Blended Strategy Group Adds Public Relations Division

Blended Strategy Group is expanding its services with the addition of a public relations arm.
The celebrity and influencer marketing and branding agency was cofounded in 2015 by industry veterans Allison Statter, previously head of branding for Azoff Music Management, and Sherry Jhawar, formerly the global head of marketing at EOS. Over the past four years, the agency has built a client list that includes Tiffany & Co., Revlon, Reebok and Olly Nutrition, the latter of which will be one of its first p.r. clients.
"When Allison and I started writing our plan around Blended Strategy Group and why we felt there was a gap in the marketplace for an agency focused specifically on celebrity and influencer-based marketing for brands, what we realized was that a lot of other types of agencies have pivoted to offer over the last couple of years," Jhawar said. "We realized that a complete extension of what we were already doing is p.r. because everything that we’re doing on the strategy side for celebrity and influencer marketing requires a p.r. strategy."
Blended Strategy Group's public relations division will be led by Holly Curtis. Already, it has signed on Olly Nutrition and Chelsea Handler's forthcoming cannabis line as clients.
The announcement comes as beauty and fashion agencies industry-wide are revamping their strategies to better serve a digital-first clientele. Foundation, formerly known as KFD Public Relations, is one such example. The agency, which represents influencers such as Christen Dominique and Patrick Ta, re-branded last year and announced the addition of a talent division.
Blended Strategy's focus, said Statter, will remain in the influencer and celebrity marketing space. The agency will continue to work with brands and other agencies in an integrated fashion.
"Once we got great at doing influencer and celebrity marketing, it was the natural next step to build Blended Strategy horizontally and go into p.r.," Statter said. "We don’t want to grow too fast too soon. We want to be really great at what we intended to do from inception. As there’s natural extensions for growth, we'll look at those extensions and will continue to evolve and bring other services in-house."
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