BY

Christine McDermott
VP, Veritas/Meat & Produce

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This piece is part of series on Social Commerce, Influencer Marketing, and the Creator Economy. 

A decade ago, brands looked to influencer agencies to connect with the ‘who’s who’; today, they come to us to wield the transformative power of social influence through their entire marketing stack. As part of the agency that felt so strongly about the term “influencing the influencers” that we trademarked it, I am keenly aware that influencer marketing long predates the current hype that social media has generated around the industry. When we look at the prioritization of influencer marketing in today’s marketing mix, it’s no longer considered a nice to have but rather a core component of brand planning.

It wasn’t always this way, though. This has provided a fascinating opportunity to watch the shift in the marketplace from a client service perspective. In today’s creator-centric economy, brands require influencer marketing agency partners to keep apace the transformation in this space.

From Impressions to Engagement

In the days of blogs and burgeoning social media channels, the most significant opportunity influencers afforded was the chance to reach new audiences. The focus was almost exclusively on maximizing the number of impressions from influencer content. Guaranteed organic reach and high blog readership provided cost-effective ways for brands to reach audiences that otherwise may never have interacted with them. The deep relationships that influencer marketing agencies held with influencers were critical to obtaining the best earned and paid opportunities for our brand partners and allowed for agility in influencer placements.

As social channels moved into the spotlight, accounting for more media hours consumed across generations, the focus shifted to engagement. The goal was to measure the attention content could generate through authentic connection with audiences in an increasingly competitive digital world. With this, we saw the rise of micro and nano influencers who built strong relationships through two-way communication with their audiences, maintaining consistently high engagement. Trusted recommendations from the right influencers could bring your brand into the consideration set for your target audience. Dedicated audiences of nano influencers also provided an opportunity to access niche consumer segments that otherwise would be challenging for brands to find. Our key to success was pairing the right influencers with our brands, ensuring alignment on values and demographics. 

The Creator Economy

Today, getting the right message to the right person at the right time has never been more critical – or more difficult as the consumer ecosystem becomes increasingly sophisticated. New channels and content formats provide evermore opportunities to attract and engage new and existing audiences with relevant content. Moving influencer marketing from a single tactic to a full-funnel approach creates a new world of opportunity for brands, while at the same time raising countless new considerations. With all these factors to contend with, the role influencer marketing agencies take on has never been more critical. Today’s influencer marketing agency partners must help clients navigate this ever-changing world by:

• Going beyond the numbers: As data-driven marketers, it can be attractive to make decisions based solely on the immense data we now have at our fingertips. While these are fundamental parts of our discovery and vetting processes, we believe it’s equally important to review the qualitative elements of an influencer agreement: alignment with brand values, the types of social conversations creators drive among their followings, and, importantly, any content or connections that may increase brand risk.
• Capitalizing on available technology: Today’s digital tools provide capabilities that aid every step of the process: diving deep into audience demographics, reviewing years of content to ensure brand safety, authenticating audiences to remove bot traffic, and analyzing results. The available options can also be overwhelming. Here, the right mix of talent (agency experts with a deep understanding of the landscape) with technology (digital SaaS and DaaS tools) can supercharge campaign results. 
• Keeping human connection at the center: True influence is built on strong connections between agencies and influencers and influencers and their audiences. Authentic connection is essential, from the relationships we build to the content we create. 
• Letting creators be creative: Our influencers are partners in the creative process, not simply another outlet or a channel to distribute brand messages. Influencers know their audiences better than anyone. Leaning into their insights and creativity will lead to more authentic content and experiences that resonate. True partnerships with influencers allow for co-creation and collaborations that can excite and convert. 
• Researching and reviewing: Due to the steady growth of influencer marketing, we now have a wealth of research to help inform and guide everything from partnership models to accurate approaches for optimizing reach. Every campaign is an opportunity to test, learn, and then review performance to better optimize results in the future.

