Originally Released On

PR Newswire

CONTACT:

Sarah Arvizo
Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

Celebrates GALE as part of AOY Shortlist

Stagwell – just 1% of the market – is 20% of the AOY list

Observatory Included on the Small AOY Shortlist

NEW YORK – Dec. 12, 2022 – Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network built to transform marketing, celebrates its strategic and creative agency Anomaly which has been named U.S. Agency of the Year by Adweek, the American trade publication covering the advertising, marketing, and media industries.

Adweek editors applauded Anomaly’s ‘monster’ year of new business wins, which included 16 accounts ranging from Dunkin’, Vans, and the ‘pitch of the year’: Bud Light U.S. Additionally, Adweek said “the agency’s Super Bowl spot for Meta Quest tugged on our heartstrings.”

Business agency GALE – which continued its trajectory of triple-digit growth in 2022 – was also shortlisted by Adweek as U.S. Agency of the Year, one of only 10 agencies recognized. GALE’s notable 2022 new business wins include H&R Block and Dropbox, and it was earlier named to Adweek’s list of Fastest Growing Agencies for 2022.  

“Our challenger network – just 1% of the market – boasts 20% of Adweek’s prestigious list. We’re proud to celebrate Anomaly as Adweek’s 2022 Agency of the Year. Led by Carl Johnson, Karina Wilsher and great office leaders in New York and Los Angeles, Anomaly lodged a remarkable year of new business growth and creative innovation. I am also excited to see GALE shortlisted for Agency of the Year and proud of Brad Simms and the fast-growing team there,” said Mark Penn, chairman and CEO, Stagwell. “I also want to congratulate Brendan Shields-Shimizu and the Observatory team on their recognition on the Small Agency of the Year short list for continuing to innovate for clients in a variety of formats.”

“If you define and fully commit to what you believe; identify what must remain and must change, what you’re prepared to do, and more importantly not do, then you can make significant progress in a turbulent, unpredictable world. We do and we did,” noted Anomaly co-founder Carl Johnson.

Observatory, based in Los Angeles, was also included on the shortlist in the U.S. Small Agency of the Year category, recognized for selling a variety of work including an action figure of Martha Stewart, two docuseries, a podcast, a film, and a concert. It also received nods for developing 15 sports films for clients as well as creating a sequel to an iconic Chipotle ad.

About Stagwell

Stagwell is the challenger holding company 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.

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Originally Released On

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CONTACT:

Sarah Arvizo
Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

Los Angeles Rams and ARound Introduce the Next Generation of Stadium Augmented Reality, Sponsored by SoFi

ARound Expands Stadium-Wide AR With Addition of In-Venue Broadcast Integration on SoFi Stadium’s Infinity Screen, In-Home Fan Experience; SoFi Signs on as First ARound Brand Sponsor

LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK – Dec. 5, 2022 – The Los Angeles Rams are introducing a new fan-focused technology experience at the stadium and at home. Debuting at yesterday’s game, fans at SoFi Stadium were the first to experience shared augmented reality (AR) in an NFL game with the launch of ARound, a next-generation fan engagement platform designed to enhance gameday fun with live, real-world AR experiences, sponsored by SoFi, digital personal finance company and SoFi Stadium naming rights partner. First launched in August with the Minnesota Twins, ARound expanded its platform to include in-venue broadcast integration as well as an at-home AR experience.

ARound, part of the Stagwell Marketing Cloud, uses 3D spatial computing to localize content to individual users throughout the venue, enabling SoFi Stadium’s 70,000 attendees to see the same real-time 3D effects and participate in the same shared experiences. Using the ARound Stadium app, fans point their smartphone at the field to open up a universe of AR effects, interacting with the physical venue and fellow fans in real time. ARound and the Rams have taken shared AR several steps further through new fan experiences custom to the Rams and to the NFL:   

  • Infinity Screen AR: Fans can view effects like “Rampede” and “Make Noise” come to life on the Rams’ state-of-the-art 70,000-sq. foot videoboard, The Infinity Screen, with AR experiences incorporated into the gameday production in real time, such as when a touchdown is scored or when the team takes the field.
  • Players in 3D: Key player callouts including Aaron Donald, Bobby Wagner, Cooper Kupp, Jalen Ramsey, Matt Gay, and Matthew Stafford are featured through special effects, making their personalities larger than life.
  • The Best Seat in the House, At-Home AR Experience: Fans can join the gameday festivities and contests through a life-size virtual stadium experience from their homes, mirroring what’s happening during the game at SoFi Stadium. 
  • SoFi: Official ARound Sponsor: Opening the door to this new, connected marketing medium, digital personal finance company and SoFi Stadium naming rights partner SoFi has signed on as ARound’s first platform partner with stadium-wide AR games, contests, effects, and a remote experience amplifying the energy and excitement of Rams gamedays and the SoFi brand. 

