News from 42West, Burson-Marsteller, Freshfields (Brussels), and January Digital
Dolphin Digital Acquires 42West
42West specializes in marketing and PR for many A-List musicians such as Lady Gaga, Pharrell, John Legend, and Rihanna, but they just got bought out by Dolphin Digital in a deal worth $28 million in Dolphin stock. However, 42West will move forward as a separate but affiliated entity of Dolphin. The three existing principal partners of 42West, Leslee Dart, Allan Mayer, and Amanda Lundberg, will continue in the office of co-CEOs both in the New York and Los Angeles offices already in operation. The agency also represents other entertainment celebrities such as Woody Allen, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, and Martin Scorsese.
Bill O’Dowd, Dolphin Digital Media’s CEO, said: “Leslee, Amanda, and Allan are industry leaders at the top of their game. They, along with their senior management team have built 42West into a best-in-class entertainment marketing powerhouse that combines an unparalleled A-list celebrity client roster with an elite role of corporate clients that includes virtually every major studio, pay television network, and important digital platform.”
Three Senior Level People added to Burson-Marsteller Corporate and Financial Practice
Joining the Corporate and Financial division of Burson-Marsteller (BM) are Geoffrey Mogilner as Managing Director, Neil Barman as Senior Director, and Kona Barrasso also as Senior Director with all three reporting to Alan Sexton, Chair of US Corporate and Financial Practice and Market Leader, in the New York office. Mogilner brings over two decades of strategic communications experience including counseling corporations through reputation and transactions events and building global brands. The team will focus on investor relations, financial media relations, innovative investor efforts, IPOs and transactions, and shareholder inclusion.
Barman worked at Deloitte Consulting before coming to BM and has experience in transformational change, learning and development, management consulting, strategic communications, and technology adoption and adaptation. BM’s US CEO, Mike Fernandez, said: “Neil, Kona, and Geoffrey are among the most talented professionals in corporate and financial communications.”
Lord Jonathan Hill Takes Brexit Advisor Job with Freshfields
Jonathan Hill was the UK’s most senior diplomat at the EU until last June when the UK left, but like many of his party has shifted to take a senior advisory role for Brexit purposes with a Lobby Firm, Freshfields (law firm) headquartered in Brussels. The transformation of ex-ministers with the EU taking on Brexit related jobs is controversial since those new jobs allow them to use and possibly abuse their long-standing EU contacts.
Throughout the UK and Europe, many finance industry organizations and law firms have been setting up Brexit divisions to offer advice to clients as they shape and understand new policy being set in their governments, especially in the UK and how leaving the EU could affect their commercial efforts. Prior to becoming a diplomat at the EU, Hill had a career with PR and lobbying at firms such as Quiller Consultants, Lowe Bell Communications, Huntsworth, and Bell Pottinger.
January Digital Recommends Repeating Influencer Posts
January Digital is making full use of their influencer posts these days, as an example they had 10 top influencers in the beauty sector create educational posts about the benefits of their product. But instead of always sharing the full articles, they used snippets paired with images of the products and related ideas on many fashion and beauty media sites like Bazaar, PopSugar, Allure, and Shape. Their analytics of this showed they received engagement “100 times higher” in the first week than what would be usual.
January Digital’s founder, Vic Drabicky, said: “We always want influencer endorsements, but we cannot see much value if people only read the content on an influencer’s blog or social channels.” This approach is beginning to be used as a way of bypassing traditional creative content according to Kamiu Lee, Bloglovin’s head of strategy and business development for content. Mixing influencer content with programmatic is a good fit with great results.
