The Holmes Report PR Agency Report Card 2003 names Hope-Beckham both Best Agency to Work For and Client Seal of Approval in the Small Firms/Creative Boutique division.
Hope-Beckham
Bob Hope is a 35-year veteran of the public relations business, having held senior PR positions for the Atlanta Braves and Coca-Cola and served as executive vice president at Burson-Marsteller. Paul Beckham was president of cable sales and marketing at TBS. And they have surrounded themselves with other communications veterans: food expert Suzanne Brown, who has 30 years of experience in the sector; sports marketing expert Holly Clifford, who previously managed the Sports Foundation; Michael King, another sports marketing veteran who has handled projects for the Colorado Silver Bullets and the National Peanut Board; and Kevin Sullivan, whose background includes marketing director positions for software and Internet companies. The latest addition to the team, brought on board in 2002, is Tony Hobson, whose experience including running two promotions agencies. With that kind of senior talent, Hope-Beckham can position itself aggressively against large, full-service firms, offering experienced veteran counsel without the overhead and bureaucracy of a mega-agency, and can claim depth of expertise in both traditional public relations and event marketing, where it really stands out from the PR crowd. The firm is best known for its work in marketing communications, particularly special events and promotions, but it has also been handling a growing number of corporate PR assignments. In 2002, Hope-Beckham outperformed the industry, growing by about 25 percent and ending the year with revenues of around $5 million. New clients included Worldspan (a web travel booking company); Choicepoint (the world’s largest background information checking company); CCE; and several new divisions of blue-chip brands such as The Coca-Cola Company (still the firm’s largest client), Philips Electronics, Caribou Coffee, and Cirrus Aircraft. On the marketing front, the firm handled the introduction of Vanilla Coke as well as Coca-Cola’s Winter Olympics promotions. On the corporate front, it handled some crisis work related to Middle Eastern investments in the U.S.
