Originally Released On

PR Newswire

CONTACT:

Sarah Arvizo
Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

NEW YORK – Sept. 29, 2022 – Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network built to transform marketing, hired Mansoor Basha as chief technology officer (CTO) of the Stagwell Marketing Cloud (SMC). Joining from the Applied Intelligence Practice at Accenture, Mansoor will be responsible for the technology roadmap, data strategy and cloud portfolio integration across the SMC, Stagwell’s proprietary suite of software-as-a-service (SaaS) and data-as-a-service (DaaS) products built for in-house marketers.

Mansoor brings more than 20 years of experience across product development, management and marketing, engineering, and new business development. While at Accenture, he was responsible for strategy and consulting, data-led transformation, cloud analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning-based use cases, and scenario analysis for several Fortune 500 companies.

“Every company is now a digital marketing company but most lack the resources to develop the tools they need to actually engage in modern marketing,” said Mark Penn, chairman and CEO, Stagwell. “With Mansoor’s deep background in both building and marketing innovative tech solutions, the Stagwell Marketing Cloud is well positioned to build a digital marketing infrastructure that any CMO, at any company, can take advantage of.”

“I’ve spent my career blending business strategy and technical acumen to bring transformative products to market – the very same special combination that attracted me to Stagwell and the Marketing Cloud,” said Mansoor Basha, CTO, Stagwell Marketing Cloud. “From the acquisition of Apollo Program to boost its first-party data infrastructure, to the recent launch of the first shared augmented reality experience in a live event setting with ARound and the Minnesota Twins, it’s clear that Stagwell takes a thoughtful, strategic approach to building the SMC, paving the way for organizations to deliver marketing innovation at whatever scale they need.”

Mansoor also currently serves as an investment advisor to 11.2 Ventures and Purple Arch Ventures, as well as an adjunct faculty member teaching digital marketing at New York University. He will join Chief Product Officer Abe Geiger, Chief Marketing Officer Elspeth Rollert and Managing Director Matthew Lochner on the SMC leadership team.

The Stagwell Marketing Cloud is a proprietary suite of SaaS and DaaS tools built for the in-house marketer, spanning capabilities such as brand intelligence to media activation and influencer management. Products within the cloud include ARound, a first-of-its-kind stadium-level shared augmented reality platform; PRophet , a predictive AI platform for PR professionals; Koalifyed, an end-to-end influencer management platform; the Harris Brand Platform, delivering competitive brand intelligence; and more. 

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 13,000+ 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. 

Artwork By:

JP Lopez
Creative Director,
MMI Agency

Artwork By:

Christian Silva,
Assoc. Creative Director,
Observatory

This Hispanic Heritage Month, Stagwell is giving a platform to creatives across the group to share artwork or content that reflects their cultural heritage. Kicking off this month’s virtual gallery is a window into what Christian Silva, Assoc. Creative Director at Observatory, calls “Peruvian Wakanda.”

Christian began his career 13 years ago in Lima, Peru. During that time, he’s worked with brands such as Marvel, Taco Bell, DC, Hyundai, DirecTV, Toyota, and Coca-Cola. His work has been recognized in major festivals like Cannes Lions, Clio, One Show, and NY Festivals, among others.

Christian shares the inspiration for his art:

“I’ve been exploring and learning with Midjourney’s AI for a bit and I wasn’t only blown away by the results, but also extremely excited to see what we all could achieve as creators.

I also knew that, with my first experiment, I wanted the tool to help me create something that reflects my Hispanic heritage.

When I first tried different approaches, I immediately imagined a futuristic world where the Peruvian Inca Empire grew together with advanced technology and science. The results really amazed me to the point that my friends even called it the “Peruvian Wakanda”.”

Connect with Christian on LinkedIn.

Originally Released On

PR Newswire

CONTACT:

Sarah Arvizo
Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

NEW YORK and WASHINGTON D.C. – Sept. 15, 2022 – Stagwell today launched a new business unit to deliver bipartisan, multidisciplinary political and communications expertise to chief executive officers, chief communicators officers and chief marketing officers navigating emerging policy, political and social issues.

The new Stagwell Risk and Reputation Unit aligns political and financial strategists from Democratic strategic communications firm SKDK, Republican digital agency Targeted Victory, financial communications firm Sloane & Company and Stagwell’s corporate reputation and strategic experts. The offering will help business leaders audit the societal and political issues most important to stakeholders, develop proactive and reactive strategies and narratives, and monitor and measure the impact of a company’s position on business reputation and overall performance.