“We are thrilled to team with ARound and SoFi to incorporate AR into gamedays at the Rams House in unprecedented ways,” said Marissa Daly, VP & GM, Los Angeles Rams Studios. “This experience is a continuation of the game-changing ways we’ve partnered with SoFi at SoFi Stadium and across Los Angeles to elevate the fan experience on gamedays and beyond.”

“Fans come to the stadium to feel closer to the game, to the players, and to other fans. We developed ARound to enhance those feelings through highly immersive and interactive AR experiences that complement the action on the field,” said Josh Beatty, founder and CEO, ARound. “And with products like Apple and Google AR Glasses already in development we’re excited to open up the living room to blended TV experiences we know are the future of broadcast entertainment.”

“At SoFi, we pride ourselves on being at the forefront of innovation to create seamless experiences for our members, all while fulfilling our mission of helping our members achieve financial independence,” said Lauren Stafford Webb, CMO, SoFi. “We are proud to sponsor ARound’s first-of-its-kind technology for Los Angeles Rams fans at the iconic SoFi Stadium to make their experience even more spectacular.”

Journalists interested in covering the Rams launch can access the press kit here.

 About ARound

ARound is a first-of-its-kind stadium-level shared augmented reality platform and is part of the Stagwell Marketing Cloud, a proprietary suite of SaaS and DaaS solutions build for the modern marketer. ARound keeps audiences engaged by capturing their attention through immersive, interactive and shared experiences with fellow fans across the venue. Where other AR products offer isolating, singular experiences, ARound’s massive multi-user AR – which uses 3D spatial computing to localize content – redefines what it means to be part of a connected fan experience. It was the winner of Stagwell’s annual innovation competition which invests in new product ideas proposed by the network’s 13,000+ employees. ARound and the Stagwell Marketing Cloud are a part of Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network build to transform marketing.

 About Los Angeles Rams

The Los Angeles Rams – Los Angeles’ original professional sports team and Super Bowl LVI Champions – stand as one of the oldest franchises in the National Football League and since its founding in 1937, have garnered four World Championships and sent 30 of its members to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As a professional sports team, the organization is committed to be a valuable civic partner and serving the greater Los Angeles area 365 days a year. The Rams play their home games at SoFi Stadium, which is located at Hollywood Park, a 298-acre sports and entertainment destination being developed by Los Angeles Rams Owner/Chairman E. Stanley Kroenke in Inglewood, CA.

About SoFi

SoFi helps people achieve financial independence to realize their ambitions. Our products for borrowing, saving, spending, investing and protecting give our over four million members fast access to tools to get their money right. SoFi membership comes with the key essentials for getting ahead, including career advisors and connection to a thriving community of ambitious people. SoFi is also the naming rights partner of SoFi Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Chargers and the Los Angeles Rams. For more information, visit SoFi.com or download our iOS and Android apps.

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By: Adrienne Adair, SVP, Creative, 
MMI Agency

Originally Released in 
MediaPost

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Creating content at a pace that continues to grow in response to consumers’ appetites can feel daunting. That each creative asset further needs to grab the audience’s attention in the first three seconds, and bears the responsibility of resonating with that consumer and garnering a like, click or sale, only adds to the challenge. 

Continually optimizing performance is the key to a successful and diverse content strategy, and that requires a carefully orchestrated flights of assets to launch, test and learn to immediately develop the next round. The cadence of those assets must be constant and unwavering: assets that vary by message and by imagery. Static assets. Animated assets. Influencer’s assets. Now, multiply those assets by the number of unique audiences.

Given these challenges, how do we preserve the ability to curate original work without blowing the budget in the time it takes to produce it? AI can put invaluable time back in the hands of creatives by using features that allow designers to crowd-share a project in real time to finish a layout in far less time than had been possible.

