There seems to be a little more economic activity around; people moves, pitches that kind of thing. Not perhaps sufficient for widespread holding of breath but encouraging.

Some big pitch wins made the How-Do headlines this week. Amaze has done a smash and grab on the Crimestoppers account, the independent charity which started fighting crime through anonymous tip-offs. Will Amaze I wonder use their digital expertise to incorporate a social media strategy …anonymous twip-offs in 140 characters or less?

On that subject Weber Shandwick has appointed a ‘twitter correspondent’ in the form of 23 year-old Helen Seed – do you see what they’ve done there? Twitter …Seed?

Back to new business I was pleased to see writ large that the Health and Safety Executive has appointed our sister agency TBWA Manchester. Sally Sykes will be an insightful and empowering client. 

I found time midweek to tip up at the CIPR Excellence Awards in London and was glad I did, it was an excellent evening. Well done Liverpool PCT and Communique. Also amongst the North West winners on the night was McCann Erickson grabbing the best use of digital PR accolade for its Play O campaign for Durex. Orgasmic. It is a real coming of age for the PR offering at the Prestbury based monolith. It can only be matter of time before the PR head honchos Wilson and Rothnie are elevated to the agency board.     

Meanwhile it is all go at Media City. Communications impresario Paul Newman has been hogging the headlines. Last Friday saw the story that only 42% of the Beeb staff want to make the move to Planet North. Monday’s news was that an innovation consortium from the University of Salford had won a MediaCityUK contract worth over £2.7m for research and on Tuesday Sinead Greenaway was announced as the new chief executive of MediaCityUK. Finally Wednesday marked the official 'topping out ceremony' for phase one of the Salford Quays site.

The story about reluctant BBC staffers may be particularly good news. More jobs for the northerners.

Rob Brown is managing director of Staniforth and an occasional author…

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