The consolidation of the public image considering press results of the merger by acquisition of two prestigious brands–Brazilian Lew'Lara and global TBWA –represented a new stage for this PR Agency in the challenge that started 16 years ago, when the then small national agency became the client. This is about how strong Public Relations, built over the years, contributed to the immediate placement of a new brand. In 2008, the year after the merger, there were 811 results. The work has created an internal communication culture with the press and relationship of the speakers with journalists of mainstream and specialised media. The Source of Information Policy included two institutional speakers and another six trained over key-issues, converting the brand into a reference. The merger in November/2007 resulted in wide exposure, which has challenged our PR Agency to provide in the next two years: the alignment between work and a new culture; align contents and speakers; transfer the national brands public prestige to the merged company; and the public institutional consolidation of the new brand. Balance (March/2008 to March/2009, world crisis) shows nearly 1,000 positive publications reflecting the alignment of the Sources of Information and the expansion of media interest in the brand themes. The relationship channels also increased with two new institutional sources and ten new topics.

The communication included: • Work based on positioning, which validates the reputation more than the repercussion; • Strategic approach to issues, with accurate, transparent and ethical information; • Alignment of the Sources of Information to the themes of public interest with consistent informative and institutional content; • Systematic implementation of tools to organise and guide the work – evaluation, actions annual planning, actions monthly report, monitoring and visits reports. The communication plan included meetings; interviews on subjects aligned to the strategy; summary and issues related to the brand, press-kits, releases, informative notes and position papers; virtual Newsroom, Monitoring & Measurement Portal and Internet Radar. A previous evaluation discarded press conferences and included a special programme for sensitive issues (mobility of accounts). The conquest of a Lion in 2009 gained specific importance in Brazil, with demands for interviews directed to speakers in France.

The positive impact is the best communication result, showing that Lew'Lara\TBWA knew how to manage their exposure during a serious first semester in Brazil, when we had 477 inserts in the Press. The second half, already in recovery, brought 529 insertions, even with the reduction of themes worked and the absence of press conferences. Between March/2008-April/2009 the brand had 977 exhibitions. Before the merger, the average was 715 publications per year. Among March/2009-March/2010, the results summed up 1,318.

Marketing and audacious campaigns were the subjects of most interest from the media. It is further estimated that the main leaders of Lew'Lara\TBWA attended at least five journalists/week – more than 22/month. There were more than 200 contacts for interviews on campaigns, new clients, sensitive issues and market conditions. Of this total, 40 key contacts, especially interviews and personal meetings, lunches and visits to Lew'Lara\TBWA, were closely managed and monitored by the PR agency.