Henry's House is a London-based creative public relations agency.

Background

The company was founded in 1998 under the name 'Henry's House' by music PR Julian Henry, Beverley Luckings, and entertainment entrepreneur

Simon Fuller Simon Robert Fuller (born 17 May 1960) is a British entrepreneur, artist manager, and film and television producer. He is the creator of the Idols (franchise), ''Idols'' TV format, including the British series ''Pop Idol'' and the American ser ...

. The firm represented popular consumer brands, UK TV shows and celebrities, initially trading from a workshop in Acklam Road, Notting Hill, west London, from where the company expanded to become one of the most influential publicity firms of its time launching the soft drink

Tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries from a combination of Arge ...

Victoria Beckham Victoria Caroline, Lady Beckham (; born 17 April 1974) is an English fashion designer, singer, and television personality. She rose to prominence in the 1990s as a member of the pop group the Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Posh Spic ...

S Club 7 S Club, formerly known as S Club 7, are a British pop group formed in 1998 by Simon Fuller after he was fired as manager of the Spice Girls. Original members were Tina Barrett, Paul Cattermole, Jon Lee, Bradley McIntosh, Jo O'Meara, Ha ...

, TV presenter

Jamie Theakston James Paul Theakston (born 21 December 1970) is an English television presenter, producer, narrator and actor. He has hosted television programmes for the BBC, ITV (TV network), ITV, Channel 4 and 5 (British TV channel), Channel 5. He co-present ...

David Beckham Sir David Robert Joseph Beckham ( ; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City. Primarily a right winger and known for his range of passing, cross ...

, and TV shows that included Big Brother, The Big Breakfast and

Pop Idol ''Pop Idol'' is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer (or "pop idol") in the UK based on viewer voting and pa ...

Client work

In 1998, The firm staged the sponsorship of London's Regent Street Lights by the drinks brand Tango, an event that featured pop group All Saints. The company quickly became well known for its work in art and pop culture and in 2002, Henry's House mounted an open air ice exhibit outside London's

Design Museum The Design Museum in Kensington, London, England, exhibits product, industrial, graphic, fashion, and architectural design. In 2018, the museum won the European Museum of the Year Award. The museum operates as a registered charity, and all fund ...

for

YBA YBA or yba can refer to a number of things: * Young British Artists, a movement of British artists in the 1980s and 1990s * Yala language, a language spoken in Ogoja, Nigeria, by ISO 639 code * Young Buddhist Association, an association of Bud ...

Anya Gallacio to launch a new flavour of

Absolut Vodka Absolut Vodka is a brand of vodka, produced near Åhus, in southern Sweden. Absolut is a part of the French group Pernod Ricard. Pernod Ricard bought Absolut for €5.63 billion in 2008 (equivalent to € in ) from the Swedish state. Absolut ...

. During this period Absolut Vodka would work with members of the YBA in its advertising campaigns, including

Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist and art collector. He was one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingdom's richest ...

. photographers

Martin Parr Martin Parr (born 23 May 1952) is a British documentary photographer, photojournalist and photobook collector. He is known for his photographic projects that take an intimate, satirical and anthropological look at aspects of modern life, in p ...

and

Pierre et Gilles Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

, as well as staging the last photographic shoot with writer

Quentin Crisp Quentin Crisp (born Denis Charles Pratt; – ) was an English raconteur, whose work in the public eye included a memoir of his life and various media appearances. Before becoming well known, he was an artist's model, hence the title of h ...

by Rankin, shortly before Crisp's death in New York. In 2009 the firm also developed and promoted a biopic on Crisp's life. In 2000, Henry's House was taken on by

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

to promote Big Brother and

The Big Breakfast ''The Big Breakfast'' is a British breakfast light entertainment television programme that was broadcast on Channel 4 from 1992 to 2002, and as a revival from 2021 to 2022. The show had various presenters, starting with Chris Evans (presenter), ...

, and later launched

for ITV, the show that uncovered singer

Will Young William Robert Young (born 20 January 1979) is an English singer, songwriter and actor. He came to prominence after winning the 2002 inaugural series of the ITV talent contest '' Pop Idol'', making him the first winner of the worldwide '' Ido ...

and TV personality

Simon Cowell Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality and businessman. He has judged on the British television talent competition shows ''Pop Idol'' (2001–2003), ''The X Factor (British TV series), The X Factor UK ...

. FHM,

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

, as well as others including

, and

American Airlines American Airlines, Inc. is a major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the ...

also became the firm's clients. They won the

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

account in 2001 and spent several years promoting the telecoms sponsorship of the

BAFTA Awards The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs or BAFTA Awards, is an annual film award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best Cinema of the United Kingdom, British and Worl ...

in London. The agency eventually parted with Orange and were recruited by

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate who co-founded the Virgin Group in 1970, and controlled 5 companies remaining of once more than 400. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneu ...

Virgin Mobile Virgin Mobile is a wireless communications brand used by seven independent brand-licensees worldwide. Virgin Mobile branded wireless communications services are available in Ireland, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emi ...

company. The firm held a long-term relationship with

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

in the UK. The company also held long running relationships with Virgin / NTL, for whom it promoted the

V Festival V Festival, often referred to as V Fest or simply V, was an annual music festival held in the United Kingdom during the third weekend in August. The event was held at two parks simultaneously which shared the same bill; artists performed at one ...

each year.

resigned his interest in the company in 2005 when he sold his company to become a director of CKX while founder Julian Henry stepped away from the business to work alongside Fuller in 2007. The company has since changed its name to House PR.

Big Brother

In April 2001 Henry's House was appointed by Channel 4 to publicise the 2nd season of the

Endemol Endemol B.V. (stylized in all lowercase) was a Dutch-based media company that produced and distributed multiplatform entertainment content. The company annually produced more than 15,000 hours of programming across scripted and non-scripted gen ...

format Big Brother. The programme's 1st season had attracted negative comment and HH were appointed by Endemol Controller of Entertainment Ruth Wrigley, C4 Commissioning Editor Liz Warner and C4 Head of Communication Yvonne Taylor with a brief to generate Fleet Street support for the innovation around the show which included 24-hour streaming for the first time. HH won the pitch for the business by renting a townhouse next to the studio in 3 Mills where the TV show was filmed and staffing it with a team of experienced publicists working on a 24/7 rota to provide cover for the live streaming. The publicity team consisted of Catriona Halsby, Louise Foglia, Charlotte Hickson, Loretta De Souza and Julian Henry, and their publicity work turned Big Brother into a weekly media event with regular press conferences, daily tabloid briefings and exclusive media interviews. The runner up Helen Adams signed a newspaper contract for £150k following the finale in July 2001, which was seen by over 50% of the available TV audience. According to

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

, the publicity campaign for Big Brother became “the biggest story of the year, generating more coverage and selling more copies than any other subject, including the Conservative leadership election, the foot and mouth crisis and

Tim Henman Timothy Henry Henman (born 6 September 1974) is a British former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 4 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) during the early 2000s. Henman won 15 career ATP Tour titl ...

's Wimbledon run”. Henry's strategy of promoting a reality TV format aggressively to the tabloids has been duplicated by other UK based reality TV shows and as a result Henry's House were asked by ITV Head Of Communication Nicola Howson to launch their new format

.http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/143723/CAMPAIGN-Media-Relations---Pop-Idol-show-climaxes-mediafrenzy/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH

References

{{reflist, colwidth=30em Public relations companies of the United Kingdom