“Today’s CEOs are under more pressure than ever to mix business and politics – yet one misstep can wipe out a year of marketing and corporate reputation building and billions in shareholder value,” said Mark Penn, chairman and CEO, Stagwell. “Too often, businesses rely only on expertise from one side of the aisle or without considering the financial implications of their public positions. Our team goes beyond the purpose-marketing units in today’s landscape to bring true, bipartisan political insights and tested business acumen closer to the war room.”

Ray Day, Stagwell vice chair and a longtime chief communications officer, added: “Leaders have minutes to make the right decision once a societal or political issue takes over their company’s narrative. Too often, they tend to make choices based on internal information with little outside perspective,” Day said. “We’re providing the guidance leaders need to respond in the heat of the moment, while also helping them see around corners and anticipate what’s to come to protect reputation.”

The new consultancy includes experienced strategists who have supported and served in executive leadership at Microsoft, Ford, IBM and many other Fortune 500 companies, as well as campaign strategists for 12 presidential races, 95 Senate races and 175 House races.

“Stagwell excels at connecting the best of the best to unleash transformative results for our clients. With this unit, we’ve connected two of the leading political firms in the country alongside our financial and corporate communications experts to help business leaders solve one of their biggest post-COVID challenges: balancing product with purpose,” said Alexis Williams, chief brand officer, North America, Stagwell.

To inquire about the Risk and Reputation Unit, please reach out to hello@stagwellglobal.com

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 13,000+ 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.

About SKDK

SKDK is a top national communications and political consulting firm bringing unparalleled strategic communications experience to Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, philanthropic organizations and labor unions, as well as political committees and candidates. With offices in Washington, New York, Los Angeles and Albany, SKDK offers strategic support to managing a crisis, protecting a brand, advocating an issue or winning an election. In 2020, SKDK was a key adviser to the Biden for President campaign and helped to make history by electing Joe Biden as President of The United States and Kamala Harris, the nation’s first Black, Asian-American and woman, as Vice President. To learn more about SKDK, visit our website at www.skdknick.com.

About Targeted Victory

Targeted Victory is a digital-first political and communications agency.  Born out of campaigns, we bring speed and scale to our work on behalf of Fortune 500 companies.  Our roster of presidential-level campaign operatives, former House and Senate chiefs of staff, former television producers and global public relations and marketing professionals provide strategic guidance to our clients. Our decades of experience running political and corporate campaigns has taught us utilizing both national messaging and outreach, along with activating hyperlocal engagements, is the most effective way to tell a client’s story.

About Sloane & Company

Founded in 1998, Sloane & Company is an industry-leading strategic communications firm focused on Corporate Communications, Media Relations, Investor Relations, Crisis Communications and Issue Management, Activism Defense and Proxy Contests, Transaction Support and Public Affairs. Sloane & Company has previously been recognized by The Holmes Report as Global Corporate Agency of the Year; and Crisis Agency of the Year, and in 2019 was ranked by Bloomberg #2 among communications firms for shareholder activism support, based on total number of campaigns.

Media Contact:

Sarah Arvizo
pr@stagwellglobal.com

By

Kendra Clark
The Drum

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The global network is bringing together financial experts and political strategists from both sides of the aisle to help brands nail their messaging on oft-controversial topics.

By

Jason Nottee
AdWeek

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A Ted Lasso star and a sports journalist showcase athletes without a brand mention in sight

By

Jack Neff
AdAge

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Rebranding effort is first work by 72andSunny for Zoom, with VaynerMedia handling global media push

Zoom is launching a new visual identity with help from a new agency, Stagwell Group’s 72andSunny, as the brand looks to go from ubiquitous video app to full-fledged business communications and collaboration platform.

The campaign, which launched Sept. 12, is the first for the brand from 72andSunny, which is working on a project basis. It will be running across digital, out-of-home (including Times Square), social media and streaming services in North America and globally. VaynerMedia is handling the media buy.

It backs Zoom’s new visual identity and push for broader business communications relevance—including Zoom Chat, now officially re-dubbed Zoom Team Chat.

Certainly Zoom doesn’t have an awareness problem since it became woven into the cultural fabric of work during the pandemic starting more than two years ago. Just one more reminder of its status as an “essential business tool” came Thursday when a service outage hit tens of thousands of users who were suddenly deprived of their video workplace tether.  Zoom quickly restored the service.

