Next Fifteen Communications Group has acquired the U.S. division of Health Unlimited, in a deal worth up to $45 million. Health Unlimited, which includes specialist consultancy Corkery Group, will be rebranded as M Booth Health and operate as a separate agency reporting to M Booth CEO Dale Bornstein, according to a statement from Next Fifteen Communications Group.
A new CFO at WPP. John Rogers will join the holding company as chief financial officer in early 2020, succeeding retiring group finance director Paul Richardson. Rogers was CFO at Sainsbury’s from 2010 to 2016. Since then, he has been CEO of Sainsbury’s Argos. PRWeek’s sister outlet Campaign U.K. has the full story.
Levi Strauss & Co. president and CEO Chip Bergh knows the values and purpose of the brand must be as strong as its denim. Everything Levi’s stands for can’t just be a nice add-on. Bergh sat down with PRWeek’s Sean Czarnecki to share how Levi’s articulates its values and why it takes on the most controversial issues of the day, including hot-button topics such as gun violence and voter registration. Read the full feature story here.
Economic concerns won’t hurt marketing budgets next year. Some 61% of senior marketing leaders expect their marketing budgets to grow in 2020, according to a new Gartner survey. Out of those surveyed, which included 342 marketers in North America and the U.K. at companies with $500 million or more in revenue, 86% of respondents said the political and economic environment would have a positive impact on their business results in the next 18 to 24 months. (The Wall Street Journal)
Business purpose is becoming the top objective for CEOs. They see the current business climate as an "existential moment" for their companies, writes PRWeek’s Steve Barrett in his editor’s letter. PRWeek’s Purpose Principles conference on October 16-17 in Chicago will attempt to square this circle, define the characteristics of authentic and meaningful business purpose and outline the modern CCO’s role.