Web and mobile apps are available to create content quickly through customizable templates and access to thousands of fonts. They can even intuitively reflow your layout from one size to multiple formats with a single click and allow you to publish the content to your social channels directly from the app. AI can be used to analyze and extrapolate an image from simple to complex backgrounds more quickly than with the original image selection tools, enabling designers to composite multiple images in one layout at breakneck speed.

There are also innovations still in development that promise to speed up the work of designers such as AI’s predictive technology that can uncrop portraits, not only showing a cropped subject in full frame, but also giving designers the ability to change the wardrobe or the surrounding background — all with a few clicks. 

Want to create a motion video from a static photo? AI can analyze the motion from a selected source video and apply it to a static photo, allowing designers to make stationary subjects dance. Another such innovation on the horizonwill allow easy creation of packaging mocks that apply 2D design elements to 3D packaging composites, reducing an hours-long exercise to just minutes with a single click.

Why should brands be interested in how AI has enhanced these tools of the trade? Because time = money. If the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, the path from imagination to realization on behalf of your brand is more direct than ever.

With these tools, tasks that once took four hours might take as little as 40 minutes. From pandemic repercussions to supply chain limitations to inflation, brands are challenged to make the same level of impact in the market with more conservative budgets. The time saved in production allows more time for creativity and more time to produce a greater number of the most impactful assets to amplify your brand’s presence and maximize performance.

 

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Missed Advertising Week New York this week? We distill the biggest brand takeaways on brand fandom, political advertising, and media channel transformations below. Follow Stagwell on LinkedIn to keep up with the insights.

Rise of Brand Fandom – Move over, sports teams and celebrities. 

Fifty-seven percent of consumers consider themselves a fan of a brand or product – higher than sports (48%), movies (52%), celebrities (54%), or online influencers/personalities (37%). 

The brands that take a holistic stake in consumers’ lives will drive loyalty, affinity, and advocacy–and not just in the moment. Fandom is not a fad or a flash in the pan; 2 in 5 brand fans have been fans for over 10 years. Focus on helping consumers develop their personalities through your brand by delivering marketing, events and experiences, and content that gives them a platform to express that personality.  

“Fandom is critical in the luxury space. Luxury is no longer defined as the most expensive thing –it’s defined by insider knowledge. We’re seeing a dispersion of brands being considered ‘wealth’ and ‘luxury,’ and price point alone won’t keep you in that luxury equity space. It’s important to have fan bases that really think of your brand as luxury.” – Neda Whitney, SVP, Head of Marketing, Americas, Christie’s

Political is the Biggest Media Story of 2022 – Get ready for hotter cyclical media environments as political advertisers diversify digital media channels to engage more voters.

Brands will feel the effect of political messaging as political advertisers spend a record $3 billion in the last three weeks of the election alone.

Many ads will tell Americans they’re poorer than ever because of inflation, for example – how will brands push back and get consumers to continue spending? Brands can no longer afford to be apolitical but risk looking too performative if they don’t back up their positions with actions. Lyft decided to foreground its identity as a transportation company when deciding to act, and as a result, it has provided ride services for voting, vaccines, and reproductive rights.

“We saw in 2016 that so many people chose not to vote because they didn’t have access to transportation. So we asked ourselves: how can we make an impact there? We created a voter access program and saw its immediate impact in 2020. It’s about looking at the issues consumers care about and our services. It’s our job to listen – to talk to elected officials and let them know we can come in as a partner to solve some of the issues our consumers care about.” – Heather Foster, Head of Government Affairs, Lyft

Digital Channels and Political Advocacy – Are political advertisers about to have the digital marketing efficacy reckoning?

This cycle will be the first many realize media buys are not driving impact because of mistargeting. Many voters in battleground districts no longer have traditional television – but there’s a disconnect between ad spending and consumption, with most dollars still going to broadcast. Brands need to get more comfortable shifting the media mix and taking risks with bourgeoning digital channels.

“The idea that there’s the TV generation and then there’s the kids – it’s an antiquated view. The fact is cord cutting is mainstream – now the majority of the population – and the idea that we can say we have a TV strategy and a different digital strategy is fraught with disaster. As we iterate, brands need to think about messaging across the full funnel, and know that TV and streaming work really well together because it allows us to do that. The future will be integrated streaming and linear in a really incremental fashion.” – Ashwin Navin, CEO SambaTV

Resurgence of OOH – OOH is resurging because OOH is modern.

