LOS ANGELES: Fleishman-Hillard and marketing agency GMR Marketing have acquired Amos Content Group to create a content strategy and creation service called Freshwire.
The joint venture between the two Omnicom Group agencies will focus on creating content for brands, such as videos, blogs, infographics, and slideshows. For instance, clients will be able to create online newsrooms to deliver editorial content by working with Freshwire, the firm said in a statement.
Amos Content Group CEO Shawn Amos will serve as chief executive of Freshwire, which will operate as a standalone entity co-owned by Fleishman and GMR.
“As brands become publishers, the need for continuous engagement with their audiences through content becomes more and more of a demand on companies' staff, and creating relevant, engaging content often exceeds their capacity,” said Dave Wickenden, EVP and MD of strategic planning and development at Fleishman. “We don't see that trend stopping anytime soon.”
Since it was founded in 2009, Amos Content Group's staff of writers, editors, producers, designers, and photographers has created editorial content for companies such as Fox Broadcasting, K-Swiss, WE TV, and Spike TV.
Fleishman expects to open additional Freshwire operations in other US offices, and the agency is looking to expand the service globally as well, Wickenden said.
The company started working with media companies and later expanded into the b-to-b space, Amos said.
“The space started getting crowded, and we were holding our own, but [the acquisition] was a real opportunity for us to get in front of more brands,” Amos explained.
Based in Los Angeles, Freshwire will continue to offer the same services but will have access to more analytical resources, he added.
“Brands are starting to have conversations internally about how to move from the campaign space to the conversational space,” Amos said. “It's about aligning the right type of content creators with the right brands to talk about the things that are authentic to those brands.”
He estimated that Freshwire's staff will triple in size by the end of the first quarter of 2013.
Fleishman, which is part of Omnicom's Diversified Agency Services unit like GMR, is one of three firms to see $500 million-plus in revenue in 2011, according to PRWeek's Agency Business Report. Its other subsidiaries include High Road Communications, Lois Paul & Partners, Paul Wilmot Communications, and Stratacomm.
