M&A: W2O Group continues its buying spree. The SF-based agency acquired Sentient Interactive, a firm specializing in digital paid and owned media analytics, strategy and marketing. Sentient president/co-founder Adam Cossman will serve as chief digital officer of W2O Group. Earlier this year, W2O said Mountaingate Capital secured an investment position in the firm to accelerate growth. W2O’s acquisition of Sentient, Pure and Marketeching during the past 6 months has added 100 employees and $25 million in revenue. -- Ruder Finn acquired Daylight Partnership, a digital marketing and analytics consultancy. Daylight will merge with Ruder Finn’s digital arm and be known as RFI Daylight. Daylight founder David Ko will become SVP, RFI Studios Asia.
Good From Fake News: We’ve been concerned lately about what seems to be the acceptance of of fake news. Apparently the advisory board at The Arthur W. Page Center at Penn State feels the same way. So we were pleased when the board decided “that now, more than ever, it is important to recognize professionals in public communication who exemplify ethics and integrity.” It will do so Feb. 22 at a gala in NY. The advisory board had been discussing how to honor the legacy of Center co-founder Lawrence Foster ( PRN, Aug. 22), board chairman Bill Nielsen tells us. Ethics and integrity were hallmarks of Foster’s career. This mixed with the rise in fake news led the board to create the icons of integrity awards, Nielsen says. The initial winners will be announced this week. Those from PR, journalism and other fields of communications will be considered.
News Bits: FleishmanHillard (FH) will debut a media relations practice that promotes data-driven storytelling and touches all 80 FH locations. Newly appointed global managing director
of media relations Laura Russo will lead the practice, which will include some 400 FH employees, many of them former journalists. The group will work as “a global newsroom, identifying trends and putting together packages of content to help clients share their stories, FH says. A 9-year FH veteran, Russo also will lead a firm-wide standard for media training.– PRSA and the Ethisphere Institute released a free ebook detailing best practices from the world’s most ethical companies: A Guide to Increasing Collaboration Between the Communications and Ethics Offices. – Business Wire and Agility PR Solutions entered a strategic partnership that they say offers clients a cost-effective way to target relevant journalists and influencers. – Ketchum leadership and change management unit Ketchum Change will merge with management consultancy Daggerwing Group. Both are part of Omnicom Group. Effective Jan. 1, the integrated entity will be known as Daggerwing Group; Daggerwing CEO Ewan Main will lead it. – Public Relations Global Network added 5 firms: Ad verum (Lithuania), Ardency Consulting (Bulgaria), Media Profile (Canada), Scandinavian Communications (Denmark) and Two cents (Brussels). – LEVICK joined the Crisis & Litigation Communicators’ Alliance, a global group of indie PR firms that specialize in crisis.
Millennials and Diversity: Employed millennials (47%) are more likely to choose their next employer based on diversity and inclusion practices than are employed Gen X-ers (33%) or employed Boomers (37%), a new survey from The Institute for PR and Weber Shandwick says. Communicators note: just 46% of millennials, 40% of Gen X-ers and 44% of Boomers feel their companies communicate diversity efforts well. “Given the obsession of organizations to better understand the millennial workforce, this finding surprised me most,” says Dr. Sarab Kochhar, IPR’s director of research.
External Affairs, Choice Hotels Intl
People: Former Walmart.com marketing chief Brian Monahan has landed at Pinterest as head of vertical strategy, Pinterest said Dec. 7. Monahan had left Walmart recently. While at Walmart.com monthly unique visits grew from 55 million to 85 million, Pinterest said. – Veteran corporate communications chief Chris Day is leaving talent agency UTA next month. He’d been with UTA since 1999. – Choice Hotels International named Lorri Christou as VP, PR and external affairs. Prior to Choice, she served as SVP, strategic marketing and communications, for Cruise Lines International Association. – Syracuse University professor Anthony D’Angelo was elected chair of the PRSA’s leadership assembly for 2018. -- What a lovely memorial to former N.Y. Mets media relations exec Shannon Forde, who passed in March from breast cancer. Major League Baseball raised funds to renovate a youth field in Forde’s hometown of Little Ferry, N.J., which will be renamed Shannon Forde Field. – Sad news that beloved former Minnesota Twins media relations chief Tom Mee passed, aged 88. Mee was the Twins’ first employee and ran media relations for the team for 30 years.