. That was equally difficult.

How you feel the press have handled the Lord McAlpine story?

I think that the press, since they realised the mistake, have rallied around Lord MacAlpine. I saw in the latest issue of The Drum a discussion of what this means for Twitter, and as settlements come out on the Twitter side, that is really going to highlight to people the need for a much greater duty of care on the internet.

Bell Pottinger Leveson Inquiry

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