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The IGB Group, an investor relations, capital markets and strategic communications advisory firm, starts up a digital communications practice. The new practice will focus on connecting clients with their audiences through the implementation of digital, social media and design services. It will be led by Matt Berkowitz, who has been promoted to senior director of investor relations and head of digital communications. Berkowitz, who joined the firm in 2013, has extensive experience leading public company investor relations and financial communications programs across a wide range of industries, including industrials, transportation, specialty finance and consumer goods. IGB has also promoted Bryan Degnan to partner and managing director, and established an advisory board, which will work closely with IGB management to identify and take advantage of growth opportunities and to promote IGB’s continued thought leadership.
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| Idris Elba |
Silly Face, a London-based marketing and content agency focused on diverse representation, is being launched by actor Idris Elba. Elba is co-founding the firm with Marc Boyan, owner of the British media group Miroma. Miroma will provide support for the new agency. Elba and Boyan had previously considered putting up a bid to acquire the British public broadcast station Channel 4, but the government decided not to sell it in January. Elba said he wants to build the company with people from diverse cultural backgrounds who could bring alternative perspectives and ideas for marketing to their clients. The launch follows a recently announced partnership between Elba and Nigerian film producer Mo Abudu intended to develop the television and movie industries across Africa and bring African stories to a broader audience.
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HUGE, Interpublic Group’s creative consultancy, deploys Huge LIVE (Living Intelligence Value Engine), part of a larger strategic plan to accelerate the adoption of AI across the organization. The agency says that Huge LIVE analyzes billions of diverse data points from numerous sources, with the goal of discovering hidden trends and insights in real-time that can help clients identify opportunities and accelerate growth. It will also be the basis of a suite of proprietary creativity applications and products that will be announced and released throughout 2023 and 2024. The first of those, the Creative Capital Index, will be a tool designed to help businesses measure and increase their organizational creativity. The CCI values all of an organization’s assets—both tangible and intangible—that enable creative problem-solving and innovation and tracks how the relative value of those assets rise and fall over time as compared to industry benchmarks.
Stagwell launches NewVoices.ai, an independent AI-powered sales agent that can book appointments, drive conversions, resolve questions and handle customer concerns... Cision acquires search intelligence platform Trajaan... The McRae Agency, a Scottsdale, AZ-firm t, celebrates its 30th anniversary.
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.
