After nearly 10 years in the region, Ruder Finn Atteline, formerly Atteline, strengthens its proposition as the MENA arm of Ruder Finn with local insight and global capabilities. With a fresh brand identity and newly designed logo combining Ruder Finn’s 75 years of global expertise alongside Atteline’s hallmark creativity and culture, the integrated communications agency is now gearing up to set a new pace for the decade ahead.Aligning with its global ‘What’s Next’ positioning – a commitment to always remaining one step ahead of industry trends and leading with a data-driven, digital-first, early-adopter mindset – Ruder Finn Atteline is now doubling down on enhancing client experiences and innovatively empowering employees.As part of this vision, Ruder Finn Atteline is preparing to launch its Content Hub, a first-of-its-kind platform for the region to prioritize authentic storytelling in an era increasingly dominated by AI-generated content. This move aligns with the ongoing expansion of its Digital Division, ensuring that both verticals work in tandem as integral components of the integrated communications ecosystem.The dual-headquartered agency in MENA is also bolstering its leadership team within its Consumer and Corporate Divisions, with three seniors having been made accordingly. These efforts are being made to support growth with unity, boost leadership abilities, and further broaden the agency’s capabilities to meet the evolving demands of the market.Kathy Bloomgarden, CEO of Ruder Finn, commented: "As the communications landscape shifts amidst AI advancement and ongoing innovation, staying ahead means embracing change with bold thinking and innovative solutions. This is exactly what the integration of Atteline and Ruder Finn achieves. We have united a powerful combination of global expertise and regional creativity, positioning us to deliver next-generation strategies tailored for MENA. With a strong foundation in digital, data, and AI-driven storytelling, Ruder Finn Atteline is poised to help clients navigate what’s next – not tomorrow, but today.”Sophie Simpson, Managing Director of Ruder Finn Atteline – MENA, commented: “Continually pioneering the future of communications for the past seventy-plus years, Ruder Finn has evolved into one of the world’s largest independent agencies today. As Ruder Finn Atteline, we maintain the core elements – creativity and culture – that have brought us success for almost a decade, whilst offering the global expertise and know-how of Ruder Finn. This evolution uniquely positions us as a center of thinking for growth to build an agency of the future; one where data-driven insights, creativity, and technology-driven strategies lead the way.”Leveraging Ruder Finn’s global tech capabilities, namely its Tech Lab, Ruder Finn Atteline is integrating advanced solutions to boost both internal operations and external offerings. In addition to introducing new divisions, and bolstering existing ones, the agency is also strengthening its Sonar and Crisis Communications offerings, recognized as among the agency’s most impactful services. Building on this strong foundation, the agency is expanding its expertise into the Sports & Entertainment and Automotive & Travel & Tourism sectors. With this strategic evolution, Ruder Finn Atteline is equipped to set new regional benchmarks in the years ahead while further establishing itself as a pioneer for integrated communications in MENA.

Leading global integrated communications agency Ruder Finn has announced the acquisition of Big Sky Communications, a San Jose-based customer marketing agency, which will supplement Ruder Finn's marketing expertise. This acquisition builds on Ruder Finn's 5-year momentum of industry-leading double-digit growth and expands the agency's B2B storytelling capabilities, enhancing its client offerings. The acquisition brings to Ruder Finn a team of over 40 customer marketing and advocacy experts, who specialize in building and managing customer marketing programs for clients including J.P. Morgan Payments, F5, Snowflake, and other industry leaders. Big Sky is led by Co-Managing Directors, Eddie Miller and Colleen Padnos, who will both report to Ruder Finn CEO, Kathy Bloomgarden."Today one of the most powerful ways to build trust and create a framework for brand loyalty is through customer storytelling," said Kathy Bloomgarden, CEO of Ruder Finn. "The Big Sky team enhances Ruder Finn's ability to craft authentic stories that resonate with customers. Big Sky will add to Ruder Finn their great expertise in capturing and bringing to life customer experiences that spotlight growth, problem solving and generate sales opportunities.""Buyers today form opinions about a brand by listening to what others say, so integrating real-world customer voices into marketing campaigns is more critical than ever," said Eddie Miller, Co-Managing Director of Big Sky Communications. "Ruder Finn's acquisition of Big Sky and embrace of Customer Marketing and Advocacy underscores the need for companies to connect with customers through more personal, relatable conversations and stories." "Our Customer Marketing and Advocacy expertise aligns well with Ruder Finn's focus on innovation and What's Next. Every company needs to better understand their customers, build communities, and find new ways to elevate their customers' voices," said Colleen Padnos, Co-Managing, Director, Big Sky Communications. "We're thrilled to be part of the Ruder Finn family of companies and look forward to offering a broader portfolio of global services to enable clients to tell more and stronger customer stories everywhere."

