TIRANA—APCO Worldwide and its StrawberryFrog advertising subsidiary have been selected to lead the government of Albania’s new international campaign with the goal of attracting greater travel to Albania. The two firms presented a global campaign, “Go On Your Own Way,” that will include advertising, media relations, stakeholder outreach, digital and social media, and a short film competition. For the agency selection, the country hosted a competitive process that was broadcast live on Albanian television.

LONDON—FleishmanHillard London has boosted leadership of its creative services with the hire of Simon Amster to the new role of executive creative director. Amster’s remit will be to lead the agency’s increasingly integrated creative output on flagship clients and across a variety of sectors and practices. A multi-award winning creative director with international broadcast and brand content expertise, Amster has been responsible for teams winning over 50 Promax awards during spells in-house at Flextech (Virgin Media), Disney and NBC/Universal.  Most recently he led Brand Content at Bray Leino.

LONDON—CitySavvy, an international financial and corporate communications firm, has merged with Parex PR, a specialist asset management PR and media relations firm run by Henrietta Hirst. The combined firms will deliver a full service communications capability to financial institutions, asset management sector businesses and stock market listed companies. Hirst will become a director, a member of the executive board and an equity owner of CitySavvy.

JOHANNESBURG—International advertising agency Grey is re-entering South Africa following an agreement to acquire a majority stake in The Volcano Group, one of the nation’s leading independent advertising and communications groups. The Volcano Group—which includes Volcano Advertising, Volcano PR & Social, Volcano Design, Volcano Insights and Volcano Digital, will rebrand as Grey Africa.

MUNICH—Bianca Eichner has been named to lead the healthcare practice at Waggener Edstrom Communications in Germany. She joins from Weber Shandwick, where she was national head of healthcare, and in her new role will be tasked with expanding the Healthcare portfolio of the Munich office while collaborating with teams in the UK, US and APAC. Eichner started her career at Medical Marketing Consulting and gained additional experience at Medizin & Markt, 3k Kommunikation and SanCom Creative Communication Solutions.

LONDON—Indesit Company, which owns leading appliance brands Hotpoint and Indesit, has retained Shine Communications following a three-way pitch.  The brief covers consumer, trade and corporate public relations for both brands.

DUBLIN—Energy business EirGrid has appointed Rosemary Steen as director public affairs. Reporting to the chief executive, Steen will lead a new public affairs directorate responsible for the formulation and direction of the organisation’s communications strategy with respect to all external stakeholders. She had previously worked with Vodafone Ireland and Shell Ireland in senior communications roles.

WIESBADEN—Fink & Fuchs Public Relations is expanding its employer branding capabilities in the direction of Andreas Scheuermann as a senior consultant responsible for integrated employer communication. Scheuermann was previously the external press spokesman for the personnel consulting firm Mercuri Urval and a self-employed communications consultant in the area of B2B services.

EAST LANCASHIRE—Shop-floor manufacturing management software expert Forcam has appointed Ainsworth Maguire to help them introduce UK manufacturers to the “4th industrial revolution” driving productivity in European and USA factories.

LONDON—Crispin Oyen-Williams has joined Keene Communications as a senior advisor. His previous role was head of policy and external affairs at the Association for Consultancy & Engineering. Oyen-Williams is also founder and director of a new not for profit business think-and-do-tank called Business innovate.