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Marketing and data strategy firm Schireson Associates has acquired independent creative agency Stun Creative and brand strategy firm Blackbird to form a new company called Known. The companies were acquired through capital that Schireson raised from the Intermediate Capital Group in 2019. "The advertising industry is going through massive transformation, and we think we're writing the next chapter of that transformation," Martin said. "Most of these needs are not new. They're just getting more complicated, intense and existential."Schireson and Martin worked together at Viacom when Martin ran Scratch, Viacom's creative consulting arm, in the late-2000s and early-2010s.
A typical project starts with market research, relying on both qualitative and quantitative surveys. Known's data team then builds audience segments based on the research and anonymized online behavior data from vendors, and the creatives then develop ads based on the findings. Known has also built its own technology to buy and plan media rather than licensing it as other agencies do. The tech plugs into ad platforms to automatically start and stop campaigns and change bids, said Natasha Potashnik, Known's VP of data science.
"There is a lot of power behind uniting PhD data scientists with top strategists and leading creative minds, which builds a really rich and unique agency culture and is also an essential ingredient to developing blue-sky solutions for clients," she said.