My 1st Years, a company that offers unique personalised gifts for children, was matched with Clarville in the PRCA's Find a PR Agency (FAPRA) service.

The newly re-launched Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years (PACEY) has selected Forster Communications to work on the charity’s public relations following a change of strategy and associated rebrand from the National Childminding Association (NCMA) which was completed in March. PACEY is the standard-setting association for all childcare professionals.

Forster is tasked with raising awareness around the rebrand and increasing PACEY’s profile with childcare professionals, government and regulators in England and Wales and parents. The re-launch comes at a critical time for the childcare sector as a number of changes come into effect following recent government announcements on funding, quality control and policy. PACEY will provide information, training and support to its growing community of childminder, nanny and nursery worker members as well as provide one voice for them, representing their concerns and increasing recognition of their role.

Ogilvy Public Relations and the National Social Marketing Centre (NSMC) announced a strategic partnership to further the integration of public sector and private sector behavioural and social marketing expertise into campaign strategies.

The strategic partnership will allow Ogilvy PR to offer NSMC's public sector expertise and best practices to Ogilvy's private sector clients. The NSMC will be able to share Ogilvy's private sector marketing expertise with public sector clients. Additionally, Ogilvy PR staff will be trained by the NSMC to further the behavioural marketing expertise of its offices around the world.

The University of Law has appointed Broadgate Mainland on a project basis to support its communications programme. Broadgate Mainland will work with the marketing team at The University of Law to build its domestic and international profile as it completes its rebrand from college to university status.

Surname & Surname will be celebrating St Patrick’s Day this year not with green beer but with securing the account of Keogh’s, an Irish snack brand. The agency will help Keogh’s introduce its range of hand-cooked crisps into the UK market.

Coinciding with St Patrick’s Day, the launch will see the premium snacks available in Selfridges and Tesco stores across the UK. Consumers can still get their green food fix as shamrocks, those lucky three-leafed clovers, are used in Keogh’s Shamrock & Sour Cream crisps.

ECNlive is a content distribution platform that uses multimedia screens within office buildings to feed news, internal communications and other data to employees. The company’s digital footprint has expanded across London to reach more than 150 buildings and 500,000 employees.

In response to ECN’s massive expansion, the Financial Times has signed on as a business news partner. The FT will bring targeted content tailored to the interests of each building’s occupants for display.

In our December issue, we highlighted Pong Research’s iPhone 4 case as one of our top-picks for Christmas gadgets. The newly launched case for the iPhone 5 supplies additional protections and features that enhance its capabilities.

Pong provides the only cases that simultaneously protect users from exposure to electromagnetic radiation, improves cell signal and increases battery life.

Alnwick is a 900 year old originally-Norman castle near the coast in Northumberland. Guerilla Communications is a 10 year old marketing agency in Newcastle and London. A match made in heaven.

Automotive and sports specialist, Performance PR, is launching three new specialist divisions in digital, video and partnership. Performance PR built its reputation through the art of insightful and entertaining story-telling. That same specialism will be used to fuel its progress in these new sectors.

“The move is a strategic reflection of the work we’ve been conducting on behalf of clients over the past few years, as well as growing demand,” Andy Francis, co-founder of Performance PR, says. “We’re now evolving with investment in key personnel and developing new flexibility to reflect the growing role that PR creative plays across the marketing communications mix.”

Hotwire PR has launched a new data-driven service powered by Listening Post, the in-house analytics platform developed by 33 Digital.

The new product will focus on data analysis, social media metrics, reputation management, crisis communications and influencer relations. In providing data and metrics in these areas, Hotwire’s clients can better understand the impact of its social media practices. The influencer maps show the connections between influencers and their impact on social media.