Financial PR powerhouse Kekst & Co. has agreed to be acquired by marcom behemoth Publicis Group SA in an all cash deal.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

The 70-person firm, run from a small office off Madison Avenue, agreed to sell itself to a giant of publicity and advertising, France's 43,000-employee Publicis Groupe SA. Terms of the all-cash deal were not disclosed, which left the firm's rivals speculating the price was somewhere in the range of $100 million to $200 million.

Financial PR is indeed a sweet spot in the industry, as it "can produce margins as high as 40%, with some of the most highly compensated players earning as much as $900 per hour of work."

Said Publicis chairman and CEO Maurice Levy, who has known Kekst & Co. founder Gershon Kekst for some time, "It's like having a marriage with a cousin."

(Bite PR is all aboot growth)

Bite Communications opened an office in the hip Townsend neighborhood of Toronto, Canada yesterday--Canada Day. According to the release the purpose is to service existing clients such as their biggies AMD and Sybase, and to establish a base to build business. Agency followers might remember the minor stir Bite caused recently by creating the cutely-named Incisor division to address conflicts of interest when landing Sybase.

Bite enters a crowded market with many major firms having at least some presence there including Edelman, Fleishman-Hillard, Ketchum, GCI, Weber Shandwick, and Hill & Knowlton, as well as all-Canadian firms like Thornley Fallis.

The office is headed up by VP Will Willis, who was a senior PR manager at AMD till May 2007. Willis dismissed the usual Canuck jokes on the Bitemark blog, then went with plastic Mountie hats for the opening anyway (how could he not?). Best wishes Will and team. Have a Molson for us.

(PBA rolls with BZA)

This edition of Spin the Agencies of Record reports wins in ad metrics, bowling, and two separate companies represented by different firms, both of use to PR people tracking information, Alerts.com, and Filtrbox:

MWW Group gets Alerts.com

Trylon SMR hired by advertising metrics and testing company MediaAnalyzer

Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) hires sports PR firm Brener Zwikel & Associates (BZA) to promote its 2008-09 season

Loughlin/Michaels Group (LMGPR) picks up two web 2.0 clients, frevvo and Filtrbox

When we interviewed Advertising Age PR reporter Michael Bush recently, we speculated, "The PR industry is doing fine now, but we'll really know where things are headed come this fall," to which he responded, "I think that is absolutely true and it's what I'm hearing from a lot of people in the industry that I speak to."

Well, today maybe we're finding out some relevant market info a little sooner than we thought.

From PRWeek:

WPP reported a 10% increase in worldwide revenues from PR and public affairs work for the first five months of 2008. The figure excludes changes in currency values. Revenues overall were up 14.6%, or 4.5% excluding the impact of currency changes and acquisitions.

WPP Group, which includes Burson-Marsteller, Hill & Knowlton, and Ogilvy, among other PR firms, made the announcement today, June 24, at its annual general meeting in London.

(I am one of two new Dan Klores clients)

This edition of Spin the Agencies of Record includes account wins of brand names you've definitely heard of including Progressive insurance, GameStop, and L.L. Cool J. And 5W landed a client too of course:

Stanton Crenshaw snags GameStop

Progressive Insurance signs Allison PR as AoR; Progressive recently bought naming rights to the Cleveland Indians ballpark and became title sponsor of the directly relevant XPRIZE (robots need insurance too)

5WPR hired by Smart Online as agency of record

Dan Klores Communications (DKC) lands two recording artists: rapper L.L. Cool J., and singer Mayra Andrade

(A SureFit slipcover classic)

Ronn Torossian's 5WPR continues its march up the O'Dwyer's Rankings today with two new account wins: SureFit slipcovers and Beverly Hills Rent-A-Car.

While we can see high-end car rentals as a potentially nice synergy with gossip pitches, we're having a hard time visualizing Nick Cannon chillin on Granny's SureFit sofa at Escape Mansion. Perhaps Pastor John Hagee is starting a talk show and needs set pieces? Better fit.

Regardless, you can rack up a lot in billings with accounts like these. Many are happy just to be part of the party that is 5WPR.

San Diego tech agency JHG Townsend has adopted "virtual fridays" now that gas is up to about $4.25 in that market as a way to be save a few bucks and be socially responsible. I've been to San Diego a number of times, and though it seems like workers are playing hooky in force on Fridays to surf, the market does have an ugly rush hour.

JHG's SVP Elizabeth Estes-Cooper explains the thinking in a vlog post, with some simple calculations on how much energy the firm's workers will save. She address to obvious question of the potential for lowered productivity, though misses the added bonus of employees gaining around 90 minutes in lost time spent driving. At least here in NYC we can read something while we commute.

JHG also snagged some nice publicity for itself for the new policy including a local TV affiliate, and an AP story.

(I, myself think Jam Donaldson's t-shirts are a good idea)

This edition of Spin the Agencies of Record includes account wins in dyslexia testing, a big CMS company, a series of travel DVDs for families, and fashionable tees attempting to stamp out bad grammar:

Interwoven, a content management solutions provider (CMS) chooses Waggener Edstrom

TripFLIX to engage in some Child's Play

Jam Donaldson chooses Garage PR to help push "do better" series of T-shirts

Dyslexia testing company Eisen Management Group chooses Greater Cincinnati PR

After some speculation, the WPP / Dell global marketing firm, known up until now as Da Vinci, has a permanent name: Enfatico.

The word comes from musical notation, where it means to play each note "with emphasis" or "emphatically."

For background, "Enfatico consolidates Dell's worldwide marketing services, previously handled by more than 800 firms, into a single, wholly integrated global agency."

Full release after the jump.

continued...

Los Angeles' Entertainment Fusion Group (EFG) today opened their east coast headquarters in Manhattan's Flatiron District.

EFG has worked with clients including the Tribeca Film Festival Johnnie Walker, the Oscar Awards, the Grammy Awards, Bravo Television Network, MTV, Maxim, Blender, EA Sports, Tanqueray, and our favorite: Prince! Yes, that Prince.

"This expansion has also offered new business opportunities - we are now able to cater to prospective clients that care about proximity," said managing director Peter Philipp Wingsoe.

The agency will also launch EFG Mobile, which will specialize in mobile marketing and content delivery.