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Brandon Dixon
Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

PORTLAND, Ore., Nov. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Instrument  and Hello Design, leading digital agencies within the Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW) network, will join forces in January 2023. Hello Design will add its 30+ employees to operate as a full-service client team within the 400+ employed at Instrument— retaining its current clients but with the support of Instrument’s organizational structure and resources.

Hello Design uses design, strategy and technology to connect people to brands in meaningful ways. The agency’s work for clients like Sonos, Nike, Tillamook, and MoMA has won numerous awards, including Cannes Cyber Lion, Clio, One Show Pencil, and Webby Awards. Instrument, a top-performing digital agency within the Stagwell network, delivers end-to-end brand experience services from digital product innovation to brand marketing. Hello Design will add complementary content capabilities, such as directing films and producing content for Facebook’s Analog Research Lab, Din Tai Fung, and Herman Miller.

Hello Founder and former CEO, David Lai, will assume the position of Executive Creative Director at Instrument. He will continue to oversee creative on key accounts. Szu Ann Chen will lead key client partnerships as Executive Director and George Lee will take the role of Director, Content Production, further evolving Instrument’s innovation capabilities to build systems that deliver content at scale with measurable results.

“We have always respected Instrument’s ability to not only do great work, but to do it at scale with some of the world’s leading brands. We are excited for this next evolution, and what the future may hold,” said David Lai, Founder & CEO at Hello Design.

“Instrument builds connected brand ecosystems across brand, product, and marketing, elevating and unifying each and every user experience.” said Kara Place, CEO at Instrument. “Hello’s multi-disciplinary expertise strengthens this approach. Having been fans and collaborators for over a decade, we’re confident and delighted for them to join our team.”

In addition, while Instrument continues to operate as a virtual-first agency, Hello Design adds a physical Los Angeles, CA location and presence for hybrid work for LA-based employees and clients.

Stagwell previously held a minority interest in Hello Design. This move brings Hello Design fully into the Stagwell family. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Instrument is a digital agency with offices in Portland, Oregon and Brooklyn, New York. We are a dynamic group of creative technologists and storytellers that use the power of design and technology to co-create groundbreaking work with our clients. We connect brands like never before— helping organizations reimagine the most valuable pieces of their digital ecosystem. With deep talent in the areas of Strategy, Design, Development and Content Creation, we build modern experiences for ambitious brands.

Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.

Media Contact:
Brandon Dixon
pr@stagwellglobal.com

SOURCE Stagwell Inc.

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CONTACT:

Sarah Arvizo
Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

NRG Releases Whitepaper, “The Power of Brand Fandom: 5 Things to Know Right Now”

NEW YORK, Oct. 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Research from Stagwell‘s (NASDAQ: STGW) National Research Group (NRG), a global insights leader at the intersection of technology, content, and culture, shows more people are fans of brands, products, and services in the same way they love sports and celebrities. NRG introduced its “Brand Fandom” research focus at Advertising Week, beginning a series that will unpack the journey to fandom across key categories and audiences. The research will explore the pathways for brands to successfully build and activate a fan community and understand the modern-day fan ecosystem. 

NRG’s Brand Fandom showed up in a myriad of ways this month: 

• Brand Fandom Whitepaper: In a new report, “The Power of Brand Fandom: 5 Things to Know Right Now,” research points to brand influence as being more significant than other commonly associated areas of interest: consumers are bigger fans of brands or products (57%) than of celebrities (54%), movies (52%), sports (48%) or online influencers/personalities (37%). Some other key themes from the paper include:
• Age is just a number: Brand fandom is strong across all ages, dispelling conventional assumptions that Gen Z and millennials have a fleeting sense of brand loyalty.
• Fans don’t exist in a vacuum: 54% “want everyone to know” they are a fan of a given brand or product.
• Brand fans are sold on potential, too. Over three-quarters (77%) say they will at least try different products the brand comes out with.
• MediaPost Op-Ed: In a contributed piece, Stagwell Global Chief Marketing Officer Ryan Linder and NRG EVP, Brand Strategy and Innovation Fotoulla Damaskos co-bylined an article, “Bigger Than Sports and Celebrity: The Power of Brand Fandom,” which explores what brands can expect of the consumers who they turn into fans: not just deep loyalty, but advocacy.
• Advertising Week New York: A panel at AWNY, which included NRG’s Damaskos and EVP, Head of Sports Marketing Jay Kaufman; Stagwell’s Linder; Christie’s SVP, Head of Marketing Neda Whitney; and McDonald’s Director, Communications Measurement & Insights Sarah Myles, introduced brand fandom on “Buzz and Devotion: The Fan Economy That Makes Niche Mainstream in Today’s Culture.”

