The superstars of Hollywood PR are joining forces. PMK and Rogers & Cowan, separate agencies that are owned by InterPublic, have announced they will operate as one.
This is like the Yankees and the Red Sox becoming one team, or DC and Marvel partnering up. Together they have a collective client roster that covers more than 30 corporate brands and 500 individual clients including Denzel Washington, Brie Larson, Robert Redford, Felicity Jones, Elton John, Sly Stallone, Steph Curry, Robert Zemeckis, Trisha Yearwood, Michael B. Jordan, The Rolling Stones, Sean Combs, Vince Vaughn, Miles Teller, Ray Romano, Katy Perry and NASCAR driver Jimmy Johnson.
The new combined agency will be run by a lot of my old pals, Cindi Berger (PMK) and Alan Nierob (RC) along with CEO Mark Owens and Shirley Hughes will be President of its Brand Marketing division, Fran Curtis and Brad Cafarelli will be Vice-Chairman of the Entertainment Division and Bill Rosenthal its COO/CFO.
For all of my life in the biz, these two firms were the top tier companies, and friendly rivals. They spun off literally dozens of new, smaller companies. Almost everyone in the best Hollywood PR agencies came from these places. Leslee Dart’s powerhouse 42West came from Leslee spreading her PMK wings years ago, and almost everyone from ID-PR, the other big deal in town, assembled from the mother ships. So makes sense now for these two companies to merge their resources– and their superpowers!
What will they be called? I hear that a new name will be created to describe the entity. But please I hope it’s not one of these names some of the others have taken– they are very confusing! Mendacity PR! Insurgency PR! Persnickety PR!
But just imagine all those PMK actors and singers turning up R&C’s Elton John and Rolling Stones events! The mind boggles. I want selfies with everyone!