There has been a tremendous acceleration in influencer marketing growth and investment. When done well, it works. When we examine the transformation of influencer marketing and the creator economy in just a few short years, it becomes clear that more evolution is to come. Leaning on agency partners with deep knowledge of the discipline, facility with the technology tools driving efficiency through the space, and authentic relationships with influencers will help brands get the most out of this fast-moving space.

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CONTACT:

Beth Sidhu
pr@stagwellglobal
(202) 423-4414

New global office led by Vinicius Reis will anchor Stagwell’s investment in Latin America, connecting best-in-class services in the region for accelerated growth  

New York, New York – April 13, 2022 – Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network built to transform marketing, today announced the opening of a new global office in Brazil to accelerate the company’s growth in Latin America and drive collaboration across its local agencies and affiliate partners. Stagwell Brazil is the second international office the company has opened in 2022; in January, Stagwell launched an office in Singapore to accommodate its growth throughout Asia-Pacific.  

Vinicius Reis will lead the office as President, Stagwell Brazil, alongside CCO & Partner CPB Brazil Andre Kassu and CCO & Partner CPB Brazil Marcos Medeiros. They will work to drive growth and bolster capabilities to serve regional and global clients seeking to reach consumers in the Latin American market. Reis will also continue to lead operations at Stagwell agency CP+B Brazil where he, Marcos, and Andre, have built the agency into a regional force for blue-chip clip engagements with Stella Artois, AB InBev, McCain, Amazon, Activision, Blizzard, Bauducco, PicPay, 99 (DiDi), Diageo, and others. Prior to CP+B Brazil, Reis served as CEO of Havas Digital and held international executive roles at DDB Miami and Lowe Worldwide. 

“We’re excited to enter this new chapter of our ambitious global expansion, returning to a region I’ve long believed to be the front door to international expansion for modern brands,” said Mark Penn, Chairman and CEO, Stagwell. “Stagwell Brazil will be a crucial player in the LATAM marketing ecosystem as we continue to grow our best-in-class offering for global clients.”  

“Stagwell’s mission to transform marketing with the power of creativity, data and technology is a powerful differentiating force in the market right now, and we’re excited to contribute the network’s growth,” added Reis. “Our agencies and partners across Latin America represent the best in modern marketing expertise. With Stagwell Brazil, we have the opportunity to drive region-wide collaboration in service of our clients.”  

Stagwell agencies in Brazil include global travel media firm Ink, communications network Allison+Partners, CP+B Brazil, YML, Locaria, and Code & Theory. Additionally, Stagwell has significantly expanded its footprint across LATAM over the past year via affiliate partnerships with recognized content and media agency networks Anchor Worldwide, Grupo Garnier and The Lab, with teams distributed across Aruba, Costa Rica, Colombia, Curacao, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama. Stagwell’s Global Affiliate program has to date signed over 50 affiliates worldwide, representing countries across Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, and Eastern Europe.   

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 10,000+ 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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Miami is the first U.S. city to begin earning revenue from a city-branded cryptocurrency, “MiamiCoin,” and is now the host of the largest national conference on cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin 2022.  Allison+Partners EVP David Baum, who leads the firm’s office in Miami, attended the conference this week. He shares insights on the regulatory landscape around cryptocurrency, how leaders navigate crypto’s environmental impact, and Miami’s journey to becoming the next tech hub.

Read David’s key takeaways below:

Late to the Party but Politicians and Regulators are Finally Getting their Wristbands:

Despite the public perception that the crypto industry is the wild west and has utter disdain for any oversight, there was a strong sentiment at the conference that regulation is the path to widespread adoption. President Biden’s recent executive order that directed federal agencies to consider new regulations and report on digital currencies was notable for highlighting the economic benefits of this emerging sector (a rare nod of approval from the U.S. government). This will spur institutional investors to increase investments and help state officials create local regulatory frameworks.

