Global experiential agency INVNT has acquired brand strategy firm Folk Hero.
Folk Hero currently works with global companies from fashion and lifestyle groups such as Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH) and Calzedonia Group, as well as direct-to-consumer clients like Purple Mattress and organizations in the banking and financial services sector.
Folk Hero specialises in bringing story strategies to the executive level, creating master brand narratives that act as brands’ operating and organizing principles.
The move sees INVNT provide these brand strategy services to both new and existing clients including those in Australia.
The services will be offered as complementary to or independent from the agency’s existing live brand storytelling offering and its branded content studio HEVĒ.
INVNT chief operating officer Kristina McCoobery says the acquistion "ladders up" the agency's vision to be the best brand storytellers in the world.
"We recognize that to achieve our vision, we must evolve our offering to meet our clients at whatever stage of the storytelling cycle they need us," McCoobery says.
"At a time when many of the old rules of marketing are changing, we believe that the brands with the best stories, told well, will win. And when our clients win, we win.”
Folk Hero was established by award-winning brand strategist Rob Klingensmith, who has spent more than 20 years crafting brand stories for fashion, lifestyle and tech brands.
He has held roles at Omnicom-owned advertising agencies Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and TBWA in San Francisco, as well as Marcel Worldwide in Paris, where he led a global brand strategy team.
Klingensmith will remain as CEO, helping to lead and grow the firm's offering alongside HEVĒ as part of the growing INVNT family.
“A folk hero is a story so good it has to be told—it’s a memorable, elemental narrative that far from fleeting, lingers in a person’s memory long after their first encounter, and demands to be shared," Klingensmith says.
"Developing these stories is what drives me, and I am thrilled to be joining an agency that shares this passion for brand storytelling in all forms.”
Klingensmith will work out of INVNT’s New York headquarters, reporting to chief creative officer Paul Blurton.
“Folk Hero is the ideal complement to the live and digital brand storytelling capabilities provided by INVNT and HEVĒ," Blurton says.
“Working as we do across numerous industries and clients, it’s always so refreshing to meet companies that have devoted time and effort to creating their own master brand narrative.
"It becomes the wellspring for every other creative expression of that brand. This is what Folk Hero does so effectively, and it’s why this acquisition makes so much sense.”
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