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W2O acquires entertainment and influencer marketing agency starpower. With offices in New York and Los Angeles, Starpower creates partnerships backed by data-driven social strategies for brands across health and wellness, consumer, lifestyle, entertainment and sport. It has worked with talent such as Serena Williams, Howie Mandel and Chrissy Teigen, along with networks of micro-influencers for targeted social campaigns. The Starpower team will operate under W2O’s single, integrated profit and loss operation. Matthew Lalin and Jared Weiss, who founded Starpower in 2007, will continue to lead the agency. “We’ve partnered with W2O since Starpower’s inception and have always shared similar philosophies about maintaining an entrepreneurial spirit, the power of data, and a passion for powerful human storytelling,” said Lalin. “Given the extraordinary growth in branded entertainment and influencer marketing, it’s a natural time for us to join forces.”
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The Belfort Group launches BG Data Hub, a platform that utilizes real-time marketing and communications data to optimize clients’ businesses. The BG Data Hub’s capabilities include benchmarking campaign performance, using analytics capabilities to uncover trends, sharing insights through customizable dashboards and leveraging real-time data to counsel clients on key business decisions. It will be used across the Belfort Group’s core areas, including higher education, where it will help secure student enrollments at undergrad, graduate and executive education levels; professional services, where it will be employed to help B2B clients improve their sales pipeline and assist non-profit clients in optimizing fundraising campaigns; and public affairs, where it will show how clients can move the sentiment of decision-makers on proposed real-estate, public infrastructure or related municipality projects.
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| Mark Jones |
Former US Olympic and Paralympic Committee VP for communications Mark Jones unveils Agado Communications, a consulting firm that will primarily serve professional and international sports organizations and the brands that partner with them. Agado’s offerings include media and public relations, strategic counsel, issue and crisis management, public affairs, content creation and digital and social strategy. Before joining the USOC as director, communications in 2010, Jones was a senior account supervisor at Hill + Knowlton. He began his career in Washington as a senior aide and foreign policy advisor in U.S. Senate. The National Women’s Soccer League and Major League Lacrosse, both based in the United States, are among the agency’s initial clients.
4media group completes its acquisition of Family Features Editorial Syndicate... Illumination PR, which represents lifestyle brands, influencers and celebrities, launches DR Media Group... EAG Advertising and Marketing acquires pay-for-performance firm INK inc. Public Relations. 
LLYC launches Signs of Pride, a campaign that revives the original protest banners of the first Pride marches... The Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry forms the Public Relations and Digital Marketing Working Group... Circle of One Marketing, a Miami-based, minority-owned marketing agency, is named official agency of record for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Miami. 
Vogel Group, a DC-headquartered government affairs and consulting firm, forms a strategic partnership with Montreal-based public affairs firm Boléro Stratégies... Matter Communications launches project-based offerings for B2C companies looking to increase brand awareness and visibility... Tucker/Hall, a Tampa-based PR and public affairs firm, opens a new office in Orlando. 
Why investing in public relations is ultimately about building bridges in a connected world.
Edelman is laying off 330 people (5.3 percent of its workforce) to cope with an anticipated eight percent shortfall in 2024 US revenues, and client demand for one-stop shopping for speciality services.