Adapt or Face Oblivion: Necessity Spurs Energy Innovation:

For years, the criticism from regulators, NGO’s and large swaths of society has been geared toward the vast amounts of energy required for mining bitcoins. Bitcoin’s consensus mechanism (proof-of-work) requires miners to utilize vast amounts of energy (often fossil fuels) to verify transactions. Out of necessity to avoid scrutiny from lawmakers, mining companies have increasingly sought sustainable energy sources, spurring a wave of innovation and new deployments of sustainable energy. While still in the early stages, the industry is shifting towards sustainable energy solutions in the coming years.

Crypto Coast: Miami Flexing its Digital Financial Muscles:

As Communicators, we appreciate the successful development and deployment of a bold narrative, and kudos to the Miami business & tech community, Mayor Suarez, and Mayor Levine for elevating Miami as the new digital financial capital for the 21st century. At the start of the event, organizers unveiled a new “digital bull of wall street” statue, a symbol that Miami is taking aim at New York City as the “Wall Street of the South” powered by crypto technology. Symbols matter and often push a prophecy that eventually becomes self-fulfilling, and if the size of the attendees (over 20,000), quality of the speakers, and acceleration of investments, entrepreneurs, and talent flying in are any indications, Miami will become the epicenter for crypto innovation not just for the United States but for the world.

We have a variety of crypto expertise around the network; If you’re interested in learning more about how we’re approaching this frontier, reach out at hello@stagwellglobal.com.

By

Amber Roussel (Senior Director, Communications) and Toni Smith (Director of Social Marketing), MMI Agency

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Today’s path to purchase inhabits a space foreshadowed in movies like Back to the Future, The Fifth Element, and Minority Report. We’ve moved from brick-and-mortar stores to the metaverse and from cash to credit to crypto, and the social commerce those classics previewed is now a crucial part of our modern marketing lexicon. The question now is no longer if social can become a driver of business but which platforms are leading the pack – and how to maximize value across the ecosystem. TikTok or Instagram? Brand-created environments or Pinterest? For 36 years, we’ve been helping brands navigate new worlds to better connect with their audiences and drive their businesses. Here’s a guide to getting in – and staying on top – of the social commerce game.

Selling Starts with Strategy

Here’s a powerful stat: 98% of consumers plan to purchase through social or influencer shopping at least once in 2022, per Sprout Social. That’s up tremendously from the 68% of consumers who reported doing so in 2021. This trend follows investments from Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, and Pinterest into dedicated shopping tabs that allow brands to “set up shop” in-platform and highlight their product catalogs. Soon, we could see these in-app shopping areas enable complete end-to-end purchasing.

To prepare for this new way of shopping, we suggest that brands:

• Identify the audience(s) they want to reach on social media
• Set clear goals and timelines
• Develop a social selling plan that includes paid media, organic social, and influencer marketing
• Implement a strong channel and content marketing strategy
• Leverage in-app shopping tools or a third-party e-commerce platform to facilitate social sales

MMI clients, including ALOHA and Plant Apothecary, utilize social commerce to create end-to-end shopping experiences for their customers by pairing Instagram Shops with link-out to their websites. ALOHA also employs in-app shoppable links and social media influencers. In a recent ALOHA influencer campaign featuring two mid- and seven micro-tier influencers, sponsored social content received over half a million impressions and generated an overall engagement rate of 3.75%. Four of the nine influencers posted content on Instagram that achieved an engagement rate above 11%, indicating high interest in the brand and its products.

Where Is the Heat? Industries and Categories Seeing Success

Consumer electronics, fashion, and home items are trending in social shopping, with beauty and personal care products not far behind. Influencer partnerships play a significant part in this trend. If the higher-than-average engagement rates on posts containing #ad are any indicator, all influencer content – whether sponsored or not – works.

For Kate Spade, a limited-edition heart-shaped purse became an overnight bestseller when an influencer gushed about it on TikTok. Her post led to a host of user-generated content (UGC) when others posted videos of themselves buying and wearing the purse. The positive response encouraged Kate Spade to offer a version of the bag year-round. MMI also recently integrated a live shopping experience paired with custom influencer content to drive Dell laptop sales on Amazon.com. Gen Z and millennial influencers engaged shoppers in real-time via the Amazon Live Creator Stream. Total sales from promo code redemptions exceeded six figures from a single event.

