PC World appoints Brazil to push its business division

Mark Johnson, PR Week UK, 26 September 2003, 12:00AM

PC World has appointed Brazil to handle a newly created account aimed at raising its profile among small and medium-sized enterprises .

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The appointment has been made by the Dixons Stores Group-owned firm’s business division, which is launching a number of products and services aimed at SMEs this year.

Brazil pitched against two other agencies for the account, and will start work this week.

The Brazil team is led by director Richard Leonard, who previously worked on the Dixons Stores Group account when he was an account director at Le Fevre Communications.

He left the agency earlier this year to establish Brazil, with another former Le Fevre employee, ex-associate director Joshua Van Raalte.

Leonard will report to PC World Business marketing director Richard Millman and Dixons Stores Group head of press and PR Hamish Thompson.

Thompson said Brazil has been tasked with building a profile for PC World’s business division among senior IT staff within SMEs, through media relations with trade publications and the business press.

One strategy the agency will adopt will be to focus on product and service launches.

Thompson highlighted the business division’s SmartPlan product, a finance tool aimed at allowing start-ups to finance IT infrastructures immediately without providing a trading history, as an example of new services aimed at SMEs.

The agency has allocated three staff to servicing the account. Brazil MD Van Raalte said the priority for the account would be to differentiate the business brand from the consumer brand.

‘Everyone knows PC World as a retailer, but we need to position it as a high-end, value-added IT reseller,’ said Van Raalte. UK sales at

PC World Business reached £191m for the last financial year 2002-03.

This article was first published on PR Week UK