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| Chuck Surack |
North 6th Agency has been named PR firm for Sweetwater, an online retailer of music instruments and pro-audio gear based in Fort Wayne, IN. N6A will work to raise the profile of Sweetwater's brand as well as support its corporate initiatives, events and philanthropic activities across national, local, trade and digital media outlets. In addition, the agency will donate all funds raised in its May #Pitching4Purpose initiative to Sweetwater's philanthropic efforts, which support local Fort Wayne charities and organizations. Sweetwater CEO Chuck Surack founded the company in 1979 after he struggled to find new and better gear to record bands out of a 4-track recording studio in the back of his Volkswagen bus.
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V2 Communications has added artificial-intelligence companies ReadSpeaker and Clinc to its client roster. For ReadSpeaker, which provides natural-sounding synthesized voices, V2 will work to highlight the company’s position as an independent digital voice partner in a field dominated by such tech giants as Apple, Google and Amazon. The agency will work with Clinc to strengthen its brand recognition and validate its platform among key verticals, specifically the banking industry. Clinc creates conversational experiences for digital brands by employing what it calls “human in the room” AI, which understands messy and unscripted language, allows for corrections and backtracking and enables complex conversational flows.
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Vladimir Jones is working with Tourism Santa Fe on a project to keep prospective visitors to the city engaged during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Make Your Own Margarita Trail is an online version of The Margarita Trail, a popular Santa Fe activity. The project is working with area restaurants and bartenders to collect recipes and produce how-to videos. Those materials will then be incorporated into an ongoing Instagram story to align with the refresh of the Uncover Your Different brand that Tourism Santa Fe put into place last September. Vladmir Jones is Tourism Santa Fe’s agency of record. Santa Fe attracts an average of two million overnight visitors annually, generating more than $6 billion in economic impact every year.
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L-R: RoadRunner VP Engineering Cason Male, VP Sales Shane Kilcoyne, and founder and CEO Graham Rihn |
Matter Communications has been appointed agency of record for RoadRunner Recycling, a Pittsburgh-based startup providing custom recycling and waste solutions. Matter will lead a PR program, including media relations, events and awards, to increase awareness of the RoadRunner brand and its services. The company will also work with Matter’s creative team to produce a series of recruitment and customer testimonial videos. Using artificial intelligence technology, RoadRunner connects businesses with recycling and waste disposal needs to other businesses that have underutilized truck fleets, which pick up and deliver the recycling to processing centers.
Precision Strategies, an integrated strategy and marketing agency with offices in Washington and New York, acquires Firehouse Strategies, a DC-based public affairs firm... AVENIR GLOBAL acquires London-based Thinks Insight & Strategy... Good Company, which bills itself as a “cultural engineering firm,” is launched by DJ Hardy, a veteran of Johannesburg-based communications consultancy arxna and M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment and Casey Stickles, who has worked at 5WPR, Rubenstein and MWW.
PSC (Princeton Strategic Communications) acquires Nonprofit Partners... CG Life launches 24/364, a cultural brand platform intended to drive awareness, connection and action aimed at keeping rare disease at the forefront of the health and social conversation... Interluxe Group, which focuses on brand experiences and in-person activations; Quinn, a strategic communications agency; and media and digital agency North & Warren are uniting under the Interluxe Group banner.
KITH, which provides corporate reputation and crisis preparation services, is now owned by CEO Stephanie Craig, who has been with the firm since 2021... The Marketing Cloud, a part of Stagwell, introduces several expansions to Agent Cloud, the platform it launched in October 2025 to simplify access to its AI tools and marketing assistants.... Notified launches its AI Press Release Optimizer.
V2 Communications launches its AI Visibility Solution and Earned Media at Scale, two service offerings designed to help companies increase visibility and credibility in generative search... The Public Relations Global Network brings on Greenough Communications as its Boston member agency... DBC is relaunching The DBC Industry Calendar as a free site to help communicators more easily discover relevant events and awards in the cluttered event landscape driven by the growth of webinars and online events. 
PAN releases new original research showing that a significant share of B2B citations surfaced by ChatGPT are inaccurate, misattributed or entirely fabricated, introducing a new credibility risk for brands... REQ, which has offices in DC and San Diego, opens in Phoenix... Notified introduces Market Intelligence, an addition to its all-in-one IR Hub, which gives IR teams a more streamlined way to prepare for earnings calls.