Smart Brands Leverage Paid Amplification to Bolster Results

Although success is possible with organic social strategies, it can be challenging to break through without a robust paid media component. We believe a full-funnel paid media strategy is crucial for amplifying the overall impact of social selling, and can often lift campaign performance by 2-4 times on average. For one MMI client, clicks increased by 80% when we began testing sponsored creative from an influencer handle versus the brand handle. In a world ruled by algorithms, media campaigns arm brands with the ability to target audiences that may not organically encounter its content or products. We’ve found that Facebook and Instagram are still winning for lower-funnel conversions, and TikTok and YouTube generally outperform in terms of top-of-funnel awareness efforts.

Future Forward

Social commerce spend will reach $1.2 trillion by 2025: undoubtedly, the social media shopping cart is here to stay. How we help clients cash in on this gold rush with innovative social selling strategies will never be a one-size-fits-all approach. Aligning top-notch creative assets with influencer marketing + earned media outreach is a formula for success in today’s marketplace – and a scalable toolkit for embarking on this new frontier of social commerce.

Our DMs are open if you’re looking for partners to help make sense of it all. See you in the meta mall. 

Learn more about how MMI can help you dominate the digital shelf here.

MMI Agency is a modern brand lab where performance meets possibility. Our mission is to inspire action by combining our end-to-end approach to reaching consumers with our tenacity for data.

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NFTs – short-term hype or a serious, lasting trend? One thing at least is certain: Hardly any other topic is currently shaking up the digital world as much as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs for short. Whether it’s the crypto scene, the games market, the art world or the music world – everyone wants to participate in the latest digital gold rush. The NFT market was worth around $44 billion U.S dollars in 2021 (Chainalysis Inc.), rivaling the global art and antiques market, which generated sales of around $50 billion U.S dollars in the same period. No wonder marketers are interested in the technology. Read on for a short explainer on the phenomenon.

WHAT ARE NFTS (NON FUNGIBLE TOKENS)?

Non-fungible means “not arbitrarily replaceable”, i.e., they are individual pieces that cannot be duplicated. The term typically refers to digital assets such as images, videos, animations, audio pieces or graphics. NFTs take on the function of a digital certificate of authenticity and ownership, making the associated digital file a unique and uniquely identifiable asset – which is also quite forgery-proof: each NFT is given an individual ID and stored on a blockchain as a record that can be viewed online.

Non-fungible tokens are traded in cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum. The value of such a digital certificate can sometimes rise to astronomical heights, depending on whether it is a sought-after collector’s item or not. For example:

• In the spring of 2021, for example, the first tweet ever sent by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey on March 21, 2006, was auctioned off as an NFT for $2.9 million.
• The first source code for the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee changed hands as an NFT for $5.4 million.
• An NFT from the legendary CryptoPunk series, which helped to trigger the hype surrounding tokens, achieved the fabulous price of almost 24 million dollars.
• The most expensive NFT traded so far is the digital artwork “The Merge” by the artist Pak, which fetched $91.8 million in December 2021.

HOW ARE NFTS BEING USED IN MARKETING?

The uses vary across industry.

