Tales & Heads Partners With Crisis Specialist REKT Partners

(MENAFN- PRovoke) DUBAI - Tales & Heads, the UAE-headquartered communications agency specialising in strategic consultancy and creative storytelling, has formalised its collaboration with
REKT Partners, the UK-based reputation, risk and crisis communications consultancy.

With the launch of
Tales & Heads Reputation, the agency will now offer services to clients across crisis and issues preparedness, crisis simulations, and reputation and recovery strategies. The partnership also extends both agencies' international reach, with REKT's presence in London and Tales & Heads covering the MENA region.

REKT Partners was founded by crisis and reputation specialist George Godsal, who has been advising business and government clients around the world for more than 25 years, including experience in the Middle East across financial and professional services, hospitality and tourism manufacturing and retail clients.

Godsal (pictured, right) will work alongside Tales & Heads' founders Lisa King (centre) and Margaret Flanagan (left), who have themselves worked on crisis handling for regional and global businesses and governments, including terrorist attacks, natural and environmental disasters, product recalls, litigation, fake news and social media scandals.

Flanagan told PRovoke Media:“Lisa worked with George at Hill & Knowlton in London and I worked with him at Burson-Marsteller when he was head of crisis for EMEA and I was handling the Middle East, so we've known and respected him for a long time. No-one is better at handling a crisis – he has a super-cool head and sage advice.

“We've been working together on a project for the past 18 months on a project – we have a good working relationship as two independents and thought it was time to formalise that. We have complementary skillsets and markets, and there is a lot of trust. We all have crisis experience, including Lisa in-house at Tui, and we now have George's specialist focus, tools and technology.”

Godsal added:“Tales & Heads has been one of the most successful agencies to launch in the MENA region in recent years, and the co-launch of Tales & Heads Reputation is a natural evolution of our close working relationship. Specialist crisis communications and risk advisory complements the Tales & Heads offer perfectly, and we look forward to lending our support to provide counsel to our shared clients both within and beyond Tales & Head's UAE base.”

In terms of the evolving crisis and reputation management needs of clients in the Middle East, Flanagan said:“As with any region that maturing, there's an extra level of preparedness coming in now, and clients are looking for an extra level of sophistication in their crisis preparedness. It's not just about live crisis handling, but about making sure processes up to speed and teams are fully trained.

“From a technology perspective, there's a lot more risk now in terms of cybersecurity, data breaches and leaks that everyone is facing globally, and clients here share those risks. And it's no secret that while there is huge stability in the Gulf, there are inherent political and conflict situations in the wider region.”

Flanagan and King set up Tales & Heads in 2021 and now have a full-time team of 20 with around 15 long-term partners across areas such as content production, video, design, strategy and planning. The agency's clients include Jameirah hotel group, Merck Gulk, various government departments, and automotive giant Stellantis , with which it works across nine brands in nine markets.

Of the agency's goals, Flanagan said:“Tales & Heads Reputation shows our focus on broadening our services and deepening our relationships with clients. We're also looking at how to expand our offering internationally and are very open to what happens next. We had significant growth in 2024, 2025 and we're very optimistic about where the market is heading.”

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