When you start treating it like programmatic or digital it becomes a valuable tool in the funnel. Driving consumer engagement and social amplification through use of the OOH medium. (The Harris Poll found TikTok and other social media platforms are a major source of OOH ad visibility: 82% of TikTok users report frequently noticing OOH ads in content in their feeds, with nearly identical impact reported by Facebook and Instagram users.) And don’t sleep on the innovation underway here: location-based insights, shared AR capabilities, and more are all letting advertisers do more at scale. Embrace the underlying technology capabilities of Out of Home as a resilient pillar of your media plan for 2023.

”Out of home isn’t changing – the strategy is. Media is the new experiential and Out of Home is where people are. The technology that sits behind Out of Home is driving a different strategy lens, a different creative lens, and a different content lens.” – Brad Simms, CEO, GALE Partners.

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By:

Nolan Mendoza
Stagwell Jr. Designer 

This Hispanic Heritage Month, Stagwell is collaborating with creatives across its global network to curate artwork that reflects their cultural heritage. Our series continues with a contribution from Stagwell Jr. Designer Nolan Mendoza called “The Diablitos.”

“Growing up in a mixed Mexican American household, tradition and art shaped my early interests for design. There is something unique and proud about Mexican style, which fuses bright colors and humanist shapes. Everything is designed by hand. And the art is often heavily influenced by Catholicism. I’ve carried all of those techniques and styles into my own personal work today. The Diablitos is an ongoing personal project born of processing Catholic guilt and being queer while trying to balance and maintain my relationship with a higher power. Each piece is hand-carved from linoleum and printed with ink, displaying its own unique and original marks and qualities.”

 

Nolan joined Stagwell in 2021 to help transform its visual identity. Prior to Stagwell, Nolan worked as a designer at Gibson & Dehn and as a model represented by Wilhelmina, where he walked New York Fashion Week.

Connect with Nolan on LinkedIn

Next: Enter Peruvian Wakanda with Observatory’s Christian Silva

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Originally Released On

PR Newswire

CONTACT:

Sarah Arvizo
Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

Stagwell’s fastest-growing network transforms for the convergence of creative, media, and commerce.

NEW YORKOct. 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network built to transform marketing, has expanded and rebranded the Stagwell Media Network to the Brand Performance Network, closing a crucial gap in the industry to produce and deliver connected solutions that perform across creative, media and commerce.

“‘Creative + Media + Commerce’ – the new equation for modern marketing – is simple, but executing against it is complex. Brands need truly integrated partners to navigate this convergence,” said Mark Penn, chairman and CEO, Stagwell. “The Stagwell Media Network has clearly resonated well with clients; look at its breakout performance and recent substantial client wins. Now, with this expansion, we’ve fully integrated creative and media, and are scaling our growing expertise in e-commerce solutions, creating a group able to activate the full equation of modern brand performance.”

The proximity of Creative X Media X Commerce is core to the Brand Performance Network’s evolved offering. Now, the network is home to more than 6,000 experts across 60 locations in 20 countries worldwide, representing award-winning creative and managing close to $5 billion in media and commerce. 

In August 2022, Stagwell integrated iconic creative agencies Crispin Porter Bogusky, Forsman & Bodenfors, Observatory and Vitro into the Brand Performance Network; Stagwell at the time also reported the Media Network posted 33% net revenue growth in the second quarter of 2022, making it Stagwell’s fastest-growing integrated network.  

“We launched the network a year ago in response to the needs of the modern marketer, to be omnichannel, data and tech-enabled, and global,” said James Townsend, global CEO of Assembly and the Brand Performance Network. “Today, we’re evolving again to reflect the drive we’ve seen from blue-chip global brands rightly demanding truly connected creative, media, and commerce solutions to unlock transformation and growth for their businesses. This will offer our people more opportunity and our clients even more value.”

“Today’s announcement is a great moment to welcome the new creative agencies and their leadership teams to the network,” said Brad Simms, president and CEO, GALE, and global chief product officer of the Brand Performance Network. “Their compelling and impactful work perfectly complements strategic media execution and personifies our focus on brand performance.” 

All agencies within the network will continue to operate under their individual brands, consistent with Stagwell’s fundamental belief in collaboration between complementary groups over agency consolidation. Brands within the network will retain their cultures and unique capability sets, while scaling through more integrated work.