• AUCTIONS
  • Just before Christmas, for example, Vodafone auctioned off the first SMS sent via the British mobile company’s network in 1992. The telco giant donated the proceeds – 132,000 euros – to a good cause. The PR effect was far greater: more than 3,500 articles on the campaign were published worldwide in online alone, generating around two billion contacts. Coca-Cola was probably also concerned with the positive PR effect: In the summer of 2021, the beverage manufacturer auctioned four multisensory NFT collectibles for International Friendship Day, which could be experienced and used in different ways. The bright red “Coca-Cola Bubble Jacket Wearable,” for example, can be “worn” on the Decentraland 3D virtual reality platform by the avatar of the user who unlocked it. The “Sound Visualizer,” on the other hand, is designed to give an acoustic experience of enjoying an ice-cold Coke, from the fizz of an opening Coke bottle to the refreshing taste. The NFT auction raised a total of more than $ 575.000, which Coca-Cola donated to Special Olympics International.
• TRANSFERING BRANDS INTO THE METAVERSE
  • Adidas Originals recently launched its first NFT collection under the slogan “Into the Metaverse.” The tokens give owners exclusive access to special products and experiences designed by Adidas in cooperation with NFT pioneers Punks Comic, Gmoney and Bored Ape Yacht Club, who are well-known in the scene. The roughly 30,000 NFTs, worth a total of more than $22 million, sold out in a matter of hours – even though the “physical” goods – a hoodie, tracksuit, and orange beanie – won’t be released until later in 2022. The digital counterparts of these are to be worn by NFT owners ins in the blockchain game “The Sandbox,” where Adidas has purchased a plot of land for its NFT community.
• INVESTING IN NFT ASSETS
  • Nike is also heavily involved in the NFT business. In 2019, Nike patented the “CryptoKicks” system. Here, the sporting goods manufacturer wants to link limited shoes with a digital asset and “breed” new shoes virtually, which are then produced in real life. Finally, at the end of 2021, the company announced the acquisition of the world’s leading NFT producer RTFKT, which specializes in the design of exclusive digital sports shoes and sneakers.

WHAT SHOULD BRANDS WATCH OUT FOR AS THEY EXPERIMENT WITH NFTS?

The business of non-fungible tokens is not without its pitfalls. With the explosion of interest in the technology, the risk of crypto crime is also increasing. Wash trading is also becoming increasingly common in the NFT market — meaning the owner of a digital asset artificially drives up the price of an NFT through continuous buying and selling.

Additionally, there are questions about the ecological impact of NFTs. Blockchain can consume an enormous amount of energy and leave a large CO2 footprint. Both the production of an NFT and its sale on the blockchain require the computing power of thousands of computers. Brands for whom sustainability is key to positioning could face reputational issues with the use of NFTs.

WHAT IS THE OPPORTUNITY FOR BRANDS NOW?

It has always been the task of strong brands to be pioneers in emerging technology to drive new dimensions of the consumer experience. For brands whose identities are predicated on being challengers, or strong bridges believe this will also be the case in the area of Web 3.0, that of NFTs. Especially for a brand like Nike, whose essence is to build strong bridges to the popular culture of the new generation again and again, or even to be a cultural core itself, NFTs offer chances and opportunities to build ties that are truly “non-fungible”.

WHERE DO I GO NEXT?

Explore Stagwell’s content series on NFTs to learn more about:

• Three Ways NFTs Create Consumer Value
• What Psychology Explains About the NFT Explosion
• The Long-Term Brand Value of NFTs
• The PR Advantages of Being a First-Mover on NFTs

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Mark Penn

FEATURING

Welcome to Hitting the Mark – a critical analysis of developments at the intersection of business, marketing, and politics meant for the modern C-Suite. For our inaugural edition, I tackle the issue keeping leaders awake at night: Russia’s war against Ukraine. Brand leaders: did you ever anticipate you’d be drafted into a war? Well, you have. And here are some thoughts on what to do.

Over two months into Russia’s brazen assault on Ukraine, brands are the newest foot soldiers in the economic warfare the U.S. is waging to isolate Putin and his regime from the rest of the world. The United States has decided it is too dangerous to confront Putin directly, instead electing to levy crushing economic sanctions on the country and encourage U.S. business leaders to do the same. Should U.S. corporations participate in this economic warfare against the Russian people? So far, the answer is a clear yes. Typically, involvement in political issues splits a company’s consumers; in contrast, this move appears to be bringing consumers together.

Unprecedented Consensus on Brand Withdrawal

Per a recent survey by HarrisX into voters’ perceptions on the ongoing Ukraine conflict, about 80% of voters believe all American companies should stop doing business with and in Russia. That holds across two key segments we polled for: tech companies and fast-food companies. Further, 90% of American voters agree that Putin has committed war crimes for his role in the invasion of Ukraine.

