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Ashley Madison hunts for PR agency ahead of Singapore launch

Ashley MadisonA controversial dating site for married people is looking for a PR agency to support its launch in Singapore, Mumbrella can reveal.

Ashley Madison, which goes by the slogan ‘Life is short. Have an affair’, is looking for an agency to generate press coverage for the visit of company CEO Noel Biderman to Singapore, and drive ongoing media exposure for the brand.

In an email to agencies from Ashley Madison’s owner Avid Life Media, Nora Abtan, director of international operations, has said she wants to hire a PR agency that “does not shy away from highly controversial issues.”

The email, which was shared with Mumbrella, reads:

We are currently looking for a strong local PR agency to support the launch of AshleyMadison.com in Singapore.

Ashley Madison is the original social network for married men and women looking to have a discreet affair and has recently experienced enormous interest from both media and consumers from Singapore which is the reason we are looking to accelerate our official launch here.

AshleyMadison.com was launched in North America in 2002 has today over 21 million members worldwide.

We since launched in 30 more countries in North America, Oceania, Europe, Asia and South America and were very successful in getting all the major media to cover our country launches (Shukan Post, AERA, BILD, El Pais, BBC, CNN, Reuters, The Telegraph, La Republicca, Veja, Abril, GQ, Playboy, Cosmopolitan and many more).

In the United States we continue to have media interest daily even though we’ve been operating for many years.

Our CEO and founder, Noel Biderman has appeared on Larry King Live, Sean Hannity, Good Morning America, Tyra, Nightline, The Today Show, Dr. Phil and The View and is known world wide as the foremost expert on infidelity and is often nicknamed the “King of Infidelity” or “The most hated man on the internet”.

We’ve also been covered in all mainstream print including Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today and most recently the cover of Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

The reason that the press is so interested in talking with us is that we’re able to provide unique data, statistics and surveys on infidelity and insights into why people cheat.

See our reel that showcases some of our other media appearances:

Specifically for the launch in Singapore we are looking for:

-our CEO Noel Biderman will be visiting Singapore for the launch and we need our PR firm to use his presence to organize a media tour filled with one-on-one interviews from all the major print, online and TV outlets

– a strong local PR-Agency that is very well connected and does not shy away from highly controversial issues and can realize this media tour on a tight timeline.

For ongoing support after the launch we are looking for:

– in the US and Canada Noel Biderman is a known and recognized expert on infidelity: we want to achieve the same for Singapore

– for the rest of the year, when our CEO is not physically present, we need our PR-Agency to work closely with our Toronto headquarter to keep AshleyMadison.com in the media.

– for this we would have weekly calls in which we discuss the next pitch/release idea, review interesting data on infidelity and plan sponsorship offers or provocative billboard campaigns.

– lastly we need our agency to be our eyes and ears and help us participate in any relevant media discussions (e.g. scandals).

Please let me know if you are interested in this great opportunity to provide local PR support for Ashley Madison in Singapore and we can schedule a time for a phone conference.

I’m looking forward to your feedback!

Picture 3Ashley Madison has prompted a backlash from some quarters in Singapore ahead of its launch, with a minister and a social media group saying the site is not welcome in the country.

The angry response from Singapore has prompted international press coverage too, with Australian news site news.com.au covering the social media campaign.

Ashley Madison launched in Hong Kong a few months ago, prompting a backlash from religious groups. Agencies were split as to whether they would work with the client.

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