The Red Consultancy loses six-figure contract with shopping site Kelkoo

Kelkoo has decided to bring all of Red's activities in-house as it looks to rein in PR spend and put more money behind the mechanics of its site and search capabilities.

Red held the account for two years and recently finished working out the remainder of its retainer.

‘By no means is this a reflection of Red’s performance,’ said Tracy North, head of PR at Kelkoo Europe. ‘The business has made a decision to place more marketing spend on search and content, and less on PR.

‘For the past two years the investment in PR has been considerable and we have achieved amazing results with coverage volumes increasing by more than 50 per cent in the past year alone. We will now carry out fewer campaigns with a far smaller team but all campaigns will be completely joined up with the rest of the business. In the past, PR often worked solo to the rest of the business.'

Red won the account two years ago from incumbent Brands2Life, which handled the UK account. The EMEA brief had been newly created at the time.

When Red won PRWeek’s Agency of the Year in 2011 its work for Kelkoo was highlighted. The agency's 'Britain's most talented pets' campaign for the online shopping comparison site generated a 16% increase on the previous month on natural traffic leads on pet products.

This article was first published on prweek.com