No Brand Is Safe from Political Crosshairs as "Political Brain" Takes Over American Consumers

Stagwell's Risk and Reputation Unit Will Deploy a Leading Bipartisan Team of Campaign Experts and Seasoned Corporate Advisers to Prepare Brands for the Political Minefield

• Bipartisan team brings together political, financial and public opinion experts
• Unit leaders have experience advising 100+ Fortune 500 companies and working on 12 presidential races and 500+ Congressional and state-level races
• Less than 90 days to the first Republican candidate debate and an accelerated focus on business and politics

NEW YORK and WASHINGTON, June 15, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- With the 2024 presidential election less than 18 months away, the number of brands getting caught in the political crosshairs from the left and the right is rising fast. Companies under fire are suffering reputational hits across their core stakeholders and losing billions in sales and market capitalization.

Stagwell's (NASDAQ: STGW) Risk and Reputation Unit's bipartisan team of political, financial, and public opinion specialists will prepare brands for the grueling political cycle and polarized society. The unit brings together experts from left-of-center strategic advisory SKDK, right-of-center digital-first agency Targeted Victory, financial communications firm Sloane & Company, creative market research firm The Harris Poll, and Stagwell's corporate leadership. It is a unique combination of political agencies working on real campaigns combined with corporate and financial leaders with deep expertise and connections. Akin to general due diligence and governance, the unit will audit all facets of a brand's public and internal perception to protect brand intangibles that make up a significant portion of the value of many companies and can be erased in a matter of days.

As Stagwell CEO and chairman Mark Penn wrote in Barron's this week, companies can't duck and hope to avoid controversy in this polarized environment; they must understand their audiences and be ready to defend their values. 

"Every business that wants to avoid becoming the next brand in the crosshairs needs to prevent their consumers from switching on their political brain and thinking they're casting a vote every time they go to the store," said Mark Penn, chairman and CEO, Stagwell. "Brands can lose big if they don't understand the issues and their stakeholders and stay consistent with their values. Our team goes further than typical crisis response by providing the full picture from bipartisan political insights to financial expertise and unique public opinion data." 

Together the Risk and Reputation Unit has worked on 12 presidential races and 500+ Congressional and state-level races; raised over $2 billion for candidates on both sides of the aisle; advised 100+ Fortune 500 companies on reputation and crisis communications; and surveyed over 5 million people across the world.

To inquire about the Risk and Reputation Unit, please reach out to Alexis Williams – [email protected].

About Stagwell
Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world's most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com. 

About The Harris Poll
The Harris Poll is a global consulting and market research firm that strives to reveal the authentic values of modern society to inspire leaders to create a better tomorrow. It works with clients in three primary areas: building twenty-first-century corporate reputation, crafting brand strategy and performance tracking, and earning organic media through public relations research. One of the longest-running surveys in the U.S., The Harris Poll has tracked public opinion, motivations and social sentiment since 1963, and is now part of Stagwell, the challenger holding company built to transform marketing.

About SKDK
SKDK is a top national communications and political consulting firm that brings unparalleled strategic communications experience to Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, philanthropic organizations, and labor unions, as well as political committees and candidates. With offices in Washington, New York, Los Angeles, and Albany, SKDK offers strategic support to manage a crisis, protect a brand, advocate for an issue, or win an election.

In 2022, SKDK served as strategists and admakers for winning campaigns, including Governor Wes Moore of Maryland, Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, Governor Laura Kelly of Kansas, and Governor Ned Lamont of Connecticut – and in 2020, was a key adviser to the historic Biden-Harris campaign. SKDK has won the Holmes Report's influential North America Public Affairs Agency of the Year multiple times and was listed by the Observer as one of the best public relations firms in America for 2023. To learn more about SKDK, visit our website at www.skdknick.com.

SKDK is a proud member of Stagwell, a digital-first global marketing network that delivers scalable, seamless solutions through a unique combination of culture-moving creativity and leading-edge technology.

About Sloane & Company
Founded in 1998, Sloane & Company is an industry-leading strategic communications firm providing seasoned expertise across corporate communications; media relations; investor relations; crisis communications, activism defense & special situations; and public & regulatory affairs. The firm's leadership is actively involved in all aspects of client work—leveraging a deep understanding of the media, capital markets, and global political and social issues to build, enhance and execute full-service communications strategies for its clients. The company was recognized by The Holmes Report as the 2015 U.S. and Global Corporate Agency of the Year and as Crisis Agency of the Year in both 2012 and 2010.

Sloane is an independent subsidiary of SKDK, the nation's leading public affairs firm, and resides within the Stagwell global network of agencies. For more information about Sloane & Company, visit https://sloanepr.com, and follow the company on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Targeted Victory
Targeted Victory is a digital first agency built for the mobile age. Built by digital marketers, we have spent the past seven election cycles honing tactics and leveraging award-winning expertise to build the leading digital marketing and advertising agency on the right. We focus on winning and moving at the speed of politics to provide outstanding, senior-level service intended to scale with our clients.

We have raised our clients more than $1.5 billion in online fundraising, managed over $330 million in digital advertising, delivered over 13 billion emails and 3 billion texts and produce over 10,000 unique creatives each month.

Targeted Victory is the proud recipient of the 2022 Reed Award for Best Employer, 2021 Campaign Tech Award for Best Employer, 2021 Reed Award for Best Employer: Work-From-Home Transition, and 2015 Washington Post Best Place to Work. www.targetedvictory.com

Media Contact
Sarah Arvizo
[email protected] 

SOURCE Stagwell Inc.