Publicis Groupe Announces Union between MSL and Kindred in Czech Republic

MSL is expanding its current operations in the Czech Republic by joining with Publicis Groupe’s agency, Kindred. The companies have jointly established a new specialised department – Kindred.MSL – that operates within the Kindred agency and focuses on influencer marketing and strategic PR.

Martin Ježek, Kindred.MSL’s new strategic director who is also responsible for data, strategy and creative at Kindred, will lead the Kindred.MSL team consisting of 35 people. This announcement is a culmination of MSL’s and Kindred’s mutual cooperation that began when Publicis Groupe acquired Kindred Group in October 2018. Both companies share numerous clients, including Huawei and Auto Kelly.

“At Publicis Groupe, we want to combine expertise across agency teams and offer one comprehensive solution to clients in the spirit of our Power-of-One approach. Moving the MSL team under Kindred's wings made sense from the very beginning. The emergence of Kindred.MSL and the active use of the Fluency platform will move our PR and influencer marketing competences to the next level,” said Tomáš Varga, CEO of Publicis Groupe in Central Europe.

MSL is Publicis Groupe’s public relations and integrated communications network, one of the largest in the world and one of the largest PR networks in Europe. Kindred, founded in 2013 as a digital and media agency, is one of the Czech Republic’s largest digital communications firms.

Guillaume Herbette, global CEO of MSL says: “The Central and Eastern European region is crucial for the dynamic development of MSL’s global network. MSL and Kindred joining forces will have a significant impact on strengthening MSL’s position in this part of the Europe.”

MSL’s network in Central and Eastern Europe already includes offices in Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey and the Czech Republic, where MSL’s operations began in 2017. MSL’s activities in the CEE region are coordinated by its Warsaw hub, which is led by Sebastian Hejnowski, CEO of MSL CEE and chief growth officer at Publicis Groupe Poland. With over 200 employees in the region, the company was recognised as Eastern European Consultancy of the Year 2019 at this year's EMEA SABRE Awards.

“Kindred is built upon three pillars: content, data and technology. As a consulting agency based on data and custom platforms, MSL fits this scheme perfectly. Our very first joint projects showed the benefits of our mutual cooperation, particularly in terms of our sharing of know-how,” said Martin.

In the Czech market, Kindred.MSL will mostly focus on influencer marketing and strategic communication consulting with an emphasis on measurable KPIs. Its team will be based in specialist departments, led by top-notch communications experts, including Martin and Tomáš Vozáb, head of reputation who had been responsible for PR, influencer and event marketing at Kindred.

The unique capabilities generated through MSL’s and Kindred’s combined expertise will allow for the successful launch of MSL Fluency on the Czech market. MSL Fluency is an end-to-end service designed to leverage human intelligence, best-in-class technology and machine learning to supercharge influencer marketing. The transformative MSL Fluency service will be fully available in the Czech Republic in September 2019.