Peppercomm

Peppercomm introduces Peppercomm SXSM (Stakeholder Experience), a service offering focused on ensuring that what brands are communicating matches the experience of their stakeholders at every touchpoint—driving consistency, loyalty and consideration. The offering blends stakeholder experience audits (online and off) with stakeholder mapping as Peppercomm’s team immerses itself in the brand and its competitors from intent to purchase/engagement. Peppercomm SX gives brands insights and tools to better align with stakeholder expectations and needs by adapting techniques proven in product design and customer service, and creating a process that allows brands to experience their products and services through the eyes of customers, consumers, clients and employees. "Our approach goes well beyond traditional mystery shopping, placing communications professionals with decades of experience on the front line of your brand, and critically assuring that your message and experience aligns on all channels and with your stakeholder's needs," said Peppercomm chief client officer Maggie O’Neill.

Evolve

EvolveMKD, a New York-based PR, communications and digital marketing agency, launches the BrandWave, a tool that reimagines the marketing funnel as a dynamic Wave, allowing marketers to better illustrate, or reimagine, the ebbs and flows of the consumer journey and the impact that marketing efforts have across that journey. The new tool is based on a proprietary study analyzing common marketing funnel metrics (awareness, interest, consideration, and loyalty) of over 50 brands with varying legacies, consumer perceptions and other considerations across more than 20 industries. “The movements displayed in custom BrandWaves prove that consumer and marketing journeys do not live in a descending funnel, but rather a dynamic space where needs, interests, and decisions shift daily and marketers need the insights to best shift with them,” said EvolveMKD founder and CEO Megan Driscoll.

Merrick

Merrick Creative, a brand management and technology consultancy, adds public relations services to its offerings. As part of the expansion, Merrick Creative has established a designated public relations team led by Jackie Hampton, who most recently served as a director at kglobal, and has nearly two decades of local, regional and national broadcast experience. Hampton, alongside Maeve Cronin, who was previously a strategist at kglobal, will oversee communications and media strategy for clients and executives seeking to raise their profiles, generate brand awareness and manage major crises. “Merrick Creative is in the business of creativity, and adding a public relations team to our services will help us better serve existing clients and welcome new ones to the firm,” said Merrick Creative partner and chief creative officer Thomas Frank.