The German public relations company WORDUP PR joined the World Communications Forum Association as a Corporate Member aiming to connect with professionals from all around the world and position itself on the top of the market.

WORDUP PR agency Munich is an international boutique agency with more than 25 years of experience consulting over 150 clients from 12 nations. Developing the most innovative communications strategies, the company realizes ambitious projects and creates engaging media content in leading publications. Lively social media content, podcast formats and high-quality online and face-to-face events are also among the core competencies of the company.

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The World Communications Forum Association is welcoming four high-profile PR experts as new Individual Members who are ready to be pro-active and contribute to the development of the modern public communications worldwide.

These four newcomers are:

Illka Gobius (Singapore) - Illka is the Founder of Pinpoint PR, a leading consultancy in Southeast Asia for science, emerging and enterprise technology public relations. Established in 2015, Pinpoint PR is an award-winning Singapore-based public relations consultancy with a global PR remit. A veteran of the tech industry Illka has held professional communications roles including head of marketing and senior consulting roles, in corporations and agencies, as a freelancer, a consultancy owner, and as a senior consultant in large agencies, including Burson-Marsellar and Euro RSCG.

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The most outstanding communications experts in the world were revealed by WCFA in the Best PR Leader Regional Awards 2022. The top-ranked professionals were recognized in 6 categories – the world’s key market regions Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North and South America. Entries were received from Brazil, Colombia, Iran, Italy, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Mimi Kalinda from South Africa won the first award for Africa Best PR Leader of 2022. In the category Asia-Pacific Best PR Leader of 2022 were recognized Illka Gobius from Singapore, Assel Kozhakova from Kazakhstan, and Mohd Said Bani C.M. Din from Malaysia. For Europe Best PR Leader of 2022 were awarded Daniele Salvaggio from Italy, Matias Rodsevich from Netherlands, and Lisa O'Sullivan from the United Kingdom. Mina Nazari from Iran and Pelin Kocaalp from Turkey took the Middle East Best PR Leader of 2022 award. For North America Best PR Leader of 2022 was awarded Jason Mudd from the United States. And the winners of South America Best PR Leader of 2022 were Roger Darashah from Brazil and Fabián Motta from Colombia.

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WCFA has partnered with communication digital transformation consultancy Purposeful Relations to conduct a global survey into how Public Relations, Communications and Corporate Affairs professionals understand and use communications technology.

As an incentive, everyone who completes the CommTech survey will be entered into a free prize draw to win a pass to the PRovoke Global Summit 2023.

The survey can be completed HERE.

It is the first big study of CommTech and covers areas such as what technologies are considered the most important, the opportunities and threats of technology, and skills needed to choose it and use it.

The research is sponsored by NewsWhip, PressPage, PRophet and Stickybeak.

Purposeful Relation founder Stuart Bruce sits on the Executive Committee of WCFA, as does Aaron Kwittken, founder of PRophet.

It's also supported by PRovoke as media partner; and ICCO (International Communications Consultants Organisation).

Since its creation in 2000, Datawords Group has established itself as a leader in e-multicultural technologies, forging the term Multicultural Ingenuity to reflect its capacity to support brands in the deployment of their digital marketing and technology strategies on an international scale.

Multicultural at its core, Datawords has developed a unique know-how and expertise in adapting its clients' technologies, strategies and digital content to a local audience, while respecting their brand image. The deployment of international campaigns poses a real challenge for major global brands, with linguistic and technical constraints, as well as cultural preferences, that can make a single global campaign impossible. Datawords relies on both MULTI digital expertise and CULTURAL adaptation of brand content across more than 50 languages and countries to capture local relevancy.

To reinforce its position in the Chinese market, Datawords announces the acquisition of the award-winning integrated communication company Switching-Time, founded in Shanghai, China. Established in 2012, Switching-Time serves a prestigious set of clients in the fashion, beauty, luxury and lifestyle industries. Over the years, it has expanded its offering to cover the full breadth of digital marketing services, including public relations (e-PR), influencer digital marketing and social media.

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Kobi Hemaa Osisiadan-Bekoe has been appointed as the Director of Corporate Affairs of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (GI-KACE). She becomes the first female to occupy a director’s position since its establishment.
Kobi Hemaa has over 14 years of experience in marketing, events, and communication. Kobi Hemaa is significant in media and international relations, tourism, journalism, diplomacy, and philanthropy.

She grooms and nurtures leaders in the public and private sectors on brand visibility, communications, and media relations. She leads major enterprise-level projects on negotiations, Investor relations, Market Entry Strategies, Multicultural Relations, Brand sustainability, Protocol and Public Diplomacy in Ghana, Nigeria and Netherlands.

She is the first Ghanaian member of the World Communication Forum. She is a member of the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA), Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG), Institute of Public Relations (IPR), Chartered Institute of Public Relations, UK (CIPR), and Women in Cybersecurity, West Africa Affiliate.

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Sherlock Communications, the award-winning public relations and digital marketing agency with offices across Latin America, has appointed regional tech expert Richard Fenning as its new Director of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), starting immediately.

Born in Ireland, Fenning joins Sherlock Communications after spending three years working at Americanas s.a. in Rio de Janeiro as SEO Manager, where he led the SEO team of the largest e-commerce company in Brazil with revenue of US$1.6 billion. Responsible for the complete SEO strategy for e-commerce brands focusing on organic performance, he also led Americanas’ App Store Optimisation (ASO) strategy, increasing organic installs by 90 per cent year-on-year through improved keyword ranking.

In his new role, Fenning will develop Sherlock Communications’ dedicated SEO department, driving innovation, leading strategic vision, and providing increased value to the agency’s numerous international clients, such as Akamai, Getty Images, Maersk and Virufy. Sherlock Communications specialises in providing support to overseas companies eager to understand and engage with Latin American markets. The seven-year-old agency, named “Best in LATAM” for four successive years at the PRWeek Global Awards, boasts a client portfolio that spans sectors from fintech to travel, education to pharmaceuticals, blockchain to sport, and more.

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Article by Roger Darashah, Partner Director, LatAm Intersect PR.

Earned engagement has become more relevant than ever;
delivering it is what sets PR apart.

As an industry public relations (PR) is maddeningly discrete.  This is partly due to the nature of the professional, operating behind the scenes.  Our clients are the protagonists, rather than our agencies.  

While understandable, this reticence has not helped the profession to position itself amongst the giants of marketing, advertising and, increasingly marketing technology (market). PR, however, retains an unmatched ability to navigate ambiguity, to respond in real time, and to react to events.

On Oscar night, it wasn’t ‘brand’ Will Smith’s advertising agency that his publicist called . . . . it was certainly his PR team. But the industry remains reluctant to assume this leadership, and act as a genuine protagonist in the wider arena of marketing and communications.  Sometimes, I see the sector as reduced to chasing (other people’s) ‘shiny objects’, instead of setting our own course.

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