But the new identity and creative are meant to show that Zoom is more than the video grid of co-workers that’s become an everyday virtual workspace for millions, even as more people spend more time in the office.

“Partnering with Zoom at this time of evolution is the kind of challenge we love, with the kind of partner we love,” said Carlo Cavallone, global chief creative officer of 72andSunny in a statement. “We had a very collaborative process to get to the design concept at the core of the platform. We’re excited because it’s a clear, powerful creative idea that opens a lot of new possibilities for the brand.”

The ads pile extra o’s into the Zoom name to point out that the company is also about phone, Team Chat, rooms, events, team whiteboards, contact centers and other services.

“What started as a video meeting app quickly moved into broadcast webinars, connected conference rooms, and more, and it continues to evolve and expand,” Zoom Chief Marketing Officer Janine Pelosi said in a blog post.

A big part of the new branding is to focus on the Zoom Team Chat collaboration and messaging hub as the company looks to broaden its involvement in a work tool space where Slack, Microsoft Teams and Miro, among others, compete.

“We’ve already made significant investments in Zoom Team Chat’s capabilities, and we’ll unveil even more enhancements later this month,” Pelosi said.

CONTACT:

Adam Wise
KWT Global
awise@kwtglobal.com

Voter confidence in United States government institutions remains largely unchanged, according to a new survey by the Society of Presidential Pollsters at the George Washington University. However, significant majorities feel the U.S. economy and the nation as a whole are going in the wrong direction. While nearly three-quarters of Americans believe in the importance of bipartisan policy-making, a majority also believe public institutions are becoming increasingly politicized.

Views on the performance of key government institutions shifted modestly compared to last year’s survey. Voters are evenly split on whether the presidency is working and three-fifths feel Congress is not working, figures that barely budged compared to the 2021 poll. 57% of voters said the Supreme Court is working, a 2-point decline from last year and an 8-point decline since 2020. Although a majority of voters believe the Department of Justice and the FBI are performing well, the Bureau suffered a 6-point drop in confidence, while the DOJ’s performance numbers fell 4%. A slim majority of voters claim federal law enforcement agencies have become politically weaponized. Around two-thirds of voters feel democracy is under assault.

“Across a broad range of questions in this survey — from Constitutional values to the latest hot-button squabble — the responses of American voters display a profound concern with the state of our politics and the functioning of our governmental institutions,” Christopher Arterton, professor emeritus of political management and founding dean of the GW Graduate School of Political Management, said.

A strong but declining share of American voters consider bipartisanship to be a crucial component of our democracy. 71% of voters believe it is critically important for both parties to agree on major policy changes, a 7-point slide from last year’s poll, and approximately three-quarters of voters believe the bipartisan system of governing is no longer working. While nearly 9 in 10 voters over the age of 65 view bipartisanship as indispensable, just under 6 in 10 of those between the ages of 18 and 34 feel the same way.

“Almost two thirds believe that both the Congress and the Presidency are becoming more politicized and a majority think the same of many executive branch agencies,” Arterton said. “Two-thirds say that party leaders serve their party’s interest over the national interest, and almost three-quarters believe that politicians in Washington are not willing to compromise.”

The survey also questioned voters about issues that will likely influence November’s midterm elections. 34% of voters, including 60% of Republicans, still falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. 65% of voters, including 49% of Democrats, think there were at least some minor vote counting problems in the 2020 election. 51% of surveyed voters called President Biden’s decision to cancel student loan debt an improper use of executive power. Half of voters say executive orders in general are being increasingly abused and 56% say our system needs more checks and balances. 52% of voters feel the Supreme Court was right to make abortion and same-sex marriage constitutional rights, a considerable decline from the 2020 survey, largely due to a precipitous drop in Republican support.

HarrisX, on behalf of the Society of Presidential Pollsters, conducted the online survey from September 8 – 9, 2022. 1,851 registered voters participated in the survey. Results were weighted for age within gender, region, race or ethnicity, income, education, political party, and political ideology where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population. The margin for error was +/- 2.3%.

The complete results from the survey can be found here. Professor Arterton and Society of Presidential Pollsters founder Mark Penn will discuss the survey results on Wednesday, September 14, at 12:30 PM. If you would like to attend the event at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, please RSVP to Danny Parra at dparra@gwu.edu. The event will also be live streamed on the GSPM Facebook page.

