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| Ollie Burgoyne, Duncan McCaslin |
Stagwell acquires Sidekick, a group of specialist agencies focused on experiential, digital storytelling and branded content. Sidekick will join Allison, the global marketing and communications consultancy within Stagwell. Sidekick co-founders Duncan McCaslin and Ollie Burgoyne will remain as managing directors of their respective teams and both will join Allison’s European management team. Directors William Howe and Stephen Bradley will also move across in their current roles. No other staffing changes are planned. The addition of Sidekick will further expand Allison’s footprint, supplementing its existing core competencies of strategic communications, influencer marketing, digital, performance marketing and data analytics. “Having seen our collective teams work successfully together over the last year or so, we knew that joining with Allison and Stagwell was the logical next step,” said McCaslin. Sidekick is Stagwell’s second acquisition of the year, following the purchase of Team Epiphany, a culturalist creative agency connecting brands to multicultural consumers, in January.
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Watermark Strategies, a corporate affairs consulting firm designed to deploy the latest data and technology in support of comprehensive stakeholder advisory and engagement services, is founded by industry veterans Zack Condry and Erik Hotmire. Condry founded corporate digital firm Echo and is a veteran of digital campaigns at Brunswick Group and Edelman. Hotmire has counseled senior executives and boards on business-critical issues for the past 13 years as a partner at Brunswick Group, senior managing director at Teneo, and partner at FGS Global. Watermark's service offerings include corporate positioning, special situations, digital advisory and execution, and research and insights. “Using predictive analytics, we guide our clients’ communications and public affairs efforts with precision, equipping them to productively engage a diverse set of stakeholders,” said Condry.
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Markets EQ, which fuses voice tones with language in a generative AI platform for corporate communications, launches an AI-generated scorecard based entirely on voice analysis. EQ MarketScore has the ability to discern 58 unique emotions, scoring speakers on tone, confidence, clarity, and the intricacy of their messages. Among the features included are bottom line up front (a brief summary of the conversation); emotional sentiment (a description of the overall tone of the speaker and message) and clarity rank: (a measure of how difficult it was to follow the conversation). "With Markets EQ's new scorecard feature, we're turning the art of communication into a science, cutting time substantially and providing a reliable output to train and improve your spokespeople,” said Markets EQ CEO Sean Austin.
Mod Op, a digital marketing agency, acquires brand strategy, package design & integrated marketing agency LAM Design... Warren Green & Associates is adding public relations to its services by partnering with Trip Whisperer Agency... The Pollack Group awards its Noemi Pollack Scholarship for the 2024-2025 school year to Sophie Schaked, a rising sophomore at The USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
The Bliss Group opens a London office to serve professional services, financial services, healthcare, tech and impact clients with a European presence... Granite Creek Capital Partners in partnership with Boathouse Capital, makes an investment in The District Communications Group... Treble forms an artificial intelligence practice group, which will be led out of the agency’s San Francisco office by VP Will Kruisbrink.
CG Life brand The Market Element is relaunched as Element CG... Gateway Group, a financial communications and digital media advisory firm, is bringing back its annual Gateway Conference... Firebrand launches what it says is an industry first: an integrated Account-Based Marketing and PR service.
RVD Communications, a New York-based PR, influencer marketing and brand building agency, is acquired by Band of Insiders... An NCSolutions consumer sentiment survey finds that 55 percent of respondents would be more likely to try a product if it’s marketed as being aligned with a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle... IPG Mediabrands launches its Climate Action Accelerator Program.
If your firm took part in O’Dwyer’s 2024 Rankings, there’s still time for it to appear in the profile section of our big May Rankings Issue.
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