Canadian indie Salt XC expands its U.S. presence with purchase of Craft & Commerce

There may be trade tensions between the U.S. and Canada thanks to on-again off-again tariff threats, but that’s not stopping a Canadian-based independent shop from gaining a stronger foothold in the U.S. market as it expands its North American reach. 

Digiday has learned that independently owned experiential and retail media specialist agency Salt XC, based out of Toronto, has just made its second purchase in a year in the U.S., buying Craft & Commerce, a full-service media agency with bases in New York, Chicago and Florida. Terms of the acquisition were not shared. 

Although Salt XC already has operated in the U.S., the goal with this purchase was to expand its regional reach as well as its full-service media offerings, explained Jil Lohnes, president of connected services at Salt. Intersecting the worlds of experiences and media, to her thinking, reflects where the world of marketing is going today. 

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

,Read More

Publicis forms new Influential Sports squad to hone its skills in the white-hot sports media arena

The Super Bowl may be over, and the Winter Olympics already underway, but sports continues to be the red-hot domain in media. Alright, the other hot domain — right after AI. 

The agency holding companies seemingly understand the magnitude of what’s happening in sports and are marshaling their teams to take full advantage of that heat. Publicis Groupe is the latest to take the field, so to speak, having formed Influential Sports, a new unit that taps into the creator and influencer marketplace to help brands connect with sports fans on a deeper level. It’s an offshoot of Publicis Sports, which is run by Suzy Deering, the group’s CEO. 

Publicis is putting to use its acquisition of creator agency Influential in 2024, but is also tapping into its data powerhouse, Epsilon, to marry data resources to its creator-led marketing. The effort will tap into creators, athletes, NIL talent, and sports-culture influencers, while Publicis Sports provides intelligence on fan bases, guides on sponsorships and then activates on them, using Epsilon data to help get to more deterministic data power of Epsilon. 

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

,Read More