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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.”
Mark Allen & Co. acquires Alban Communications, establishing its first Miami office... Buchalter, a business law firm, launches a crisis management and strategic response group... 5W PR expands its beauty practice to include TikTok Shop-aligned PR campaigns and creator amplification strategies.
Caster Communications is acquired by long-time agency leaders Alexandra Crabb and Peter Girard... DiGennaro Communications launches The Authority Studio, a freestanding content strategy and production offering... The Brandman Agency, which specializes in luxury travel and lifestyle, rebrands as Brandman.
Public Inc., a social impact agency based in Toronto and New York, acquires Rocket Social Impact, an advisory firm that works with nonprofit and corporate social impact organizations... Ruder Finn launches “What’s Next: The Ruder Finn Podcast,” a new platform hosted by CEO Kathy Bloomgarden... Crowe PR joins United Partners Network, a network of independent PR agencies with members across more than 65 markets worldwide.
Ruder Finn launches rf.Voices, an integrated influence offering that brings together AI-powered influencer marketing, customer advocacy and paid amplification under one measurable framework... The Pollack Group is accepting applications through March 31 for The Big Red Grant, a $40,000 pro bono strategic PR and marketing engagement program awarded to a nonprofit organization ready for growth... D S Simon Media releases a report that says almost seven in ten producers (68 percent) are more interested in airing a story when they know it has been optimized for AI.
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.
