Crisis PR and Amaze, once the North West's biggest Internet agency

Arguably the North West's largest, or until recently largest Internet agency Amaze has been taken over by Hasgrove Group.

Allegedly Amaze had a £2 million hole in its accounts according to one comment left on a How Do report. Unfortunately 70 staff have lost their jobs. Melhuish the managing director has resigned and to be fair he would appreciate the tough actions of Hasgrove (although I am sure they did not want to let people go) as he was not averse to regularly chopping staff often on a whim; I am sure the new owners are being expedient rather than malicious or temperamental.

As the story breaks journalist interest will increase. The aim of the PR should be to
reassure the clients, market and Internet professionals, they might want to recruit one day and no-one joins a rocking ship.

There is plenty of work to do. However, if handled well it could be highly beneficial rather than just a firefighting exercise. If the PR agency has local business media contacts it would be very handy as it looks as though they have a southern team. The PR agency has to show imagination, clear communications and not shy away from difficult questions and prepare for questions in advance. Not be reactive, be proactive and tell the media first. We shall see what happens. If the PR is worth their fees we should see a stronger agency, if not confidence will take much longer to build. At a difficult time, time is not on their side but it must be made to work for them. There is no sign as yet of work on the site explaining the position, not a good sign.