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Highwire launches Highwire Health, a unified healthcare marketing and communications practice focused on helping organizations navigate complex stakeholder environments and high-stakes decision cycles. The new practice, which follows Highwire’s acquisition of The Bliss Group and Bliss Bio Health, brings together Highwire’s healthcare expertise under a single operating model. It will combine three focus areas—Life Sciences, Health Technology and Digital Innovation, and the Business of Health—into one integrated team. Highwire Health’s work spans corporate narrative and positioning, launches and adoption, corporate reputation, clinical trial recruitment, evidence communications, brand building and revitalization, ecosystem mobilization, reputation and issues readiness, and executive visibility. "Our leaders have held senior roles inside the world's most complex healthcare organizations—they know what it means to sit across the table from payors, regulators, health system boards, CEOs, CMOs and Chief Scientific Officers,” said Highwire Health executive chair Michael Roth. “That dual fluency—operator and strategist—is our unfair advantage, and it's what makes Highwire Health different."
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Red Fan Communications, an Austin, TX firm focused on strategic B2B communications, announces the launch of its Brand Authority Index—a diagnostic tool that quantifies how companies show up in AI-powered search. The index evaluates seven weighted factors—earned media and market presence, recognition and industry visibility, review platform health, entity coherence, content authority, social and community authority, and technical readiness—to reveal where companies fall short and where they excel in AI-driven discovery. It is intended to address a critical gap for B2B companies: understanding whether AI tools recommend their brand or their competitors when buyers ask for vendor suggestions. "The Brand Authority Index provides full transparency into the signals that influence AI recommendations, so companies can make strategic decisions about where to invest in their authority-building," said Red Fan Communications CEO and founder Kathleen Lucente. The launch comes as Red Fan signs on or expands relationships with clients including healthcare system Ascension Texas, banking provider Kinective, Texicare and ESO Solutions, as well as supporting Austin’s ABC Kite Fest for the eighth consecutive year.
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Dreamday introduces its influencer division, which formalizes a core capability within the agency’s integrated Performance PR model. The influencer division will work with brands on earned influencer and product seeding; paid influencer campaigns (which includes paid partnerships with influencers and creators across platforms including Instagram, TikTok, Substack and YouTube); and talent and celebrity management. The division will be led by Madeline Reid, who joins the agency from Nike as AVP of digital, alongside recently named SVP of growth Veronica Gauthier. "Influencer done well is hard. It takes taste, relationships and discipline to tie it back to real results. Madeline has all three, and we're so glad she's here," said Dreamday founder & CEO Lauren Kleinman.
Brunner, a Pittsburgh-based integrated marketing agency, acquires AdSkate, an AI-powered creative analytics and marketing intelligence platform that helps brands and agencies optimize advertising performance... Augustine Agency launches Flavor Theory, a foodservice marketing practice aimed at helping restaurants, food manufacturers, distributors and institutional dining organizations grow their brands and businesses... The Acceleration Community of Companies releases a report finding that almost half (49 percent) of Gen Z sports fans say they have become interested in a new sport or athlete because of fan-created content or something entirely outside the sport. 
VPE Communications, which helps organizations authentically connect with diverse audiences, celebrates 38 years in business and announces a new ownership structure... Praytell expands into the Asian market with the opening of a new office in Singapore... The International Public Relations Network unveils a new visual identity and redesigned website. 
SourceCode Communications launches SourceCode Germany, establishing the agency's first office in continental Europe... Clario Group acquires Ted Miller Group, a Miami-founded agency focused on clients in the technology, travel & leisure and financial services sectors... Global Situation Room’s Global Risk Advisory Council is hosting a July 23 webinar that will go over the results of its new Reputation Risk Index.
Havas acquires MUT, a Barcelona-based firm focused on experiential marketing and sustainable events... IPREX lauches its AI Task Force...D S Simon Media, one of the first companies to produce a satellite media tour, celebrates its 40th anniversary... Washington Women in Public Relations is sponsoring an event that shows communications pros who work with associations how they can get their messages across clearly, credibly and courageously. “How Associations Lead with Strategic Storytelling,” at 6 p.m. on July 16.
TEAM LEWIS starts up its AI Practice... Thunderly launches a year-long storytelling campaign focused on how franchising can provide a pathway to business ownership... JIN, a European communications consulting group, introduces "AI Campaigning", a corporate offering designed to model and anticipate stakeholder behavior.
