Good luck with the hunt though and whoever you choose should be proud to work under you.
Its one of those once in a lifetime opportunitys for someone.

Thankfully not me

Pancentric are a marketing agency based in South London. I would call them small players in the search space but others may disagree. I am suprised that any effective search marketing company would use such actions for a client without fully explaining risks to their client.

For me it isn’t a question of morals, although spamming someone elses’ blog is arguably immoral and “graffiti like” but it is a question of honesty and professionalism with your client.

If we undertake A, it may have this uplift in business but it comes with these risks.
If we undertake B, it may have a lower uplift in business but it comes with reduced risks
If we undertake C, it may have tremendous uplift in business but comes with huge risks.

Is how the discussions with their client should have gone but seems as if they didn’t. Even if they did have those discussions the results are effectively the complete opposite of that which they were aiming for. NO rise in rankings and no good will created from the actions – the opposite in fact after the Guardian article!

Who are Pancentric, are they big players in their field?

Were you surprised that they were engaging in such link building methods?