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ARound brings interactive shared experiences to the metaverse.

NEW YORK, Dec. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Stagwell Inc. (NASDAQ: STGW) announced today it will launch an innovative, location-based augmented reality platform, ARound, bringing shared experiences to live events and the retail space by engaging audiences through connected interactions in the metaverse. Stagwell will unveil and demo ARound at CES 2022, within its CES booth #CS-10 in the C-Space at Aria and during CES Unveiled on January 3 at Mandalay Bay and Pepcom Digital Experience on January 4 at The Mirage.

ARound helps venues and retailers create AR attractions for live events, bringing audiences together at scale where they can play, interact, and socialize in completely new and exciting ways. Stadiums and sports teams can now engage casual fans or customers by recapturing their attention and personalizing their experiences. Retail consumers will benefit from a more connected, immersive community experience that increases brand engagement.

“Until now, AR has focused on the individual – but ARound recognizes that the best connections come from shared experiences that connect individuals to the world around them,” said Josh Beatty, ARound founder and CEO. “Location-based AR is a relatively new and evolving space, and spatial computing represents the next major computing innovation – one that will focus less on the way we receive information and more on the way we connect with what is around us. While devices often cause distraction, ARound enables users to be more present at events, connecting people and places through shared technology.” 

“Consumers have lost patience for boring, impersonal, and disconnected marketing. And the race for their attention in today’s digital marketplace couldn’t be tighter,” said Mark Penn, Chairman and CEO, Stagwell. “ARound offers clients an opportunity to chart a new course in a powerful – and fast growing – dimension of consumer experiences. We’re proud to support Josh as he works to bring the product to life,” said Mark Penn, Chairman and CEO, Stagwell. 

ARound is currently being trialed by global retailer H&M, as well as a Major League Baseball team at their stadium. More partners will be announced early next year. 

ARound is the newest product from the Stagwell Marketing Cloud, Stagwell’s growing suite of technology products and services that support business transformation for modern marketers. It was developed as the winning idea at Stagwell’s annual innovation competition, which challenges teams to pitch new product ideas to modernize marketing services and pre-empt the needs of tomorrow’s leading brands. As a winner, ARound received capital and resources from Stagwell to build and launch the product as well as ongoing executive mentorship from the company’s marketing and technology services leaders. 

Stagwell Marketing Cloud – powered by a global workforce of 1000+ engineers – arms modern marketers with a toolbox of capabilities spanning influencer marketing, audience segmentation, AI-powered communications tech, competitive brand intelligence and cutting-edge technology in the developing spaces of AI, ML, AR/VR, data processing and fraud detection. Stagwell’s products include Koalifyed, CUE, PRophet, Harris Brand Platform, Telephia, Truly Social, Stage, and Navigator. 

To schedule a product demo of ARound at Stagwell’s CES booth, #CS-10, contact (brand@stagwellglobal.com). To schedule a media interview with AR founder, Josh Beatty, contact Pam Golden at pam@GLAPR.com. 

About Stagwell Inc.

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 20+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.

Media Contact
Beth Sidhu
beth.sidhu@stagwellglobal.com 
202-423-4414

SOURCE Stagwell Inc.

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NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — (NASDAQ: STGW) – Stagwell announced today that Mark Penn, Chairman and CEO, will present at the upcoming RBC Capital Markets Global Technology, Internet, Media and Telecom Virtual Conference on Wednesday, November 17, 2021. The fireside chat will take place from 4-4:30 PM ET.

To register and access the virtual presentation, please visit this link.

About Stagwell Inc.

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 20+ 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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That’s in part thanks to Evin Shutt, the MDC shop’s very first employee, who was elevated to Global CEO, and Matt Murphy and Carlo Cavallone, who were elevated in December of 2020 to chief creative officer roles. The pair also became a part of 72andSunny’s newly formed Creative Leadership Council, a restructuring of its creative department, comprised of creative leaders across its offices around the globe.

“Whether you’ve been here for four months or 14 years, the defining characteristic has always been creativity,” Shutt says. “Even when we announced Carlo and Murphy’s promotions it was along with the Creative Leadership Council, which is about democratizing creative leadership across the company to make sure that we have a diversity of voices represented.”

Last year the agency received critical acclaim, including 4 Emmys, for its film for the National Football League that aired immediately before the Super Bowl kickoff.

“The Next 100” started with a teenager performing a kick return across the country alongside 32 of his friends. The kid comes across NFL stars and legends on his journey urging him to “take it to the house”—and he does, running onto the actual Big Game playing field.

In the 2021 Super Bowl, the agency created an inspiring pregame moment by having a hologram of Vince Lombardi, iconic coach and social justice ally, deliver a speech about resiliency and unification. The project used AI to replicate Lombardi’s voice and the speech used words inspired from some of his actual speeches.

(Source: Ad Age) 

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“YML is the agency built for transformation in the year everything changed.” That’s a line from the agency’s Ad Age A-List submission and we couldn’t have said it better.

During 2020, the MDC Partners digital production and design agency brought on 12 new clients, hired 150 people and increased revenue 60% as it worked with marketers such as  Kaiser Permanente, Thrive Market and State Farm to rethink and reshape their businesses during the pandemic, including how they interact with consumers.

YML created for Kaiser Permanente a user interface for telehealth designed to “provide a seamless transition from in-person healthcare to a remote digital experience,” resulting in a 33% increase in user engagement on a redesigned app. For State Farm, it built a new digital platform enabling easier access to services like roadside assistance and accident repair. And for Thrive Market, YML implemented a data-driven customized and personalized experience for online shoppers that increased first-time orders by 16%.

Led by CEO Ashish Toshniwal, the Redwood City, California-based agency says that 40% of its employees are BIPOC and its executive team is 30% female. Its team is made up of 65% technologists, 25% designers, 10% product strategists who are diverse geographically; its last hands-on call had 150 people from six continents, more than 20 countries, and 16 U.S. states.

YML isn’t a traditional choice for this list; but this year has been anything but traditional. “Many of our competitors are essentially the digital side of Madison Avenue,” says YML. “They will sell clients with a fancy deck, front-load research and strategy, and then six to 12 months later comes ‘the work.’ YML is the Silicon Valley, outcome-driven, digital product company balancing and blending sexy design with cutting-edge technology; all while, critically, driving business impact.”

(Source: Ad Age)