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KRG Advisors is launched by former Weber Shandwick president of corporate advisory Chris Deri. Deri, who has also held senior posts at Teneo, Burson and Edelman, will be leading a team of sixteen senior client advisors. KRG’s advisors are experienced in such verticals as in-house communications & public affairs, Big 4 management consulting, career foreign service, military intelligence, political campaign management, technology product development and ESG. The team’s offerings (executive positioning, communications & public affairs, and geopolitical risk & intelligence) will leverage human-led AI models to provide scenario planning for clients. With no junior handoffs, the firm says that it will give all clients access to seasoned practitioners, resulting in faster turnarounds, greater ROI and no bureaucracy.
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Sprout Social, a cloud-based social media management software company, acquires NewsWhip, which provides AI-powered, predictive media intelligence. The NewsWhip team will join Sprout Social, with NewsWhip co-founder and CEO Paul Quigley taking the role of general manager for Sprout’s Listening business, overseeing both NewsWhip and Sprout’s Listening products. The acquisition is focused on expanding Sprout Social’s footprint in the predictive intelligence market and creating a solution that empowers brands and publishers to navigate the digital media landscape with foresight and agility. NewsWhip’s real-time monitoring and AI agents uncover tens of millions of stories and over half a billion engagement signals daily, empowering top brands and publishers to identify stories gaining momentum before they hit peak virality. “This acquisition accelerates our vision of delivering an agentic, AI-powered platform that seamlessly connects media foresight with social strategy to drive transformative outcomes for our customers,” said Sprout Social CEO Ryan Barretto.
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Fire on the Hill, which has offices in London and New York, launches a generative engine optimization service focused on helping brands shape how they appear in the responses provided by Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overview. The GEO service is part of Fusion, Fire on the Hill’s digital arm, which already specializes in AI and SEO solutions. The service includes discovery and communications mapping across key AI platforms, strategic content development and placement across earned and owned channels, an AI Visibility Index, and continuous optimization informed by AI platform behaviors and visibility insights. GEO has subtle differences to SEO, with generative engines favoring trusted sources such as editorial coverage, analyst reports, structured databases, Wikipedia, and properly formatted owned content. “In a world guided by AI, the core discipline of clearly explaining what your brand does, how it relates to industry issues and your audiences, is even more important,” said Fire on the Hill co-founder Nick Ward.
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WordHampton Public Relations moves to a new office in East Hampton Village on Long Island. The new space is intended to give the agency greater proximity to its clients in the East End business community. WordHampton owner and president Nicole Castillo says that the move from the agency’s longtime headquarters on Three Mile Harbor Road in Springs seemed like the right next step and that being in the heart of the village gives the agency more visibility and “raises the level of professionalism” according to an article on the company in The East Hampton Star. WordHampton, which made a name for itself representing East End restaurants, created Hamptons Restaurant Week and later Long Island Restaurant Week. Its roster includes clients in the hospitality, real estate, lifestyle, and nonprofit fields across Long Island and in the New York metropolitan area.
PKPR, a New York-based boutique shop, launches a book publicity division focused on nonfiction authors... Palantir Technologies and Stagwell form a partnership to create an AI-driven platform for marketers... The Conference Board is presenting a Nov. 18-19 event at the Brooklyn Marriott that will look at the priorities, challenges and opportunities facing AI decision-makers today.
Gregory FCA is marking its 35th anniversary with a comprehensive rebrand... Madden Media, a Tucson-based agency, teams with Denver-based Karsh Hagan... Jasper, an AI content automation platform, launches Jasper Grid, an interface that allows marketing teams to create and orchestrate content across a range of channels, audiences and regions.
Sommerfield Communications, a corporate, financial, and crisis shop that was acquired by Allison Worldwide in early 2021, re-launches as an independently owned firm... D S Simon Media launches a broadcast media tour designed to enhance Generative Engine Optimization... The Public Relations Society of America’s ICON 2025 Conference brought together close to 2,100 in DC from Oct. 28-30.
CorpBridge Advisors is launched by Bob Christie (Brunswick and Alibaba Group veteran) and Russ Rubino (Nasdaq and Intercontinental Exchange/NYSE alum)... Golin marked its 30th anniversary in Miami with an Oct. 23 gathering that celebrated its new outpost in Coral Gables... The Notability Company debuted at the PRSA annual ICON Conference in Washington.
Padilla launches Padilla GEO 3D, a service that aims to improve generative AI search results for brands and organizations... Bader Rutter, a Milwaukee-based B2B marketing agency, unveils the Chef Advisory Network, an initiative designed to bring the voice of the kitchen into food company boardrooms... Dilenschneider Group founder and principal Robert Dilenschneider’s new book, Respect: How to Change the World One Interaction at a Time, was released on Oct. 28 by Wiley... Blue Highway Advisory and Blue Highway Global, founded by former Mercury Public Affairs managing director Ian McCaleb in 2022, rebrands.
