Burson-Marsteller and Penn Schoen & Berland Associates launched an advertising and integrated communications agency called Proof Integrated Communications. Proof IC will be formed as a combination of Burson-Marsteller’s Marsteller advertising division and PSB’s advertising unit PSBcreative, and will specialize in the creative execution of programs on behalf of a wide range of corporate, consumer, business-to-business, and institutional clients.
Proof IC will be led by CEO Jay Leveton, a Senior Vice President at Penn Schoen & Berland Associates and former President of PSBcreative. Matt Lieppe will serve as the firm’s Chief Creative Officer. Lieppe had been Vice President and Creative Director at PSBcreative. Robert Beltran will serve as Chief Operating Officer. Beltran was previously Managing Director at Marsteller. Proof IC will have offices in New York, Washington DC, Chicago, and Pittsburgh.
Marsteller Interactive Communications, the digital design and digital media arm of Marsteller, will be spun-off into a separate sister agency called Proof Digital Media. Burson-Marsteller’s Chief Digital Strategist Erin Byrne will lead Proof Digital Media as its CEO.
Proof IC will focus on designing creative campaigns that use research and data to deliver clients superior results. The concept has grown out of Burson-Marsteller CEO and PSB co-founder Mark Penn’s belief that the most effective marketing and communications programs are driven by audience insights derived from research. Penn has developed research-based communications and marketing models that have been employed on behalf of many Fortune 500 clients.
- GolinHarris Public Affairs announced a partnership with Catalist, LLC, a provider of enhanced voter information for more than 90 progressive advocacy organizations.The partnership will offer qualified GHPA clients the opportunity to access the information and analytical tools inside Catalist that, when combined with traditional public affairs tactics such as lobbying, grassroots grass tops, thought leadership and political branding, will help clients raise money and shape policy in Washington and in state capitals around the country.
- In one of the largest mergers in the PR industry, reports AdAge, Omnicom Group is combining the operations of U.S.-based Ketchum, which has a DC office, and its European sibling Pleon to create a global network intended to rival some of the industry's biggest global players, with more than 2,000 employees operating out of 103 offices in 66 countries.