“This first piece of research shows how brand fandom serves as a tool of self-expression, intricately linking brands to consumer identities. It should signal to brands that interactions with customers have to be dialogues, nurturing people’s experiences and engendering a sense of shared belonging,” said NRG EVP, Brand Strategy & Innovation Fotoulla Damaskos. “Our choices as consumers are on full display right now – we can wield power against the brands that fail us, or passionately champion those we believe in. Where these choices fall can mean the difference between having customers or having fans who bring commitment, advocacy and long-term brand growth.”

“The way I move about the world – how I approach the fast-paced work of brand marketing, to the even faster-paced world of fatherhood – I’ve done through the lens of authenticity and grit, qualities I adopted from my fandom for Harley-Davidson motorcycle culture,” said Stagwell EVP, CMO Ryan Linder. “My identity continues to be reinforced by a kaleidoscope of brands I’m personally invested in, proof that the influence of brands can manifest across so many aspects of our lives.”

Data used in this report comes from a study of 1,018 US consumers, ages 18 to 65, conducted in October 2022–representative of the national population in terms of age, gender and ethnicity.

National Research Group is a leading global insights and strategy firm at the intersection of entertainment and technology. Rooted in four decades of industry expertise, the world’s leading marketers turn to us for insights into growth and strategy for any content, anywhere, on any device. Working at the confluence of content, culture and technology, NRG offers insights for bold storytellers everywhere. To learn more, please visit www.nationalresearchgroup.com, and follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.

Stagwell’s fastest-growing network transforms for the convergence of creative, media, and commerce.

Originally Released On

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Sarah Arvizo
Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

Insights Series Launches with Deep Dive into Nigeria in Partnership with Stagwell Affiliate Partner SBI Media

NEW YORK and LAGOS, Nigeria, Oct. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — National Research Group (NRG), a global insights leader at the intersection of technology, content and culture, launched its “Capstone Series,” a first-of-its-kind exploration into the culture, content and technology driving leading-edge global growth markets. NRG is part of Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network built to transform marketing. In partnership with SBI Media, a Lagos, Nigeria-based media agency and part of Stagwell’s Global Affiliate Network, NRG kicked off the series with “Exploring Nigeria,” a future-leaning view into the technology, culture and entertainment trends shaping the Nigerian landscape.  

“Our Capstone Series is a research undertaking combining a global viewpoint with on-the-ground perspective and expertise at a level of depth we’ve not seen before in emerging markets,” said NRG Chief Strategy Officer Chris Rethore. “The proof of that is in our inaugural study, which has given us a nuanced, layered understanding of Nigeria’s shifting cultural landscape – showing us what makes Nigerians tick, how their identity impacts their consumption behaviors, and what can be done to better serve these passionate consumers. We hope that media, entertainment and tech companies find value and actionable intelligence in this and future studies to help shape decision-making in vanguard markets over the next few years.”

 “This study would not have been possible without the partnerships we have built through Stagwell’s Global Affiliate Network, now numbering nearly 80 partners across APAC, EMEA, LATAM, and North America,” said Stagwell Chief Strategy Officer Anas Ghazi. “Partners like SBI Media accelerate our global research, survey, and insights capabilities at Stagwell, adding authentic understanding of local markets around the world.”

“We are delighted to collaborate with the innovative team at NRG on this landmark project — the first of its kind in the Nigerian and sub-Saharan African market,” said SBI Media Group CEO Rotimi Bankole. “We are convinced that the findings in the NRG Capstone Series will provide brands, artists, creatives, and the larger stakeholders in the entertainment and content industry uncharted insights to decipher, discover and leverage engagement opportunities in the market.”

Exploring Nigeria
Anchored by a robust survey of 5,000 in-market consumers with added expert viewpoints of academics, industry insiders and in-person consumer interviews, “Exploring Nigeria” provides broad understanding into the cultural pillars that drive the country and its people. The research dives into 10 key topic areas exploring consumer habits and attitudes in Nigeria today, including the criticality of mobile, the rollout of 5G, the creator economy, content consumption, streaming services, audio and gaming as growth verticals, the power of social media, the future of money, and more.

