City AM appoints Aloha to push ‘personality’ position

City AM, the London business freesheet, has appointed its first advertising agency to strengthen its “business with personality” positioning. London-based agency Aloha was handed the business without a pitch.

The agency has been briefed to increase awareness of the City AM brand and support plans to roll out the paper to other UK cities, including Manchester, Leeds, Bristol and Edinburgh, next year.

It is also developing a communications strategy that will highlight the difference between City AM and its national newspaper rivals.

Aloha will also work alongside City AM’s PR agency Propeller Communications to support the “business with personality” positioning. City AM managing director Lawson Muncaster says he chose Aloha because the agency understands City AM’s need to “engage the readers through non-conventional methods”.

City AM, which is distributed by hand across the City and Canary Wharf from 6am every weekday, is keen to develop the brand beyond the morning newspaper. It has already launched a City PM podcast, which is available for readers to download from 5pm every day, and the City PM mobizine, which delivers news direct to mobile phones at 6pm (MW October 5).

Aloha’s appointment will not affect the newspaper’s relationship with BLM, which has handled media planning and buying for City AM since its launch.

The agency, which launched two years ago, also works with Cancer Research and the International Fund for Animal Welfare.