LOS ANGELES, CA — LRW Group, an analytics-powered marketing services company and a portfolio company of Tailwind Capital, today announced the acquisition of Salt Branding, a Bay Area consultancy that helps businesses build and expand their brands. Salt joins LRW Group effective immediately, and will operate under the company’s Action Division.
Salt brings to LRW Group nearly two decades of experience helping businesses make their brands essential to modern consumers. The agency works with both established and emerging brands to create, extend and redefine their brand strategy, positioning and purpose and gain relevance in a crowded marketplace through smart and effective creative solutions. Its client roster includes a powerhouse of brand names such as Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, Disney, Google, and Microsoft.
“Salt boasts a powerful reputation in the marketing community as an agency that understands brand challenges like few others and activates creative strategies to meet those challenges,” said Tom Bernthal, president of LRW Group’s Action Division. “By bringing Salt into the fold, we can better help our clients execute on our insights and recommendations. It’s a complementary fit that makes sense on all sides.”
Salt was founded in 2001 by Paul Parkin, David Neugebauer, and Rick Herrick with a mission to make brands more focused and relevant to the needs of both business and consumers. Based in San Francisco, Salt has helped brand leaders transform their organizations using insights, ideas and imagination. Defining brands as a business asset, Salt has helped companies to build strong brand cultures, organize and name their products and services, launch competitive go-to-market strategies and create award-winning creative expressions. With a simple philosophy of ‘Being Essential,’ Salt turns insights into action.
“At LRW Group, we see an opportunity to take our business to new heights,” said Parkin, who will continue to serve as Salt’s creative director. “By working within the Action Division, we gain access to a broader range of business partners. Similarly, we can give existing and potential clients more direct access to strategic insights that can paint a clearer picture of steps they can take to grow their brands. It’s a perfect example of the final product exceeding the sum of its parts.”
Salt is the sixth company acquired by LRW Group in the last 24 months. Just last week, it added communications firm Karma Agency, and earlier this year, LRW Group added strategic consultancy LRWGreenberg (formerly Greenberg Strategies) and award-winning visual communication agency Killer Visual Strategies (previously known as Killer Infographics). In 2018, it acquired Kelton Global, as well as customer experience and design firm Strativity Group.
“Salt is a key strategic addition to our roster of business and marketing services,” added LRW Group Chairman and CEO Dave Sackman. “LRW Group has long provided world-class insights and human understanding to some of the world’s most iconic brands. With our most recent acquisitions, we’ve built a powerful infrastructure to translate those insights into concrete and measurable actions.”
Businesses and marketers interested in learning more about Salt’s capabilities are urged to visit LRWGroup.com or send an email to info(at)LRWGroup(dot)com.
About LRW Group
LRW Group is an integrated marketing services company offering clients a wide variety of capabilities to solve complex problems for the world’s most remarkable businesses. Operating two core divisions – Perspective and Action – LRW Group provides a wide range of solutions with an emphasis on strategy, branding, communications, innovation, product development, and customer experience. Our proprietary approach goes beyond data analysis to build businesses from the insight out. LRW Group companies include LRW, Kelton Global, ISA, LRWTonic, LRWMotiveQuest, LRWGreenberg, Strativity, Killer Visual Strategies, Karma Agency, Salt Branding, and icanmakeitbetter. The group is headquartered in Los Angeles with seventeen offices or facilities in New York, Chicago, London, Seattle, Orange County, Philadelphia, Austin, Las Vegas, Charlotte, and Atlanta.
About Salt
Salt is a full-service brand consultancy that helps brands be essential to their customers and succeed in the rapidly changing, hyper-choice economy. Salt helps both established and emerging brands focus their message, be relevant to their audiences and define their purpose. Our proven approach to building modern, essential brands has helped transform businesses, create differentiation, engage customers, change perceptions, and drive growth. Some of our clients include: Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, Disney, Google, KLA, Mercedes, Microsoft, Milliken, Pearson and Zenni.
About Tailwind Capital
Tailwind Capital is a middle market private equity firm focused on growth-oriented investments in targeted sectors within healthcare, business services and industrial services. Tailwind partners with experienced management teams and entrepreneurs to transform businesses through organic growth initiatives, acquisitions, and operational and strategic investments. Since inception, Tailwind has managed $3.6 billion of committed equity capital, and has invested in 41 portfolio companies and over 100 add-on acquisitions.
For more information, contact Joan Cassidy at jcassidy(at)LRWonline.com.
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