Key takeaways include:

• Mobile is the gateway to connectivity. Mobility is table stakes when it comes to streaming, with 78% noting it’s very important that streaming services work well on mobile. Over half (55%) of all movie/TV consumption is on smartphones, while viewership on laptops, smart TVs, tablets and desktop devices is less frequent. Smartphones are also the overwhelming method for gaming (83%).
• 5G will “transform my country for the better,” say 81% of Nigerian consumers. With internet connection quality viewed as the biggest tech problem in the market, nearly 70% are aware of the pending 5G rollout, with the primary benefit seen to be enhanced speed (74%).
• YouTube leads as the top streaming service with 82% of respondents using it weekly, and 40% of these who use it multiple times per day. Only a daily basis, 64% use it the most often over other services such as Netflix (46%), Prime Video (25%), and AREWA24 (44%), the Hausa-language channel. Of the top five daily activities in general, 66% said they watch a short-form online video.
• Nigerians want Nigerian content to positively reflect their culture and values. Of the top five features that make film or TV feel most authentic, 60% indicated the characters should demonstrate Nigerian values (e.g., family/community work ethic, integrity) and should portray a positive image of Nigeria to the outside world (52%).
• …But Hollywood is still the dominant entertainment source. U.S. content owns the largest share of film viewing (75% of Nigerian consumers have watched Hollywood films in the past 6 months), while American TV is a close second behind Nigerian-produced TV (61% vs. 68%). English-language content from other non-US markets also has appeal. Where other countries have flourished with local content, streamers can heavily feature English-dominant titles from their global catalogs – 80% say they most enjoy watching content in English.
• Audio is ready for a shake-up. Due to limited internet connectivity, music streaming has yet to really take off in Nigeria – only 49% stream music through a streaming service. Nigerian consumers are more likely to depend on downloading and backpacking content.
• Big Tech = big influence. Tech companies including social media companies have a “great deal” of impact on Nigerian culture (64%), second only to religious institutions (73%).
• Finance-related technology that can directly benefit Nigerians fuels their desire to succeed professionally, to learn and grow, and to make money. More than half of respondents indicated they are aware and knowledgeable about cryptocurrency (90%), mobile wallets (85%), artificial intelligence (78%), 5G (76%), blockchain (71%), virtual reality (65%), and NFTs (59%).

NRG’s planned upcoming Capstone Series reports include Indonesia (Q4 2022), Argentina (Q1 2023) and Turkey (Q2 2023).

Study Methodology
NRG conducted an online survey from June 19, 2022 to July 4, 2022 among a nationally representative sample of 5,000 internet-enabled Nigerian consumers aged 16-64. Quantitative fieldwork was enhanced by integrating expert interviews with in-market academic and business leaders as well as in-depth, virtual interviews with Nigerian consumers.  

About National Research Group
National Research Group is a leading global insights and strategy firm at the intersection of entertainment and technology. Rooted in four decades of industry expertise, the world’s leading marketers turn to us for insights into growth and strategy for any content, anywhere, on any device. Working at the confluence of content, culture and technology, NRG offers insights for bold storytellers everywhere. To learn more, please visit www.nationalresearchgroup.com, and follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram.

About SBI Media
With the vision to become Africa’s most global agency, SBI Media Group is Nigeria’s largest independent media agency (RECMA 2021) built on the culture of bravery, thought leadership and innovation. As a member of the Stagwell Global affiliate network, we are in partnership with a diverse clientele of telecoms, technology, aviation, automobile, telecoms, eCommerce, FMCGs financial services and allied industry. Our fast rising presence cuts across six economic cities including Accra Ghana, Johannesburg South Africa, Nairobi Kenya, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and recently our London office serving Europe and the Asia Pacific. We are headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic and financial capital with over 100 media professionals in digital transformation, creative and content, media strategy, research, planning and exchange.

About Stagwell
Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com. 

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CONTACT:

Sarah Arvizo
Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

Epicenter Experience is Stagwell Marketing Cloud’s 3rd Acquisition in 2022, Adding Mobile and Location Data to its Evolving Data and Insights Stack

NEW YORK and BOSTON, Oct. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network built to transform marketing, has acquired Epicenter Experience (Epicenter), an enterprise software company that leverages mobile and location data to map and sequence complex consumer behavior patterns. Epicenter will become part of the Stagwell Marketing Cloud (SMC), a proprietary suite of software-as-a-service (SaaS) and data-as-a-service (DaaS) products built for in-house marketing teams.

