Earnies catapults into top five as The Romans increases lead – August new-biz league

Earnies has climbed to joint fourth place with Finn Partners in the PRWeek UK new-business rankings, thanks to two of its wins being classed as notable wins in August.

Online greeting cards and gifts business Moonpig appointed Earnies to handle its consumer PR on a retained basis, shortly before it was announced that eco-friendly toilet paper brand Who Gives A Crap had consolidated its consumer, corporate and trade communications programmes under the agency.

Both of these wins were chosen as part of PRWeek’s five picks of notable wins in August. Earnies now joins The Romans, Hope&Glory, Finn Partners and Edelman as an agency that has had more than one notable win pick in a single month.

W Communications has retained third position with eight wins in the new-business rankings.

Meanwhile, The Romans increased its lead at the top of the rankings. A notable win pick for beer brand Desperados, as well as three other wins reported by PRWeek in August, saw the agency hit four notable wins and 12 wins in total so far this year.

The Desperados account involves the agency helping develop a ‘culture-first’ approach to comms for the beer brand, working across global earned-first campaigns.

Other notable win picks in August were Adobe and Starbucks. Technology firm Adobe selected Burson – the UK’s second-biggest PR agency by revenue – to support across corporate, enterprise, creativity and productivity briefs, following a competitive pitch process. Burson moved to equal 18th place as a result.

US-based coffeehouse chain Starbucks picked VCCP Roar as its UK consumer comms agency, after a three-way shootout against Tin Man Communications and The Academy. VCCP Roar entered the new-biz rankings for the first time this year, sharing 24th place.

By volume, The Romans and Words+Pixels were joint top in August, with 12 wins apiece.