M&A: W2O Group early today acquired Marketeching Solutions, LLC, a research and social listening consultancy specializing in healthcare and life sciences. Founded in 2008 by Kevin Johnson, Marketeching has offices in New Hope, PA, and Philadelphia. Johnson will remain, operating Marketeching as a subsidiary of W2O. Earlier this year, Mountaingate Capital secured an investment position in W20 to propel growth through acquisitions. – Kaplow Communications made the first acquisition in its 25-year history acquiring digital/tech firm Mayday Oct. 26. – The Association of Cable Communicatorssaid Nov. 3 it will merge with the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing. ACC chief and cable PRN Pro friend Steve Jones will depart; CTAM head Vicki Lins will lead the merged group. Gould+Partners said Nov. 3 it advised travel specialist NJFPR in its sale to MMGY Global last month.
News:Related to our lead story about brands being pulled into political issues, sometimes unwillingly, is this item about the National Rifle Association(NRA) urging members in a blog post to take Hasbro board games Candy Land and Battleship to the shooting range. For those without the games or wanting to avoid putting holes in them, the NRA offers PDF versions suitable for downloading, printing and target practice. As of Nov. 3 we’d yet to see a response from Hasbro. On a somewhat related note, Oct. 27 Hasbro launched Be Fearless Be Kind, a program “designed to empower kids to have the empathy, compassion and courage to stand up for others and be inclusive throughout their lives.” The core elements of what looks to be an excellent campaign “are dedicated to teaching empathy, putting empathy into action, and celebrating kind kids who serve as positive role models and change makers,” Hasbro said. Except when they’re playing Battleship, of course. – Putting the dreary news of Nov. 2 about print from The Wall Street Journal (possible layoffs and a smaller, reformatted print edition starting Nov. 14 with less coverage of arts, culture and New York news), Tronc, owner of the L.A. Times, Chicago Tribune and others (13% drop in print ad revenue) and the NY Times (Q3 earnings fell badly as print advertising dropped 19%) into context are the results of a new survey from Bospar. The survey asked more than 500 B2B CMOs, VPs of marketing, marketing directors and marketing managers how they get their news. As the data shows, only print magazines did worse than newspapers: Don’t Hit Print: How Marketers Get News: 1. Newspaper websites: 71%2. Facebook: 56%3. News aggregators: 55% 4. LinkedIn: 45%5. Twitter: 41% 6. Magazine websites: 37% 7. TV (not online): 28%8. TV websites: 22%9. Word of mouth: 21% 10. Newspapers (not online): 13% 11. Magazines (not online): 6%. Source: Bospar B2B PR Effectiveness Study 2016
deputy NY health practice, Finn Partners
People: Finn Partners Nov. 1 named Michael Heinley partner and deputy of the agency’s New York health practice. Prior to Finn, Heinley was VP of corporate communication at WebMD and held communications posts at Johnson & Johnson and Merck. – Ketchum Oct. 31 named partner Michael O’Brien chief client officer for the global agency, succeeding Jerry Olszewski. Olszewski has been chief client officer and managing director of Ketchum’s D.C. office since Sept. 2015. He’ll now focus on that office and continue on Ketchum’s global leadership council. – Mike Nelson was promoted to SVP, communications, CBS Television Stations. He’s been with CBS since 2006. Prior to that he held communications posts at NBC and several NBA teams. – Baretz+Brunelle said Nov. 1 former VP/group publisher of American Lawyer Media’s national legal publications Kenneth Gary has joined as chief business development officer. – Ca’ Momi restaurant group named PR News Pro friend and contributor Paul Englert head of marketing. Englert was VP, marketing at C. Mondavi & Family. – Good wishes to our friend Denise Vitola, managing director, Makovsky, who’s leaving this week to start Vitola Strategies. Prior to Makovsky, Vitola was at MSLGROUP. – Congrats are due to Donna Murphy, global CEO, Havas Health, named to MM&M magazine’s health influencer 50 list. – Kudos to Raschanda Hall, director of global media relations, Business Wire, on being named PR executive of the year by Target Market News. Hall also is president of the Chicago chapter of the Black Public Relations Society. – CommCore expanded its Spanish-language capabilities adding senior consultants Pablo Gato, based in D.C., and Janeth Hernandez in L.A. – Should be fun and insightful Nov. 16 as PR News hosts the Digital PR Awards luncheon at the Yale Club in NY. Chris Lewis, CEO & founder, LEWIS, will keynote. He’s set to discuss his just-published book Too Fast To Think, providing ways communicators can find time and space for creativity.