“We have strong momentum building around the Stagwell Marketing Cloud’s insights and analytics capabilities, and we’re excited to add Epicenter’s location-focused platform as another supplement to our data stack,” said Stagwell Chairman and CEO Mark Penn. “With this AI-powered technology, we can deliver more comprehensive data intelligence to brands, helping them more effectively drive customer acquisition and retention goals.”

“With The People Platform we’ve built a tool that provides contextual awareness and behavioral understanding on a granular level, providing our clients with a connective tissue that they’ve come to view as a ‘currency service.’ We look forward to enhancing the SMC with this technology that can be applied within any industry,” said Epicenter Experience CEO and Co-founder Paul Krasinski. “Through these direct-from-consumer learnings we empower our customers across retail, healthcare, consumer goods, sports, entertainment and more to create more valuable, more personalized connections to their audiences at scale.”

SMC has been actively investing in emerging technologies and data-focused platforms as part of its strategy to serve in-house teams with transformative marketing technology capabilities. This is the SMC’s third acquisition in the second half of 2022, following Apollo Program in July and Maru Group in October. Epicenter will continue to be led by its current leadership team including Co-founders CEO Paul Krasinski and CFO Lynne Lipinsky.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing.  Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.

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Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

Natalie Black
Code and Theory
press@codeandtheory.com 

NEW YORK, Oct. 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Code and Theory, a digital-first creative agency within Stagwell, announced today the formation of the industry’s first holistic Inclusive Design and Marketing Strategy (ID&M) discipline. In a crowded agency landscape where brands must choose either campaign-focused DEI or social impact marketing agencies, Code and Theory’s ID&M applies inclusivity to a digital-first strategy and uses intersectionality to unlock transformational value for brands. Code and Theory’s ID&M discipline is the first of its kind from Stagwell.

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Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

SMC’s second acquisition integrates SaaS platform linking global behavioral, transactional and attitudinal data

Maru brings new, global capabilities to SMC. Maru’s SaaS solution, HUB, is a fully scalable survey platform that allows in-house marketers to analyze behavioral, transactional, and attitudinal data all in one place. With tens of millions of survey completes processed a year, the Maru/HUB platform manages research from ad-hoc studies to global trackers. Partnerships with 14 vetted sample partners worldwide allow Maru to connect clients with expertly profiled respondents.  

“Stagwell is pleased to add this sophisticated ‘research as a service’ partner,” said Mark Penn, chairman, and CEO, Stagwell. “Maru will be a great addition to our Stagwell Marketing Cloud and round out our research offering from full-service analytical to do it yourself. Maru is research built for enterprise scale but in simple, convenient and affordable ways.” 

“From full service to self-service, SMC believes marketers need to integrate connected technologies to stay ahead and drive business growth in the modern digital economy. This acquisition demonstrates our commitment to that belief,” said Elspeth Rollert, chief marketing officer, SMC. “We pride ourselves on a commitment to entrepreneurs like Ged Parton who are building the future of connected brand ecosystems, and we’re thrilled to have the Maru Group team join SMC.” 

Maru strengthens SMC’s global, blue-chip client list and presence including Buenos Aires, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Southampton, Toronto, and Vancouver.  

“Maru’s suite provides real-time access to insight and results, bringing into one ecosystem adaptive interpretation of behavioral, transactional, and attitudinal consumer data,” said Ged Parton, CEO, Maru Group. “By joining SMC, we’re scaling our services to some of the fastest-growing brands worldwide and translating our belief that understanding the intersection between behavior and emotion is critical to establishing the strongest possible consumer connection to drive better business results.”  

Maru joins SMC as its second acquisition amid an accelerated focus on technology-based marketing innovation from parent company Stagwell. In July 2022, SMC acquired Apollo Program.  

SMC’s leadership team is growing with the appointment of former Accenture Applied Intelligence Practice lead Mansoor Basha as chief technology officer. Mansoor joins Matthew Lochner, managing director; Abe Geiger, chief product officer; and Elspeth Rollert, chief marketing officer.  