The new identity is being designed by business agency GALE

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 the Brand Performance Network
Stagwell’s Brand Performance Network is a group of leading creative, media, and commerce agencies home to more than 6,000 experts with an expansive global footprint across 60 offices in 20 countries, managing $5 billion in media. The network includes creative agencies GALEForsman & BodenforsCrispin Porter BoguskyVitro, and Observatory, media agencies AssemblyMMI AgencyGoodstuff and Grason, B2B specialists Multiview, multi-lingual content agency Locaria, travel and media experts Ink, and commerce experts Brand New Galaxy. The network offers marketers a more dynamic partner for global B2B and B2C connected solutions spanning data, technology, media, and creativity aimed at accelerating business growth for brands worldwide.

Contact: 
Beth Sidhu
pr@stagwellglobal.com

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Originally Released On

PR Newswire

CONTACT:

Sarah Arvizo
Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

NEW YORK, Sept. 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network built to transform marketing, announced its second-annual sponsorship of Advertising Week New York, the world’s largest annual gathering of marketing, media, and technology leaders. Stagwell will host two panels on the Advertising Week New York stage, sharing insider insights into the implications for brands of the explosion of political media spending and fresh insights from a new global survey on brand fandom. 

The panels will feature experts from Stagwell’s flagship omnichannel media agency Assembly and leading technology, content, and culture insights firm National Research Group (NRG):  

  • Buzz & Devotion: The Fan Economy That Makes the Niche Mainstream in Today’s Culture – Monday 10/17 @ 1:15p: Fan culture has a powerful impact on a brand’s ascension into relevance, power and popularity. Informed by new, original research, we will bring brand experts from McDonald’s together with NRG to explore the pathways for brands to successfully build and activate a fan community. Insights from NRG’s latest thought leadership research will combine with lessons learned from the birthplace of fandom — sports and entertainment — to unlock powerful insights that help brands connect and grow their most devout and influential customers. 
  • Talk Politics to Me: Why Every Brand Today Needs a Dose of Political Know-How– Thursday 10/20 @ 1:15p:  Political is THE media story of Q4 2022, and it’s never been a more critical time for all advertisers to know the rules of the game.  Join Assembly, a global omnichannel media agency – with an only-of-its-kind full-service political strategy and media practice – and experts from Lyft and SambaTV for a discussion on the path forward for brands in a politically charged media environment and the convergence of political, advocacy, and commercial advertising.  

Also at Advertising Week New York:  

In addition to staged programming, Stagwell is proud to partner with Brand Innovators to deliver access to intimate thought leadership with leading CMOs and agency experts. Sign up to follow along with insights and other content from Advertising Week New York.  

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. 

 

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International Podcast Day is upon us – and after the gold rush of podcast deals, advertising partnerships, and content launches in 2022, there’s a sea of choices to sift through as you’re setting your morning playlist. We’re sharing some of our favorite podcast series from across the Stagwell network

The Harvard-Harris Poll Debrief with Mark Penn

Harris Poll chairman Mark Penn and The Hill’s Julia Manchester discuss results from the latest Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll on voters’ political beliefs. Each month Mark picks one word to best describe the state of public opinion.

 

Is This Thing On? – GALE

“Is This Thing On?” is a podcast from GALE, exploring marketing, life, and random thoughts with business and creative leaders from around the globe. Past guests include Chipotle CMO Chris Brandt, iHeartMedia CMO Gayle Troberman, Discovery Global CMO Patrizio Spagnoletto, and more!

Brand on Purpose with KWT Global’s Aaron Kwittken

Purpose and profit can coexist. In fact, purpose-driven businesses often find greater success when they authentically connect their brand and mission with a cause that aligns with consumer vision. Brand on Purpose is an engaging and popular podcast focused on uncovering the untold stories of entrepreneurs and senior leaders who have discovered how to serve a greater good while building or transforming major brands.

America This Week –  The Harris Poll

Each week, we surface the most important societal shifts, consumer sentiments, and marketplace trends leaders need to know to stay in lockstep with consumers’ shifting desires. Grounded in weekly polling data, ATW is hosted by NYT bestselling author John Gerzma, CEO of The Harris Poll and futurist Libby Rodney, CSO of The Harris Poll.

