Furniture retailer Raymour & Flanigan hired MWW Group, the agency announced today. This is the first time R&F hired an agency for PR and marketing communications work. Alissa Blate, executive vice president and global consumer marketing practice leader at MWW Group, confirmed the agency has been hired on a monthly retainer basis but would not comment on budget.

"It was a situation where Raymour & Flanigan knew that an integrated campaign was going to be very successful for them," Blate told PRNewser. "As such, we were brought in to take a look at their business and develop a strategy as to what are the critical communications aspects that would work within an overall campaign - including social media, creating advocates through influencer relationship's, media relations, and then using their spokespeople as third party endorsers."

"MWW Group brings a number of critical skills that made them a natural choice to handle this assignment," said Lisa King, senior vice president of marketing at Raymour & Flanigan in a statement.