Two stories with huge brands here:
  • Virgin Atlantic Airways has hired former Mischief associate director Fay Burgin as head of PR
    A member of the senior management team at Mischief PR, Burgin's arrival follows Virgin Atlantic’s recent appointments of easyJet’s Sarah McIntyre as head of US comms and National Express Group’s head of media Joy Doyle as international PR manager.
    Charged with "driving corporate and consumer activity and reputation management of the brand, she will also oversee Virgin Atlantic’s relationship with its consumer agency Mischief and its remit of publicising the airline’s £100m product investment programme."
    Burgin said: ‘I'm looking forward to raising the bar in consumer awareness of our brand and products. We're a fun challenger brand and as such I'll be leading the team to consistently surprise and raise a smile with our unique creative approach to PR.’
    Read the full piece here at PR Week






  •  McDonald's is replacing its consumer dialogue website with a new portal, WhatMakesMcDonalds.co.uk, marking a key milestone in its transformation of the UK business.
This story, available in full from Marketing Magazine, reports on the massive revamping of McDonald's infrastructure - from its restaurants to its consumer interaction base. The original site, launched in 2007, was built to counter-act the negativity surrounding the health and nutrition factors of McDonald's food; but this new site is a step further, promoting interaction, behind-the-scenes content and discussion on food sourcing and brand ethics.
The new-look site for customer interaction

Alastair Macrow, vice-president of marketing at McDonald’s UK, said: "Over the past few years, we’ve worked hard to open up our business...however, there are still lots of myths out there about McDonald’s. As people engage more with brands through digital and social media, we’re confident that introducing a new direct channel for people to tell us what they think and ask us questions will bring us closer to our customers – a key aim of our overarching business strategy."