Of course, this decision is easy for companies who have little or no operations in Russia. It is more difficult for those companies that have made a major investment in the country. They may have thousands of employees, stores, and other investments. What will happen to those assets? Will they have an opportunity to re-open operations if peace is achieved? These are difficult questions given the larger ramifications those decisions have.

Given the illegal and immoral actions of Putin’s unrestricted shelling of innocent civilians, an overwhelming number of well-known brands have either pulled out of Russia or suspended operations there. Morality surely swayed many; Anonymous, the hacker group, also threatened cyber-attacks against companies that did not withdraw. In the U.S., the sentiment is so strongly in favor of Ukraine and against Russia that any company remaining in the region is likely to draw significant consumer and media disapproval. Watch Nestle closely: the brand took a middle ground, announcing it would continue to sell baby food and products while pulling out of more indulgent lines like KitKat, and are donating any profits to the Ukraine relief cause.

Tech in Hot Water

Tech companies are as likely to be banned by Russia as they are to ban operations in Russia. Tech companies have generally focused on US internal political battles and yet carried the accounts of the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran on an unfiltered basis. RT, a U.S.-based news operation that really was a Russia propaganda front, operated online here for years without interruption. By continuing to operate, tech companies argue they are serving as a communications channel into Russia. At the same time, they could be vehicles for the spread of Russia propaganda. As of now:

• Facebook is banned in Russia while Goggle continues to operate there in limited fashion.
• Google News has been banned though it appears search is still operating. Google advertising has been shut down voluntarily.
• YouTube is operating but they have prevented the Russian military from posting videos of “liberation” on the site and so is under threat of being banned by Russia.

Business software companies like Salesforce, Slack, Dell, Microsoft and IBM stopped selling to new customers while supporting old ones for now. Many had policies of not doing business with the Russian military in any event. Perhaps the single most significant help from tech companies for Ukraine is the deployment of Starlink satellites by Elon Musk. These provide an uncuttable lifeline to the Ukrainian people and government to stay connected and communicate to the outside world.

Et Tu, Vodka?

Then there are the companies – especially vodka companies – that have for years traded on the idea they were Russian in origin, now communicating with consumers that they were really American or European after all. This is some careful marketing legerdemain.

Companies will not be able to right every wrong, and as a matter of policy we have encouraged companies to operate in areas like China as part of showing other cultures how democracy, and economic freedom work together. There is now far less belief that by working with rogue regimes, we can change them; 3 In 5 Americans in the latest HarrisX poll now reject that strategy and believe we are better off disengaging.

When President Bill Clinton addressed the conflict in Kosovo, a non-NATO country, in a speech that I helped work on, he argued stopping the atrocities against civilians there was an imperative because 1) it was morally right and 2) it was within our capacity to fix. The situation in Russia is similar as there is no real moral issue or debate – this is clearly naked and unjustified aggression on a scale we have not seen since World War II. American companies should feel confident that pulling out of their Russian operations will by and large not hurt their American operations. This is both the right thing to do and what is within our capacity as business leaders to do.

Have thoughts about the Russia-Ukraine war, brands’ responsibilities in it, or corporate purpose? Email me at mark.penn@stagwellglobal.com.

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Dyversity joins Doner Partners Network to meaningfully expand multicultural marketing services spanning advertising, research & analytics, shopper, content production, media, XM, Influencer and PR

TORONTO, April 1, 2022 – Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW) today announced the acquisition of Dyversity Communications, a leading multicultural full-service marketing agency in depth, breadth, and size based in Canada.  Dyversity specializes in Chinese and South Asian communications, with additional expertise in over 20 other languages including Filipino, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish.