The George Washington University established the Society of Presidential Pollsters in 2010. The Society acts as a membership organization for the select group of people who have served as public opinion advisors to the President of the United States. The Society aims to collect and preserve records of the polling conducted on behalf of the White House over the last eight decades.  

By

Rafael Canton
Adweek

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Looking to highlight what separates itself from competitors, Vivid Seats is going all in on its rewards program.

The ticket marketplace is debuting the first brand campaign for its Vivid Seats Rewards Program, which offers fans a free reward credit for every 10 tickets purchased. To promote the loyalty plan, Vivid Seats, with the help of agencies 72andSunny LA and Assembly, engineered an innovative media plan that gives one of SportsCenter’s most iconic features a new look.

“We’re not just coasting off of our laurels and performance marketing,” Vivid Seats chief marketing officer Tyra Neal told Adweek. “It is something we’ve always been great at, but building the brand side and getting people to come back and want to use Vivid Seats again has been some of the focus of my time here.”

Developed with creative agency 72andSunny LA, the ad features a librarian imagining the endless possibilities of what her free 11th ticket will be. She then transports from the relaxed stylings of a library to the raucous experience of live events such as a music concert or a sporting event.

Why it’s pushing loyalty

Customer loyalty has been front and center in Vivid Seats’ marketing plan since it underwent a rebrand last summer and changed its logo. Vivid Seats’ brand messaging has focused on its rewards program, which is one of its differentiators from its competitors. SeatGeek does not have a rewards program while Vivid’s other competitor, StubHub, has an auto-enrollment program that offers perks such as early VIP access or discounts to customers who have spent $10,000 or more on ticket purchases within a 12-month period. TicketMaster’s loyalty program—Audience Rewards—focuses on just Broadway and the performing arts.

The focus on building connections with consumers has seen some returns. Neal shared that Vivid Seats saw upward of a 10% increase in repeat rates for NBA and NHL ticket sales and is seeing similarly fast repeat rates in MLB.

Vivid Seats’ loyalty program allows fans enrolled in the rewards program to earn a stamp for every ticket they purchase. Once a fan has 10 stamps, they gain a reward credit amounting to the average value of the 10 stamps they’ve collected. Vivid Seats also has a tiered system with three levels titled Rising Star, Super Fan and Icon. Through these levels fans can receive ticket upgrades, exclusive access to industry events and other VIP perks.

The power of 11

The spot will air starting tonight, with its debut taking place during ESPN’s Monday Night Football game. It will run throughout the season according to Neal.

As a tie-in to the number 11, Vivid Seats will also sponsor a bonus 11th play on ESPN’s SportsCenter Top Ten, making it the first brand to add an 11th play to the segment.

The media campaign was done in collaboration with omnichannel agency Assembly.

Vivid Seats is also taking over the homepages of publications and official ticketing partners Rolling Stone, Bleacher Report and ESPN on Nov. 11 or 11/11. Additionally, it is partnering with global influencer marketing and technology agency Viral Nation to feature 11 different influencers for its “Real Rewards for Real Fans” social campaign.

Picks and tix

Toward the end of last year, Vivid Seats purchased sports betting app Betcha Sports for $25 million. It rebranded the app as “Vivid Picks” and integrated it into Vivid Seats as one app this summer. The brand is also debuting a separate ad for Vivid Picks in the fall.

“We’re offering fans something that other secondary ticket providers cannot which is not just a ticket, but an experience, especially on the sports side,” Neal said, explaining customers can double down on their favorite teams by seeing them in person and making picks inside of Vivid Picks.

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In partnership with Ragan Communications, PRophet Founder & CEO Aaron Kwittken speaks with a panel of experts to discuss the new technologies that promise to help PR practitioners demonstrate performance using real-time data instead of relying on gut instinct, relationships or a “great story idea”. Panel includes Aaron Bernstein (Head of Market and Competitor Intelligence: Enterprise Strategy – Walmart), Ben Choder (former President of Notified and author), and Nick Loui (Co-Founder & CEO of PeakMetrics).

Public relations has historically been a relationship-based business. The relationship between a PR practitioner and a journalist or media outlet was special and sacrosanct. This relationship, along with a great story idea, is what used to drive earned media performance. Yet, as newsrooms contract, more and more journalists are becoming freelancers and free agents. And stories are less driven by great narrative or through media relationships and more often driven by search with reporters being compensated on clicks, likes, and shares alongside affiliate marketing partnerships. How can AI, machine learning, and natural language processing help the PR and media relations industry modernize the pitch process?