Hanson Dodge Creative and Comet Branding + PR Kick off the New Year with Merger
Active lifestyle agency Hanson Dodge Creative (HDC) and social media and public relations firm Comet Branding + PR will join hands on January 1st and start 2011 with a merger that will expand their collective ability to provide quality services to a growing list of global clients.
“Simply put, social media is the medium of the active lifestyle market. Comet’s social media and PR strength is the ideal complement to HDC’s existing services. These strengthened capabilities will be very attractive to HDC’s current and future active lifestyle clients,” said Ken Hanson, CEO of HDC.
Al Krueger and Sara Meaney, the owners of Comet, will be equity partners in HDC and continue to focus on their main area of expertise, the new entity’s social media and PR business, while also actively seeking additional opportunities to grow the integrated social media division of HDC.
“Sara and Al have built a national reputation and recognition for their ideas and success around leveraging social media combined with strategic communications to help businesses thrive,” said Tim Dodge, president of HDC. “By adding Comet’s capabilities and team to our brand strategies and traditional and interactive marketing initiatives we are ideally positioned to continue to provide fully integrated traditional, digital and social media services to our world-class clients.”
“Pooling Comet’s and HDC’s capabilities will create significant immediate and future opportunities,” said Sara Meaney, partner at Comet. “This combined agency will represent a remarkably integrated approach that will enable our clients to more easily navigate the increasingly complex landscape brought about by the collision of marketing and technology. We are confident that our work will be distinctive in the agency world as one that fully leverages the best of branding, design, technology, social media and public relations.”
The two companies current client roster includes companies such as Wilson Sporting Goods, Trek Bicycle Company, Wolverine Boots, Thule and Kmart.
