This week in agency news, our favorite moments feature innovative brand acquisitions, intriguing new partnerships and award-winning social good campaigns. Let’s dive in.
Backbone Media
As it celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, Backbone Media was recognized as one of Outside’s “Best Places to Work” in 2022. This marks the sixth time the Colorado-based marketing agency has landed on the list.
Baldwin&
Baldwin& was awarded with Grand Prize honors at the 2022 ANA Multicultural Excellence Awards in recognition of its work with Ponysaurus Brewing Company for the LGBTQ+ community. Baldwin& and Ponysaurus teamed up last year to create a holistic campaign to raise money for the “Fund for the Fabulous,” directly combatting North Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson‘s hate speech again the queer community.
Conscious Minds
Los Angeles and Portland-based content studio Conscious Minds has acquired hi5.agency, an award-winning shop that creates social-first strategy and social content. The new partnership with hi5.agency enables Conscious Minds to provide full stack capabilities for their current and future partners, and to holistically manage the entire social ecosystem for the branded content studios they design.
Dentsu International
Dentsu International released its 2022 diversity, equity and inclusion report. Highlights include that dentsu Canada now has 54.5% women executive and 52.4% women in management roles, dentsu created an Inclusive Business Advisory Council and the company is partnering with minority-owned businesses to create positive social and economic impact.
Foundry 360
Tech-enabled change management platform Reframe is partnering with Dotdash Meredith’s custom content studio Foundry 360 to build inclusive and cultural customer experiences. The partnership aims to create audience-first content with a modernized approach to multicultural marketing.
General Idea
Reference NYC, a tech studio that provides dynamic branding, creative direction, spatial communication and motion design, was acquired by General Idea, a branding agency which incorporates creativity, culture and technology. This comes after General Idea’s recent launch of Special Production Agency, which specializes in photo shoots, film projects and digital content creation.
Havas Middle East
Adidas appointed Havas Middle East as is social media agency in the MENA region. The agency will lead content creation, content and community management, account management and reporting for adidasMENA and adidasDXB, offering strategic support on existing and future activations on social media.
Icon Commerce
Icon Commerce, newly rebranded to drive omni-channel growth in ecommerce, DTC and retail channels, launched Icon Commerce Innovation Lab. The lab will work with leading commerce and retail platforms to provide 3-5 Cincinnati brands and retailors with a combination of agency and technology services that represent the future of commerce.
Imaginarium
Serial entrepreneur and agency business leader Scott Stedman has launched his new venture, The Imaginarium, an agency that services brand partners by developing exceptional content to spark inspired connections using LinkedIn and paid digital media. At the core of The Imaginarium is Enspyron, a proprietary tech and data platform that helps identify likely customers for B2B brands. The Imaginarium recently added Tiiso McGinty, head of strategy, to its growing team.
Leagas Delaney and The Kite Factory
Rebel Fibre appointed Leagas Delaney as its creative agency, and The Kite Factory as its media agency. The two will work with Rebel Fibre to plan, create and execute all of its marketing activity.
Lobo
International creative animation and design studio Lobo is now presenting production company Surreal Hotel Arts and its roster of directors in U.S. markets. Surreal Hotel Arts operates in advertising, branded content and entertainment, with clients like Apple, Google and Netflix.
Maverick Group
The Maverick Group launched a new U.K./New Zealand business unit, Maverick Technology SoluDons (MTS). MTS will expand the group’s offering while providing clients with an overnight service for urgent digital projects.
North 6th Agency
North 6th Agency (N6A) has partnered with Local Logic as its public relations agency of record to increase brand awareness of the company’s mission, data capabilities, and expansive partnership network throughout the residential and commercial real estate industries.
PMG
Independent global digital agency PMG is partnering with Tarrant County College (TCC), one of the largest community colleges providing affordable education and vocational training in the U.S., to accelerate digital career training. The new Digital Career Accelerator led by PMG aims to train more than 1,000 TCC students in digital, marketing and advertising foundations by 2028, creating more paths into PMG and the larger industry and business communities. The company will also commit $50,000 in merit scholarships to 50 program participants over the next five years.
Taxi
Taxi, a VMYL&R agency, won the Best in Show award at the 2022 ANA Multicultural Excellence Awards for its work on the Human Rights Foundation’s campaign “Uncomfortable Truth.” The campaign showcased how consumers could be unknowingly funding forced labor in China by making certain fashion purchases and empowered them with tools to avoid those purchases in the future.
WPP
WPP is launching its first campus in Brazil, bringing together 20 agencies and 6,000 people based in the city. The campus is designed to meet the needs of the evolving workforce, empowering hybrid workstyles and greater innovation, creativity and collaboration between stakeholders.