Products across the suite are picking up momentum, too, as marketing professionals race to integrate technology. In August 2022, ARound – a shared augmented reality solution for live events  – launched in partnership with the Minnesota Twins, bringing the world’s first stadium-level shared A.R. experience to life. Further, PRophet, Stagwell’s AI-powered tool for predicting the success of media pitches, has launched “2.0” enhanced by partnerships with PeakMetrics, Podchaser, and The Harris Poll. 

Stephens Inc. served as advisor to Maru Group. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.  

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CONTACT:

Michaela Pewarski
Stagwell
ir@stagwellglobal.com 

Challenger marketing services network will report financial results for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2022 

NEW YORK – Oct. 7, 2022 – Stagwell, the challenger network built to transform marketing, today announced it will report financial results for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2022, on Thursday, Nov. 3, before market open.  

Stagwell will host a webcast to review those results the same day at 8:30 a.m. ET. To register and view the webcast, visit this link.  

A replay of the webcast will be available following the event on Stagwell’s investor website: https://www.stagwellglobal.com/investors/  

About Stagwell Inc. 

Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com. 

IR Contact: 

Michaela Pewarski 
ir@stagwellglobal.com    
646-429-1812 

PR Contact: 

Beth Sidhu 
pr@stagwellglobal.com   
202-423-4414 

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Sarah Arvizo
Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

Stagwell’s fastest-growing network transforms for the convergence of creative, media, and commerce.

NEW YORK, Oct. 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network built to transform marketing, has expanded and rebranded the Stagwell Media Network to the Brand Performance Network, closing a crucial gap in the industry to produce and deliver connected solutions that perform across creative, media and commerce.

“‘Creative + Media + Commerce’ – the new equation for modern marketing – is simple, but executing against it is complex. Brands need truly integrated partners to navigate this convergence,” said Mark Penn, chairman and CEO, Stagwell. “The Stagwell Media Network has clearly resonated well with clients; look at its breakout performance and recent substantial client wins. Now, with this expansion, we’ve fully integrated creative and media, and are scaling our growing expertise in e-commerce solutions, creating a group able to activate the full equation of modern brand performance.”

The proximity of Creative X Media X Commerce is core to the Brand Performance Network’s evolved offering. Now, the network is home to more than 6,000 experts across 60 locations in 20 countries worldwide, representing award-winning creative and managing close to $5 billion in media and commerce. 

In August 2022, Stagwell integrated iconic creative agencies Crispin Porter Bogusky, Forsman & Bodenfors, Observatory and Vitro into the Brand Performance Network; Stagwell at the time also reported the Media Network posted 33% net revenue growth in the second quarter of 2022, making it Stagwell’s fastest-growing integrated network.  

“We launched the network a year ago in response to the needs of the modern marketer, to be omnichannel, data and tech-enabled, and global,” said James Townsend, global CEO of Assembly and the Brand Performance Network. “Today, we’re evolving again to reflect the drive we’ve seen from blue-chip global brands rightly demanding truly connected creative, media, and commerce solutions to unlock transformation and growth for their businesses. This will offer our people more opportunity and our clients even more value.”

“Today’s announcement is a great moment to welcome the new creative agencies and their leadership teams to the network,” said Brad Simms, president and CEO, GALE, and global chief product officer of the Brand Performance Network. “Their compelling and impactful work perfectly complements strategic media execution and personifies our focus on brand performance.” 

All agencies within the network will continue to operate under their individual brands, consistent with Stagwell’s fundamental belief in collaboration between complementary groups over agency consolidation. Brands within the network will retain their cultures and unique capability sets, while scaling through more integrated work.

The new identity is being designed by business agency GALE. 

About Stagwell
Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.

About the Brand Performance Network
Stagwell’s Brand Performance Network is a group of leading creative, media, and commerce agencies home to more than 6,000 experts with an expansive global footprint across 60 offices in 20 countries, managing $5 billion in media. The network includes creative agencies GALE, Forsman & Bodenfors, Crispin Porter Bogusky, Vitro, and Observatory, media agencies Assembly, MMI Agency, Goodstuff and Grason, B2B specialists Multiview, multi-lingual content agency Locaria, travel and media experts Ink, and commerce experts Brand New Galaxy. The network offers marketers a more dynamic partner for global B2B and B2C connected solutions spanning data, technology, media, and creativity aimed at accelerating business growth for brands worldwide.

