MDC Partners Enters into Strategic Partnership with Leading Communications Strategy Firm Luntz Global

NEW YORK, Jan. 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- MDC Partners Inc. announced today that it has acquired a majority partnership interest in Luntz Global, one of the world's most renowned and respected language and messaging companies.  As an element of the partnership, the agency's founder, Frank Luntz, has also been named MDC Partners Chief Language Strategist, a new role in the company's Strategic Resources Group that supports his collaboration with MDC partner agencies.  As CEO of Luntz Global, Luntz, as well as his management team, will retain a significant equity interest, and participate as partners in the future growth and development of the firm.

"Understanding the consumer from a behavioral perspective is a crucial part of driving the most effective marketing communications on behalf of clients," said Miles Nadal.  "Frank and his team have truly revolutionized corporate and political communications.  They have a proven ability to enhance messaging, creative storytelling, and consumer impact based on their proprietary "Instant Response" approach to quantitative and qualitative analytics.  

"Luntz Global is now positioned to serve client needs on a much broader global scale, and its addition to the MDC network further augments the MDC consumer insights and analytics practice.  We are excited to be able to leverage the team's expertise, and their unique marriage of research and creative solutions, to expand the durable competitive advantage of our clients."

"I've been incredibly fortunate to take the skills I honed in the tough world of politics to help some of the great leaders in business, finance and sports find the right words to give them the winning edge," said Luntz. "I am thrilled to have found the right strategic partner.  MDC is encouraging us to use the tools and techniques we've perfected to tear down language barriers and facilitate real connections with consumers that will enable ideas, people and brands to thrive. In an era of hyper micro-targeting and over-segmentation, we will be able to understand and tap into the fundamental universal truths for our clients."

As top strategic advisors to Fortune 500 companies in nearly every major industry, Luntz Global's specialists represent a unique complement to MDC's expertise in corporate communications, research, strategy, analytics, and consumer insights.  Luntz Global has been tapped by leading organizations and iconic brands as varied as Anheuser Busch and McDonald's, Kroger and Lowes, Merrill Lynch and Pfizer, The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, MGM Resorts, Wynn Resorts and Diamond Resorts, Deloitte, E&Y, and PwC, the BBC, News Corp and CBS, as well as professional sports leagues and two dozen individual professional sports teams.

Added Nadal, "MDC Partners continues to fuel the highest standard of marketing innovation on behalf of clients, in part by making world-class, specialized expertise available to our agency partners through the MDC Strategic Resources Group.  By taking on the additional role of MDC Chief Language Strategist while maintaining his active leadership as CEO of Luntz Global, Frank will be available to utilize his expertise, skills and experience across the entire MDC Partners network to enhance our clients' marketing and communications effectiveness."

Luntz has written, supervised, and conducted more than 2,500 surveys, focus groups, ad tests, and dial sessions in over two dozen countries and six continents over the past twenty years.  He is the author of three New York Times best-selling books ("Words That Work," "What Americans Really Want … Really," and "WIN.")  One of the most honored communication specialists in America today, he was named one of Time Magazine's "50 of America's most promising leaders aged 40 and under," and one of Newsweek's top 50 "Power Elite."  In 2012, he was voted one of Time Magazine's top 100 "most influential people in the world" in a global survey conducted by the magazine.  The "Instant Response" focus group technique pioneered by Frank has been profiled on 60 Minutes, Good Morning America (on Election Day 2008) and on the award-winning PBS show Frontline.  He is currently a CBS News Analyst and "Focus Group Czar" for Fox News.  Last month, Luntz relocated from Virginia to Las Vegas.

About MDC Partners Inc.

MDC Partners is one of the world's largest Business Transformation Organizations that utilizes technology, marketing communications, data analytics, insights and strategic consulting solutions to drive meaningful returns on Marketing and Communications Investments for multinational clients in the United States, Canada, and worldwide.

MDC Partners' durable competitive advantage is to Empower the Most Talented Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders to Drive Business Success to new levels of Achievement, for both our Clients and our Shareholders, reinforcing MDC Partners' reputation as "The Place Where Great Talent Lives."

MDC Partners' Class A shares are publicly traded on NASDAQ under the symbol "MDCA" and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "MDZ.A".

About Luntz Global

"It's not what you say; it's what people hear."  Our mission: to find the "Words that Work" for our clients.  For two decades, Luntz Global has counseled presidents and prime ministers, Fortune 100 CEOs and global non-profit organizations, to harness the power of language to impact emotions, opinions and behaviors where it matters most. We work hand in hand with leading businesses from virtually every major global industry: Food and Beverage, Financial Services, Healthcare, Sports & Leisure, Travel and Tourism, Telecommunications, Energy, Entertainment…and the list goes on.

What makes us different?  Our creative team is made up of expert wordsmiths that know market research as well as they know language. We use proprietary "Instant Response" research techniques to craft language ready to meet the challenges of performance driven business advertising, marketing, and management.  As a result, clients learn exactly what their audience wants and needs to hear – word by word, phrase by phrase, visual as well as verbal – tested, researched and perfected.  

CONTACT:

Alexandra Delanghe
SVP, Corporate Communications
646-429-1845
[email protected]

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SOURCE MDC Partners Inc.