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| Hemali Bhutani |
GCI Health expands into Japan and India, complementing the agency’s current Asia-Pacific presence in Singapore and Hong Kong. GCI’s Japan offering is being led by Chitose Yamada, who serves as managing director, GCI Japan. She was most recently executive vice president, client experience, healthcare at Weber Shandwick. The agency’s expansion into India is being done via Genesis BCW’s pharma, health & wellness practice, which will become GCI Health India. Current Genesis BCW senior director Hemali Bhutani will be managing director of the unit, with Genesis BCW director serving as deputy managing director. “Japan and India are critical healthcare markets which we look forward to fully servicing via our footprint expansion,” said GCI Health Asia-Pacific regional marketing director Rikki Jones.
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Brodeur Partners CEO Andrea Coville writes "Creating Relevance in a Time of Uncertainty," which uses new quantitative data, as well as practical cases from Brodeur clients, to shed light on the attitudes and behaviors that are taking shape to solve the nation’s pressing problems. Written with New York Times contributor Paul B. Brown, the book includes seven in-depth case studies of organizations from the business, education and nonprofit worlds that have created, enhanced and sustained their relevance. It looks at customer mindsets, clusters of relevance, multicultural tribes, Gen Z perspectives and social media’s influence, as well as examining business leaders’ confidence in the Biden presidency. Among its findings: customers and employees long for business leadership to demonstrate a higher purpose, and almost three-quarters of respondents (74 percent) think that “every person’s views should be respected.” To pre-order the book, click here.
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R&CPMK has acquired brand experience and sponsorship agency Advantage. As part of the expansion, Advantage’s creative, production, experiential, sponsorship consulting and event marketing divisions will operate under the R&CPMK name as part of the agency’s portfolio. The move will also bring together R&CPMK’s existing creative services division with Advantage’s Creative Studio, providing the ability to offer clients a wider range of enhanced programs and tools. Executive creative director and senior vice president Jaime Cabrera will oversee R&CPMK’s new Creative Studio, which will include integrated global creative strategy and campaign development, social content and immersive new media concepts, experiential event design and logo development. Victoria Greene, executive vice president, brand growth and experiential, will lead the agency’s brand experience team, which will focus on sponsorship consulting and experiential marketing.
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. 
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