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LLYC acquires 75 percent of Mexican creative data-predictive agency BESO for $8.4M, a price subject to change based on the agency’s results from 2021 to 2024. The acquisition triples LLYC’s size in Mexico, making it the market leader. It also strengthens LLYC’s Deep Digital Business unit. BESO founding partners Jose Beker and Federico Isuani will continue to hold a stake in and lead the company’s business, as well as joining LLYC’s global DDB team, led by LLYC partner and chief strategy & innovation officer Adolfo Corujo. Corujo said that BESO’s “experience in data-predictive creativity and ability to work through Digital Command Centers, which are deployed for leading brands, both complement our proposal to accompany our clients in their digital journeys.”
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Weber Shandwick launches its Media Security Center, which will leverage AI-driven technology to help organizations build resiliency around information threats. The center builds on the agency’s crisis & issues work, with a particular focus on better anticipating, managing and mitigating risk from information/media intended to do harm. An exclusive partnership with threat detection platform Blackbird.AI. the center will offer solutions to the problems posed by information threats, as well as immersive education and training sessions to help executives and marketing and communications teams become well-versed in how information and misinformation spreads. “As malicious content becomes more pervasive and more sophisticated, it presents an increasingly material reputational and commercial threat,” said Weber Shandwick CEO Gail Heimann. “The Weber Shandwick Media Security Center team works to understand the influence of questionable content on the attitudes and behaviors of customers, employees and other stakeholders.”
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Private equity firm Trinity Hunt Partners forms a partnership with Exclusive Concepts, a digital marketing and advertising services agency based in Burlington, MA. Founded in 1997, Exclusive Concepts works with eCommerce-focused clients. Exclusive president Scott Smigler will remain a significant shareholder in the firm. Through its partnership with Exclusive, Trinity Hunt intends to acquire complementary businesses across the United States in what it says is a bid to create the market leader in the digital marketing industry. “Exclusive’s commitment to thought leadership in eCommerce digital marketing is a true differentiator,” said Trinity Hung principal George Morgan. “We are excited to partner with Scott and the entire Exclusive team to execute our thesis in the digital marketing and digital media services industry.”
Brunner, a Pittsburgh-based integrated marketing agency, acquires AdSkate, an AI-powered creative analytics and marketing intelligence platform that helps brands and agencies optimize advertising performance... Augustine Agency launches Flavor Theory, a foodservice marketing practice aimed at helping restaurants, food manufacturers, distributors and institutional dining organizations grow their brands and businesses... The Acceleration Community of Companies releases a report finding that almost half (49 percent) of Gen Z sports fans say they have become interested in a new sport or athlete because of fan-created content or something entirely outside the sport. 
VPE Communications, which helps organizations authentically connect with diverse audiences, celebrates 38 years in business and announces a new ownership structure... Praytell expands into the Asian market with the opening of a new office in Singapore... The International Public Relations Network unveils a new visual identity and redesigned website. 
SourceCode Communications launches SourceCode Germany, establishing the agency's first office in continental Europe... Clario Group acquires Ted Miller Group, a Miami-founded agency focused on clients in the technology, travel & leisure and financial services sectors... Global Situation Room’s Global Risk Advisory Council is hosting a July 23 webinar that will go over the results of its new Reputation Risk Index.
Havas acquires MUT, a Barcelona-based firm focused on experiential marketing and sustainable events... IPREX lauches its AI Task Force...D S Simon Media, one of the first companies to produce a satellite media tour, celebrates its 40th anniversary... Washington Women in Public Relations is sponsoring an event that shows communications pros who work with associations how they can get their messages across clearly, credibly and courageously. “How Associations Lead with Strategic Storytelling,” at 6 p.m. on July 16.
TEAM LEWIS starts up its AI Practice... Thunderly launches a year-long storytelling campaign focused on how franchising can provide a pathway to business ownership... JIN, a European communications consulting group, introduces "AI Campaigning", a corporate offering designed to model and anticipate stakeholder behavior.
