Golin Harris’ new g4 model offers “holistic engagement,” deeper digital expertise and new services
GolinHarris (GH) announced today a major agency redesign to address the increasing influence of digital and social media, and the challenges of engaging audiences in a complex, constantly connected environment.
The agency’s new model, called g4, is built around four global teams of dedicated specialists, in contrast to the traditional agency structure of communications generalists in a seniority-based hierarchy.
According to Zandra Zuno, SVP of Multicultural Marketing, the entire agency, including the Hispanic/multicultural team, will be organized within this structure.
“The new structure allows GolinHarris to further develop multicultural team members in specific areas of specialties, including a greater emphasis on Hispanic digital and social media capabilities. The model also better positions us to offer our clients with more opportunities for not just ethnic or multicultural PR offerings, but also total market/cross cultural offerings as our multicultural experts will be integrated into these new four communities,” says Zuno. “We know that our clients are looking for a more comprehensive approach to addressing the multicultural market(s) and the total market, and this new structure offers it.”
In the g4 model, clients will be served by integrated teams of dedicated experts who offer actionable insights, bold ideas, multi-media engagement and integrated execution:
- Strategists are business analysts who understand the forces that impact a client’s future. Armed with the latest research, they discover insights that inspire campaigns and employ proprietary analytics to measure their success.
- Creators are bold thinkers who are gifted at generating game-changing ideas. They are also consummate storytellers who design and produce the content to bring those stories to life.
- Connectors are channel experts who engage consumer and business audiences through 15 distinct touch points. Linked across borders, they merge social and mainstream media channels to share compelling stories; and
- Catalysts are change agents who drive the integrated execution of client campaigns. They work across all disciplines applying best practices, securing strategic partnerships and discovering new opportunities to keep clients ahead of the competition.
Each community is headed by a leader whose role is to foster global collaboration, facilitate specialist training, drive best practices and thought leadership and create new services. Members of each community also benefit from four distinct online collaboration networks, which foster idea exchange with specialists in similar roles across the world.
“As our world evolves, so do the needs of our clients,” said Fred Cook, CEO of GolinHarris. “Clients are desperate for holistic ideas that can be communicated across multiple platforms. They are searching for new, innovative ways to engage employees and customers. That’s why, after 55 years, we’ve completely redesigned our agency to combine strategy, creativity and engagement into one seamless package that is delivered to every client.”
The agency has invested heavily in proprietary tools and processes to support the new structure and each community’s unique needs. Once such offering, called The Bridge, is the agency’s new multimedia communications hub and real-time engagement center, designed to help our teams spot opportunities, create compelling content, and engage influencers online and off.
Other new tools and technologies include the Bright Collective, an idea harvesting system that allows integrated teams to solicit additional thinking and ideas from inside and outside the agency; and Brand Channel, a media modeling and portfolio optimization tool that determines the most effective modes of communicating a story.
The agencies’ U.S. and UK offices have already begun the transition to the new model, with other offices transitioning over the next six months. Cook expects the full agency to be operating under the new model by early next year.
The agency unveiled a new website complementing its new model and approach www.golinharris.com.