CJRW Hires Nashville PR Firm

by Talk Business & Politics ([email protected]) 56 views 

Arkansas’ largest advertising, marketing and public relations agency has hired a Nashville, Tenn., public relations firm to stake out business in new markets.

Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods hired McNeely Pigott & Fox to “boost brand awareness of CJRW beyond its traditional markets,” the Little Rock firm says.

Frank Cox, CJRW’s president and chief executive officer, says the Nashville firm will serve as a consultant to Cranford as it develops markets in Tennessee, Missouri and other surrounding states.

Cox says CJRW decided to hire an outside firm to handle its public relations because it didn’t want to use resources reserved for its clients.

The agency says it will use MP&F to meet its goal of becoming a “super-regional agency” poised for growth in new markets.

With a staff of 135, CJRW outsizes MP&F’s staff of 55. MP&F handles only public relations, however, and had net fee billings of more than $4 million in 1998. CJRW has capitalized billings of $75 million. The company grew in 1998, when it merged with Fayetteville-based Blackwood Martin & Associates.