Ogilvy secures PR remit across Hong Kong and Macau

John Hobday has been named CEO of SEC Newgate Middle East, with a focus on business growth and expanding the firm’s specialisms into new sectors.

John brings more than 25 years of experience in financial communications and corporate affairs, advising global corporations, Middle East institutions, investors and key regional players across all Gulf Cooperation Council markets.

He joins from FGS Global, where he spent seven years as Partner in its Dubai office, leading the development of the firm’s regional business with a focus on capital markets.

His appointment follows the departure of Elena Gramatica, former CEO and Founding Partner of SEC Newgate Middle East.

Fiorenzo Tagliabue, CEO of SEC Newgate, said: “Middle East is one of our key strategic priorities as we see increasing demand for strategic advice, especially in our core specialism area of corporate affairs.

“John has a perfect profile combining long term working experience with international brands, full understanding of the Middle East context and an extensive network of relations with key stakeholders and influencers. With John leading our incredible teams in UAE and KSA we can offer the right answers to tackle the many demanding challenges we see in reputation management, investment promotion and business positioning we see arising in these markets.”

Fiorenzo added: “Last and not least I wish to thank Elena Gramatica for her strong leadership and contribution when we decided to start together this business back in 2021.”

Global fitness technology brand, iFIT, has appointed Sling & Stone as its consumer agency of record in Australia.

Sling & Stone is leading an integrated communications program spanning earned media, creator marketing, strategic partnerships, and experiential activations.

The agency’s immediate focus centers on launching iFIT’s new Ultra 1 Reformer range and driving awareness for the new Sydney Experience Centre in Waterloo. Looking ahead to November, Sling & Stone will lead the Australian launch of the iFIT Personal Training app.

The partnership will also showcase iFIT's broader connected fitness ecosystem, combining its interactive digital workout platform with premium NordicTrack equipment, including treadmills, reformers, exercise bikes, rowers and ellipticals.

Shannon McBride, Marketing Manager Australia & New Zealand at iFIT, said: “Sling & Stone stood out for its fresh strategic thinking, extensive media and creator networks, and ability to translate our global offering into creative, culture-forward Australian campaigns.

”We're looking forward to continuing to build iFIT brand momentum, drive NordicTrack hardware sales and grow our subscriber base in Australia.”

Nichole Provatas, Managing Director, Australia, Sling & Stone, added: “iFIT represents the next evolution of fitness tech: intelligent, immersive coaching that adapts to real life. For Sling & Stone, this partnership hits our sweet spot across consumer tech, culture, and health and wellness. 

”Through earned storytelling, strategic partnerships, and creator-led campaigns, our focus is on building deep brand relevance across Australia and redefining what intuitive fitness looks like. How exciting is that!”

Telum Media and Truescope have entered a strategic partnership that brings together Telum Media’s curated journalist and media relations platform with Truescope’s fully integrated AI-first media intelligence service.

The partnership will surface Truescope media intelligence inside the Telum Media platform, so communications teams can see which journalists are covering their issues and pitch them without leaving the workflow. 

Between them, the two companies now cover the five parts of media intelligence. Truescope brings media monitoring, social listening and media analysis. Telum Media brings the media database and distribution. For communications teams, that means one connected workflow, from finding the right journalist to measuring what the coverage achieved.

The partnership will initially focus on Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, with additional markets to follow.

For Telum Media, the partnership reflects a sharp surge in journalists demanding greater relevance in the outreach they receive from PRs, and follows its recent launch of Distribution tools within the platform.

“The ‘spray and pray’ approach to sending media releases should be consigned to the past – that’s what thousands of journalists have been telling us through our Journalist Interest Surveys,” said Telum Media Executive Chairman, Michael Webster.

“The focus is on precision-led targeting and more relevant outreach, and this partnership with Truescope will help communications teams identify and select relevant media based on demonstrated coverage and current editorial interests."

“Having this integrated into the Telum Media platform means teams can research, plan, personalise and pitch without switching between disconnected systems.”

For Truescope, the partnership follows its entry into the Australian market on 1 October 2026, and conversations with more than 30 communications, PR and public affairs leaders across Australian government, corporate and agency teams about what they need from a media intelligence service. Truescope monitors broadcast, print, digital and social media, and runs Truescope AI as part of the service: Truescope Assistant, which answers questions about what happened in the coverage, and Truescope Analyst, which explains what it means, with citations on every output.

Truescope CEO, John Croll, said the integration puts coverage data and journalist data in the same place. Truescope and Telum Media solve complementary parts of the PR workflow, and clients increasingly want monitoring and journalist intelligence to work together without compromising quality.

“PR and Comms teams want the best monitoring and the best journalist data. Until now that has meant two systems and a lot of copying between them.”

“With this partnership, a comms manager can access specialist capabilities, data quality, and innovation of both Truescope and Telum Media. They can see who is covering their issue, understand how that coverage is moving, and pitch the right journalist without leaving the workflow. That is time back, and a better hit rate”, John said.

Find out more about the Telum Media - Truescope partnership.