Biggest PR pitches, mergers and acquisitions in September 2025, with Andrew Bloch

Welcome to our review of pitches, mergers and acquisitions in the UK PR scene with Andrew Bloch. Here we discuss the biggest pitch wins, mergers and acquisitions that the PR sector has seen in September 2025

Andrew is the lead consultant, PR, social, content and influencer at the new business consultancy firm AAR and a partner at PCB Partners, where he advises on buying and selling marketing services agencies.

The Creative Moment Awards have sold out but we have an fascinating webinar on GEO, Misinformation and the News: The Impact of AI on Trust of the Media and a PR Planning event on October 16th.

Also, thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

PITCHES

Cop30 appoints Edelman – Comms activity around Brazil’s hosting of Summit in Nov. Account worth $834,850 from mid-July – mid Feb 26 (according to US Foreign Agent Registration Act).

Tokyo appoints Weber Shandwick – $1.7m year long deal with Tokyo Metro Govt.

Morocco National Tourist Office appoints Rooster – UK and Ireland brief to promote tourism in Morocco.

Ethara Event and Entertainment appoints The Romans – Etihad Airways GP. 2 year b2b and b2c brief.

W Hotels appoint The Romans – EMEA PR strategy for global hotel brands across the UK and Middle East.

Lidl appoints Brands2Life - corporate and public affairs brief - building and painting reputation in a way that is ‘commensurate with its economic and social impact across the nation’. Media relations, give relations, leadership comms, crisis mitigation. Category defining business. 5th biggest supermarket in UK by food and drink sales. Brands2Life also looks after LinkedIn, TetraPak. Vodafone, Xero

Homesense appoints Pretty Green - consumer pr, influencer and social brief.

Wasabi Sushi & Bento appoints The Fitting Room - a PR, social and content.consumer comms brief across 41 stores.

Itsu grocery appoints Exposure – creative comms for new rice noodle range!

Innocent adds Tin Man and Pretty Green –to its roster of agencies.

LEGO appoints Smarts – UK and Ireland consumer PR brief. Lego’s first new agency in 8 years. Recent wins Asda and People's Postcode Lottery.

Specsavers appoints Firstlight Group as its UK retained communications agency. Have worked on projects since 2021. Firstlight will work alongside Golin and Tangerine.

Street Soccer London appoints The Ripple Effect.

Police Care UK –appoints PHA Group –a charity for serving and veteran police officers and staff, volunteers, and their families, who have suffered any physical or psychological harm as a result of policing.

Shieldpay appoints PHA Group

Vinted appoints John Doe

Jigsaw appoints Aisle8

Mint Velvet appoint Emerge

Hexclad cookware appoints Milk and Honey

Stagecoach appoints McCann Birmingham

Sodastream appoints Visible

This month's round up of M&A activity

Real Chemistry acquire Greater Than One

GTO will gain access to Real Chemistry’s services in AI driven, creative, influencer engagement, medical comms, integrated comms and market access. Real Chemistry is $665M globally of which circa $616M is in the US pushing it above Edelman as the largest US firm by revenue last year.

WE Communications (formerly Wagner Edstrom) and Hopscotch merged. WE acquired Hopscotch 3 years ago.

MSQ acquires Precious Media and Wooshi to expand production capabilities. Doubles M3 Labs (MSQ’s production agency) headcount to 130 adding AI powered and commerce focussed production expertise.

Publicis acquires Bespoke Sport & Entertainment, an experiential marketing agency and will become part of Publicis Sport.

Teneo sells minority stake to LGT Capital Partners – reportedly values the ‘global ceo advisory’ firm at $2.3bn. Proceeds will go to CVC Partners, the majority PE owner and to management.

Teneo has made a strategic investment in Altius 8.

FGS Global acquires Edmonds Elder. This is the first acquisition for FGS since PE firm KKR took majority ownership last year and WPP relinquished its stake.

Milk & Honey US share buyout – Milk and Honey North American CEO, Paul Cohen has launched Attention Comms. This is an independent agency spun off from Milk&Honey's US business. Milk & Honey continues to operate in the UK, Germany and Singapore and has announced that it intends to relaunch in the US with new leadership soon.

SWNS Media Group acquires Creatorville. SWNS Media Group owns 72 Point, OnePoll and SWNS and it has bought a digital content consultancy founded by Sam Barcroft. Barcroft will become Group CEO at SWNS. Barcroft previously founded Barcroft Studios which sold to Future Publishing in 2019.

Shamrock Capital has acquired Penta Group. Penta is a US based firm with offices in London, Brussels, Dublin, HK and Singapore. Global rev of $100M, 350 FTEs (75 in London) Shamrock Capital is an LA based Private Equity firm.

Omnicom/IPG takeover – UK competition and markets authority has given green light to Omnicom acquisition of rival holding co Interpublic Group. For both companies the UK is the 2nd largest market after the US. Decision made on 6th Aug has determined that merger will not result in a ‘substantial lessening of competition’ in the UK ad market. Looks like the deal will close before the end of year. US regulators have also approved deal but still requires clearance in 3 more markets including the EU