THE STREAM – Allison+Partners

In a world awash with hot takes and ALL CAPS TWEETS, it’s easy to get so lost in the debate that you forget what the story was in the first place. Never fear, hosts Owen Clark and Micah Baro are your guides through today’s turbulent communications landscape, combining candid interviews with experts with their own unique perspectives gleaned from a decade working across journalism, public relations, video production and corporate sales. The Stream podcast is presented by Allison+Partners – which means no ads!

STUFFED in Your Ears – Goodstuff

Listen to topical conversations from Goodstuffers and never-before shared insights from special industry guests.

 

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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.

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By

Robert Sawatzky,
Editor, Campaign Asia
Read this piece in Campaign Asia. 

 

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Challenger holding company Stagwell is doubling down on its global affiliate strategy, adding 11 new partner companies to its worldwide network. All but two of the additions are based in Asia where Stagwell has now also opened a second office in Malaysia.   The partners span China, India, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Italy, and the UK, extending and expanding the network’s media, scaled content and commerce capabilities. Together, some 1,400 marketing practitioners have now been added to Stagwell’s “functional global footprint.”  

Some of the new affiliates, such as China’s SparkX and 99IE, bring specialty expertise in ecommerce and gaming respectively, while India’s Event Capital and Laqshya Live Experiences bring event and experiential chops.  

If you separate the nine subsidiary partners within India’s Laqshya Media Group, the number of new affiliates grows to 19. Media was a key strategic focus, with BushAd also joining from Korea, digital media specialists SuperDrive and SearchGuru joining from Japan and Malaysia respectively, along with three Chinese media companies, including MarketIn and GIMC.   

Not all these affiliate deals make Stagwell their exclusive partner. One of China’s oldest and largest local advertising groups, GIMC, has a track record of partnering with other groups, including joint ventures with Havas and Hakuhodo. Another new content affiliate, Malaysia’s Kingdom Digital, sold a majority stake to Hakuhodo last month.   The two new affiliates added from Europe, Italy’s Caffeina and Digital Mill out of the UK, are both digital content specialists.  

Stagwell’s chief affiliate officer Anas Ghazi and APAC managing director Randy Duax tell Campaign the new affiliations are the result of a mix of inbound interest, strategic planning around capabilities and geographies, but were mostly driven by tangible activations on behalf of clients.  

The global programme

In total, Stagwell now is nearing 80 global partners in more than 60 different markets in less than two years since launching the affiliate programme. Under these deals, there is no immediate monetary investment – both sides merely agree to cooperate on client work. 

For the affiliates, it expands their scope of opportunity beyond their local market without being forced to work for global clients and projects that they don’t want to. For Stagwell it’s a way to expand its global reach and capabilities without needing to raise capital for acquisitions.  For both sides, affiliation is a trial period to feel each other out, which can be a precursor to eventual acquisition as it was with Brand New Galaxy (BNG), a European-based ecommmerce network that was one of Stagwell’s earliest affiliates before the two consummated their relationship through acquisition earlier this year.  

But the programme is not without risk either. It’s hard enough for holding companies, with all their global connective tissues, to deliver the seamlessly integrated global service they’ve been pitching to clients for years, nevermind asking independent agencies with different cultures and objectives to interpret quality, standards, processes the same and deliver what the client wants on terms financially beneficial to all.  But Ghazi already sees proof in acquisitions like BNG and in the number of new business wins emanating from affiliates, referencing a pipeline of yet-to-be-announced deals.  

“With our affiliate partners worldwide, we’ve been able to punch up to win new business and land account expansions across Stagwell—from Hydraltye in Australia and Mashreq Bank in the UAE to our major Lenovo win across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Latin America and North America,” Stagwell chairman and CEO Mark Penn added in a statement. “With our model, we’re not just placing random dots on a map, we’re able to provide clients with global execution rooted in local understanding.”  

“It really is working,” Duax says, who explains that not a day goes by without an opportunity from clients pitching a need to expand to another market, or an affiliate referring a piece of business to be expanded out. 

A second footprint in Asia

If many of the new affiliations are the product of client business, so too is Stagwell’s latest landing pad in Kuala Lumpur. A couple of global client wins together with new work for Ink (with Malaysian Airlines) and Assembly will see the latter hire a dozen new people in Malaysia and accelerated the set-up of an office there.  These announcements follow Stagwell’s stated objective last November to expand aggressively in Asia Pacific, relocating Duax to Singapore where he soon after added Coconuts Media as a content affiliate in January.  

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