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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.”
energi PR, an independent shop based in Montréal and Toronto, marks its 35th anniversary. It is the Canadian affiliate of DC-headquartered GHMC (Global Health Marketing & Communications)... Barabino & Partners and Community, which are part of Italy’s Excellera Advisory Group, snag top positions in the MergerLinks rankings in the PR Consultants in EMEA category... Honeyjar, an “AI co-pilot” that will leverage brand context, goals and campaign history into a collaborative workspace providing communications & PR pros with assistance across the end-to-end execution of communications, announces a $2M pre-seed fundraise and the launch of its Early Access waitlist.
The Communications Group, a Little Rock-based shop releases its first Public Affairs Marketing Trends Report... The Worldcom Public Relations Group votes Paris-based firm SEITOSEI•ACTIFIN into its global partnership... PRNEWS, a European PR-tech firm, relocates its U.S. headquarters to downtown Miami.
af&co., a San Francisco-based hospitality marketing and PR agency founded by Andrew Freeman, is marking its 20th anniversary... Notified launches Syndicated Articles... Crosby Marketing Communications selects four students from Anne Arundel Community College for its marketing scholars program.
KCSA Strategic Communications launches the KCSA AI Lab, which will develop proprietary AI systems to expand what strategic communications can achieve for PR and IR clients... Clipbook, a vertical AI platform for strategic communications and public affairs, closes a $3.3 million seed round co-led by Mark Cuban, Commonweal Ventures and Carpenter Capital... VizSense, a Boston-based AI influencer marketing agency, teams up with holographic storytelling company Geminai, to launch what they say is the next frontier in brand experiences: interactive holograms powered by AI.
Ways Marketing Solutions, a Saudi Arabia-based marketing and communications group, teams with H&K alum James Drewer and Cake founder Mike Mathieson, to launch Ways Global Communications with HQs in London and Riyadh... UNICEPTA, a media intelligence provider within Stagwell’s The Marketing Cloud, launches an integration with Microsoft 365 Copilot... MAD Global CEO Mike DuHaime has been named to New Jersey Governor-Elect Mikie Sherrill’s transition team.