Contact: 
Beth Sidhu
pr@stagwellglobal.com

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Sarah Arvizo
Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

NEW YORK and WASHINGTON D.C. – Sept. 15, 2022 – Stagwell today launched a new business unit to deliver bipartisan, multidisciplinary political and communications expertise to chief executive officers, chief communicators officers and chief marketing officers navigating emerging policy, political and social issues.

The new Stagwell Risk and Reputation Unit aligns political and financial strategists from Democratic strategic communications firm SKDK, Republican digital agency Targeted Victory, financial communications firm Sloane & Company and Stagwell’s corporate reputation and strategic experts. The offering will help business leaders audit the societal and political issues most important to stakeholders, develop proactive and reactive strategies and narratives, and monitor and measure the impact of a company’s position on business reputation and overall performance.

“Today’s CEOs are under more pressure than ever to mix business and politics – yet one misstep can wipe out a year of marketing and corporate reputation building and billions in shareholder value,” said Mark Penn, chairman and CEO, Stagwell. “Too often, businesses rely only on expertise from one side of the aisle or without considering the financial implications of their public positions. Our team goes beyond the purpose-marketing units in today’s landscape to bring true, bipartisan political insights and tested business acumen closer to the war room.”

Ray Day, Stagwell vice chair and a longtime chief communications officer, added: “Leaders have minutes to make the right decision once a societal or political issue takes over their company’s narrative. Too often, they tend to make choices based on internal information with little outside perspective,” Day said. “We’re providing the guidance leaders need to respond in the heat of the moment, while also helping them see around corners and anticipate what’s to come to protect reputation.”

The new consultancy includes experienced strategists who have supported and served in executive leadership at Microsoft, Ford, IBM and many other Fortune 500 companies, as well as campaign strategists for 12 presidential races, 95 Senate races and 175 House races.

“Stagwell excels at connecting the best of the best to unleash transformative results for our clients. With this unit, we’ve connected two of the leading political firms in the country alongside our financial and corporate communications experts to help business leaders solve one of their biggest post-COVID challenges: balancing product with purpose,” said Alexis Williams, chief brand officer, North America, Stagwell.

To inquire about the Risk and Reputation Unit, please reach out to hello@stagwellglobal.com

About Stagwell

Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.

About SKDK

SKDK is a top national communications and political consulting firm bringing unparalleled strategic communications experience to Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, philanthropic organizations and labor unions, as well as political committees and candidates. With offices in Washington, New York, Los Angeles and Albany, SKDK offers strategic support to managing a crisis, protecting a brand, advocating an issue or winning an election. In 2020, SKDK was a key adviser to the Biden for President campaign and helped to make history by electing Joe Biden as President of The United States and Kamala Harris, the nation’s first Black, Asian-American and woman, as Vice President. To learn more about SKDK, visit our website at www.skdknick.com.

About Targeted Victory

Targeted Victory is a digital-first political and communications agency.  Born out of campaigns, we bring speed and scale to our work on behalf of Fortune 500 companies.  Our roster of presidential-level campaign operatives, former House and Senate chiefs of staff, former television producers and global public relations and marketing professionals provide strategic guidance to our clients. Our decades of experience running political and corporate campaigns has taught us utilizing both national messaging and outreach, along with activating hyperlocal engagements, is the most effective way to tell a client’s story.

About Sloane & Company

Founded in 1998, Sloane & Company is an industry-leading strategic communications firm focused on Corporate Communications, Media Relations, Investor Relations, Crisis Communications and Issue Management, Activism Defense and Proxy Contests, Transaction Support and Public Affairs. Sloane & Company has previously been recognized by The Holmes Report as Global Corporate Agency of the Year; and Crisis Agency of the Year, and in 2019 was ranked by Bloomberg #2 among communications firms for shareholder activism support, based on total number of campaigns.

Media Contact:

Sarah Arvizo
pr@stagwellglobal.com

CONTACTS

PR Contact
Beth Sidhu
pr@stagwellglobal.com
202-423-4414

IR Contact

Michaela Pewarski

New York – Sept. 15, 2022 – Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW) announced today that Chairman and CEO Mark Penn will present at the upcoming Sidoti Small-Cap Virtual Conference on Thursday, September 22, 2022 at 10:45 AM ET. Penn will be available for 1:1 investor meetings. To schedule a meeting, please reach out to ir@stagwellglobal.com.  

Visit this page to view upcoming investor events and programming from Stagwell.

About Stagwell 

Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing.  Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.