The acquisition rapidly scales the Doner Partners Network’s multicultural capabilities across its Canadian assets – namely DonerNorth, Veritas, and Meat & Produce (M&P) – by adding best practices for existing clients and doubling down on more progressive ways to centralize multicultural insights and expertise as part of the offering. The Doner Partners Network (DPN) is one of four integrated networks within Stagwell that bridge complementary specialist marketing services for powerful collaborations across client work.

“I am so honoured to welcome Dyversity into our Network and learn from their expertise,” says Krista Webster, Vice-Chair of DPN and President & CEO of Veritas Communications and M&P.  “Dyversity’s team were pioneers in spearheading growth in the burgeoning ethnic markets in Canada, at a time when few considered it.  Now, they are the leader in one of the fastest growing segments in North America. As a challenger network with offices all over the world united by a mission to transform marketing, it only makes sense for Stagwell to bring Dyversity into the mix.”

Dyversity has a storied history in Canada with over two decades of award-winning work servicing all sectors from banking and telecommunications to consumer-packaged goods and real estate. With over 30 experts, Dyversity provides clients 360-degree marketing services, including strategy, creative, research & analytics, and traditional and digital media.

As part of the Doner Partners Network, Dyversity Founder Albert Yue, will continue leading the agency as CEO and focus on setting the pace for multicultural marketing in Canada with the added support of a best-in-class global network. 

“I am so proud of growing Dyversity into Canada’s largest and longest standing ethnic marketing agency, but that still accounts for a very modest number of Canadian brands’ total marketing spend,” says Yue.  “I knew when I met Krista and the Stagwell team that we could take this agency to an even more special place together. With their wind in our sails, this will be a game changer for cultural marketing overall.”

“As the Industry continues to demand more diversity in communications, it wasn’t going to be satisfactory to me to ‘lip service’ our promise to clients with temporary solutions,” added Webster.  “We needed a true change agent embedded in our network and Dyversity was the best fit in terms of caliber of clients and agency culture.”

In collaboration with other award-winning Stagwell agencies within Canada like DonerNorth and Veritas, Dyversity is well-positioned to drive multicultural marketing success as a key feature for the country’s leading blue-chip brands. Additionally, the agency will now benefit from Stagwell’s engineering and technology talent, numbering over 1200 worldwide, as well as original SaaS and DaaS products supporting marketing transformation within the Stagwell Marketing Cloud.

“We’re eager to welcome Dyversity to Stagwell as we continue to evolve our offering of transformational marketing services,” added Mark Penn, Chairman and CEO, Stagwell. “Dyversity sets a high bar for excellence in multicultural insights that aligns with our data-driven approach to shaping culture through the work we do for brands.”

Once Dyversity establishes itself within DPN Canada, Webster says the opportunity to scale expertise into the US through Doner and the Stagwell global network is on the horizon.   

About Doner Partners Network. Doner Partners Network is a mix of award-winning US, Canadian and UK based B2C and B2B marketing agencies within Stagwell that are the best-in-class in the cities they originate – from Toronto to LA, New York to London, Detroit to Minneapolis. Agencies include Doner, DonerNorth, Yamamoto, Veritas, Meat & Produce and KWT Global. 

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 10,000+ 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.

For more information, please contact:

Brandon Dixon
347-636-5807
pr@stagwellglobal.com                              

Bora Caglayan              
647-920-2201
caglayan@veritasinc.com 

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Larry joins leadership team alongside chair John Boiler and chief financial officer John Pyne

By

Matt Maher

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From NFTs and the evolving Web3 landscape to the transformative power of digital audio, Stagwell’s experts share the top five trends and brand takeaways from SXSW 2022. Interested in learning more about anything in this report? Reach out at hello@stagwellglobal.com

1. NFTS AND THE FUTURE OF COMMUNITY 
2. THE CREATOR ECONOMY, EVOLVED
3. THE METAVERSE: A UTOPIA OF CONNECTION AND SELF-EXPRESSION 
4. THE METAVERSE: A DYSTOPIA OF DISCONNECTION AND PRIVACY CONCERNS 
5. AUDIO IS THE KEY TO IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCES