303 MullenLowe Taps Maverick’s Melissa Grove to Head PR Division

303 MullenLowe has appointed Maverick’s Melissa Grove as the agency’s first director of PR as the agency shifts into what it describes as a “hyper-bundled” model.

Grove joins the agency, which already had a creative and media offering, after almost nine years with experiential agency Maverick, where she most recently was the director of integration.

Prior to Maverick, Grove worked with Burson-Marsteller for four years.

“It’s what we call a hyper-bundled model and the outcome is whatever the outcome needs to be for the client so whether that means the brief gets taken in a PR sense or social or digital, or there’s media spend, it’s the best outcome from a client perspective.”

303 MullenLowe chief strategy office Jon McKie said its full-service model is different to others on the market which also have a PR arm: “The difference between us and the likes of Host and their relationship with One Green Bean is we don’t have separate P&Ls,” he said. “There’s no compunction for us to put anything into any one channel, rather the team around the table will say ‘what’s the best idea to solve the client’s problem?’, and it might be an idea that’s led by a media deal that we can get with News Corp or it might be an idea that’s a brilliant, old-fashioned TV idea or it might be something with great talk-ability and buzz for PR. We do take a genuinely channel media-neutral approach, that’s the benefit of being hyper-bundled and not having people who have to make a profit in their P&L.”