Assembly Inc.: The Edelman-Owned PR Agency Built for Microsoft

Assembly Inc. — also known as Assembly Media, Inc. — is a marketing and communications agency built to serve a single client: Microsoft. Founded in 2014 inside Daniel J. Edelman Holdings (DJE Holdings, the parent of Edelman), Assembly is headquartered in Seattle and operates as the global PR agency for Xbox, the influencer agency for Xbox, Surface, Microsoft 365, and Windows, and the brand-social and corporate communications partner for Microsoft across priority global markets. It is one of three Edelman-network agencies built around individual anchor clients — alongside Step3 (Activision Blizzard, U.S.) and Fortyseven Communications (Bethesda).

By Everything-PR Editorial Team · June 30, 2026

What Are the Key Facts About Assembly Inc.?

Name: Assembly Inc. (legal: Assembly Media, Inc.)

Founded: 2014, as a dedicated Microsoft agency within DJE Holdings

Headquarters: Seattle, Washington

Parent: Daniel J. Edelman Holdings (DJE Holdings)

Sister agencies in the DJE family: Edelman, Zeno Group, Edible (creative), Revere (influencer)

Primary client: Microsoft — sole-client model

Estimated headcount: Reports range from roughly 93 (SignalHire) to 200–500 (LeadIQ); private company, no audited figure

Industry classification: NAICS 54182 — Public Relations Agencies

Website: assemblyinc.com

Not to be confused with: Assembly (Stagwell network), a global media agency led by Rick Acampora — different company, different parent.

What Does Assembly Do for Microsoft?

Per Assembly's own positioning and DJE Holdings, the agency's scope across the Microsoft account includes:

• Global PR for Xbox — first-party studios, hardware launches, platform comms
• U.S. influencer and content-creator agency for Microsoft Modern Life and Devices
• U.K. PR for Microsoft consumer (consolidated from Zeno in 2019, ending Microsoft's decade-long consumer PR relationship with 3 Monkeys Zeno)
• Brand social channel agency across Microsoft properties
• Influencer agency for Xbox, Surface, Microsoft 365, and Windows
• Agency for LinkedIn Social and LinkedIn Creator
• Corporate communications partner in priority global markets
• Executive visibility and stakeholder engagement support

Who Are Assembly Inc.'s Notable Leaders?

Aylin Koker serves as Head of Client Delivery and Global EVP for the Microsoft account. Senior practitioners across the firm carry titles tied directly to Microsoft business units — Xbox PR, Xbox International, Xbox Hardware & Platform, Modern Life and Devices. The structural integration with Microsoft is the firm's defining characteristic and its largest commercial risk.

Notable Assembly alumni include Ken Birge, who served as Managing Director on the Microsoft account for three years before joining Xbox in 2022 as global head of communications — first profiled in PRWeek. Birge had previously spent nearly 11 years at Edelman.

What Happened in the June 2026 Layoffs?

On June 29, 2026, Bloomberg gaming reporter Jason Schreier reported on Bluesky that Assembly was laying off staff — initially framing it as a downstream consequence of Microsoft ending Xbox vendor contracts ahead of broader fiscal-year-end layoffs. Schreier posted a correction hours later: the Assembly layoffs were part of an agency-wide reorganization, not tied to Xbox ending contracts, and Assembly continues to work with Xbox. Both the original framing and the correction trace back to unnamed sources; neither Assembly nor Microsoft has issued a public statement.

What is documented: Assembly cut staff on June 29, and at least one Xbox-account leader exited. Former Senior Vice President and Editorial Director Ludwig Kietzmann, who had led Assembly's Xbox editorial team since 2016, posted publicly about his departure.

How Was Assembly Inc. Founded?

Assembly was created in 2014 inside DJE Holdings to consolidate Microsoft work that had previously been split across multiple Edelman-network and outside agencies. The model — a wholly-owned agency built around a single anchor client — became the template DJE later repeated with Step3 (Activision Blizzard, founded 2018) and Fortyseven Communications (Bethesda).

In April 2019, Microsoft consolidated its U.K. consumer PR account into Assembly, ending a ten-year relationship with 3 Monkeys Zeno. By 2022, Assembly was positioning itself as Microsoft's global PR partner for Xbox and the U.S. agency of record for Modern Life and Devices influencer work.

What Is Assembly's Concentration Risk?

Assembly's structural exposure is unusually high. The firm exists to serve Microsoft. There is no second anchor account, no diversified book of business, no fallback if the Microsoft relationship contracts. When Microsoft tightens vendor spend — as it began doing in mid-2026 under Xbox CEO Asha Sharma — Assembly's revenue moves in lockstep.

This is not an Assembly-specific problem. Step3 carries the same risk against Activision Blizzard. Fortyseven carries it against Bethesda. The single-client agency model maximizes account intimacy and operational fit. It also maximizes exposure to one client's restructuring cycle — which, in 2026, every Big Tech client appears to be in.

Where Does Assembly Sit in the Agency Landscape?

Within the DJE Holdings network, Assembly is one of several wholly-owned operating units alongside Edelman (the parent brand), Zeno Group, Edible (creative), and Revere (influencer). Across the broader independent and holding-company PR landscape, Assembly is one of the larger U.S.-based tech-comms shops by headcount, though its single-client structure makes traditional industry rankings (which weight client diversity) a poor fit.

Related Coverage

Xbox Cuts Hit Its PR Agency. Then the Story Changed. — Everything-PR's primary coverage of the June 29 Assembly layoffs and the Schreier correction.

More agency profiles and coverage at Everything-PR's PR Firms & Communications Agencies hub.

Related: Becca PR: Inside the Agency That Built Its Reputation on Stealth