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Guttridge and Guttridge finally go public with Smoking Gun PR
After several weeks of anticipation in PR circles, Rick Guttridge and his wife Vanessa have finally gone public with their new PR vehicle - Smoking Gun PR.
Mr Guttridge was at one time the managing director of Brazen and also spent time at Connectpoint. He left Brazen last October.
Mrs Guttridge’s past agency roles include spells at Communique, Communicado and Event Associates along with in-house roles at Manchester City Council. Mrs G Vanessa has been operating as a freelance PR for the past three years.
Rick Guttridge says the agency has taken its name from a Sherlock Holmes novel and hopes that it reflects the agency’s offering, namely ‘evidence based strategic campaigns across a range of B2C and B2B sectors’.
Guttridge maintains that: “It’s a great time to launch as the economy appears past the worst of the recession and indeed the market so far this year seems buoyant based on the number of pitches around.”
The agency has now recruited a third full time member of staff and claims to have secured several clients including Panda Licorice and Taskers Home Store.
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Yes, Good Luck, I was going to say "to the Gunners" but as a Spurs fan that doesn't seem right. Anyway, I take the view that it's not a case of a new agency making it harder for everyone else to earn a living. Rather that more and more companies and organisations need PR (although many don't realise it) and the cake is infinite. If you are good you survive and prosper, as many have proved over the past decade.
Well done, guys. I have no doubt, with the talent behind this venture, that it will be a resounding success.
'Smoking Gun'??? Judging by the lovey dovey stuff festering all over the website. I would say 'smoking pot'
How lovely that 'Louise' felt the need to post such a constructive comment on here...amazing the lengths people will go to try and bring others down. Sounds to me like someone may be a little threatened by this new venture.
As for the 'back to school' comment, I imagine that's where we would find 'Louise', in the playground, flinging mud at others.
Good Luck to Rick and Vanessa, you have had a great start and I look forward to watching you grow and grow.
Best of luck Rick and Vanessa, everyone's supporting you and wishing you the very best of luck. Well...everyone except the disgruntled Louise of course...
Louise, I imagine Rick hasn't included the '@' symbol so that he doesn't get constantly spammed. Also, can I ask if you're in PR yourself? It's generally considered bad practice to graffiti negative comments and perhaps a private email would have been more fitting? I'm sure Rick could advise you further...
Good luck Rick and Vanessa, not that you'll need it. I'm sure you've got the ammo to fire Smoking Gun to success.
Looks like you've already triggered some interest!
Best of luck guys.
Good luck to you both - more PR agencies should have CGI guns on their home pages!
I'm a bit disappointed that you aren't going to 'Shake up the Manchester PR scene' though...
Well done Rick and Vanessa! Wishing you every success.
Not a great website Rick, littered with typos and grammatical errors and on the team page you've got 'at" instead of @ in your email address - suggest you sort so prospects can actually get hold of you. Glad to see you've amended the hyperlinks though - whilst it's clearly a new website, these are pretty fundamental errors. Plus, why call it Smoking Gun, there's no reference to the name in your copy or your brand ethos? Back to school.