Ruder Finn, one of the world’s largest independent global communications and integrated marketing agencies, has launched rf.aio, its new LLM optimization offering in collaboration with influenceAI. rf.aio is Ruder Finn’s proprietary all-in-one AI optimization offering that monitors and optimizes brand and product mentions in public LLMs to support client marketing and reputation efforts. rf.aio includes automated LLM monitoring and remediation through an AI platform developed by influenceAI, a member of our AI Advisory Council.As more users turn to LLMs for answers, AI is quickly becoming the new “super influencer,” and LLMs are emerging as the next generation of search. rf.aio directly addresses this shift in user behavior by offering monitoring of popular LLMs like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini, and Meta’s Llama to evaluate how they respond to brand-related queries. rf.aio identifies key factors such as awareness, accuracy, brand affinity, and amplification, influencing the LLM responses to queries and providing actionable insights for response remediation. Based on these findings, rf.aio identifies, creates and places corrective content, then trains public models to prioritize these levers — redirecting them toward trusted and factually accurate sources that address biases, correct misinformation, and as a result, enhance brand perception.“At Ruder Finn, we’re always looking towards what’s next. We partnered with influenceAI to create rf.aio as a powerful marketing and communications tool to help clients listen to LLM responses at scale and influence how their brands are represented through LLM search,” said Kathy Bloomgarden, CEO of Ruder Finn. “As LLMs become the predominant mode of search, it’s imperative that brands adapt to these new platforms, and our new rf.aio offering is instrumental in helping our clients navigate this change.”This new collaboration is spearheaded by the rf.TechLab, Ruder Finn’s analytics and emerging technologies incubator. Launched in 2018, rf.TechLab fuels the development of solutions that help brands leverage the latest cutting-edge advancements in data science, modeling, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to solve complex business challenges.“With millions of people relying on LLMs daily, there is a lot on the line for the brands! What happens if an LLM mistakenly associates a brand or its products with negative terms? Or if it omits crucial product information?” said Tejas Totade, CTO of Ruder Finn. “Although brands can’t retroactively change what these models already ‘know,’ with rf.aio and influenceAI, they can introduce new, brand-supportive and accurate content into the information ecosystem, hoping to steer future brand-related responses from these LLMs.”This launch of rf.aio comes on the heels of Ruder Finn’s recent announcement about its new global RF AI Advisory Council, chaired by OpenAI pioneer Zack Kass. Ruder Finn is currently using rf.aio with a number of clients.

One of the world’s largest independent global communications and integrated marketing agencies, Ruder Finn, has announced that Zack Kass, former Head of Go-To-Market at OpenAI and a leading force in bringing artificial intelligence to business applications, will chair its new global AI Advisory Council.This partnership, exclusive in the PR industry, underscores Ruder Finn’s commitment to leading the global AI revolution in communications. The AI Advisory Council will report to CEO Kathy Bloomgarden and will operate under the day-to-day leadership of CTO & Head of AI, Tejas Totade, and Managing Director of Ruder Finn Interactive Asia, David Ko. This newly established council, under Kass’s guidance, will focus on developing and implementing AI strategies to benefit Ruder Finn’s global client base.“At Ruder Finn, we believe that a company’s approach to AI – how quickly they learn, integrate, and embrace its potential – will be a key factor in their future successack’s global perspective and deep understanding o. Zf AI will be invaluable as we empower our teams and clients around the world to leverage these transformative technologies" said Kathy Bloomgarden, CEO of Ruder Finn.Zack Kass is one of the brightest and most experienced minds bridging practical applications for AI in the world today. He brings 14 years of experience in the AI field, having devoted pivotal years at OpenAI and having since advised leaders across Fortune 500 companies to The White House on AI strategies. Ruder Finn’s partnership with Zack is exclusive in the Public Relations industry."The future of communications is inextricably linked with AI, leading to abundant possibilities,” said Kass. “We're on the cusp of unlocking unprecedented creativity, efficiency, and impact in how we connect and communicate. This partnership with Ruder Finn is about empowering businesses to navigate this exciting frontier and leverage AI for meaningful and lasting success."The Ruder Finn AI Advisory Council will provide global AI strategies and hands-on guidance, ensuring clients of all sizes are equipped to harness the full potential of AI. Ruder Finn is in the process of finalizing the council’s membership and will announce additional members representing diverse regions and expertise shortly."Our firm is setting a new standard in the industry by integrating advanced AI capabilities directly into our client offerings,” elaborated Elan Shou, Ruder Finn Asia-Pacific Managing Director. “By transforming traditional PR with AI-driven insights and efficiencies, we're not just enhancing campaign outcomes—we're positioning ourselves as leaders in AI-powered communications.”

In response to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, prominent PR and media leaders have joined forces to issue a strong call for civility. The statement, organised by the Partnership for New York City, emphasizes the urgent need to reject violence and uphold respect for differences in all areas of life.Leading the charge from the public relations sector are Steven Rubenstein of Rubenstein Communications, Kathy Bloomgarden of Ruder Finn, Matthew Hiltzik of Hiltzik Strategies, Peter Finn of FINN Partners, and Jonathan Silvan of Global Strategy Group. These industry leaders have signed the Partnership’s statement, which reads: “We call upon our fellow Americans to reject violence in all its forms and pledge to uphold the basic standards of civility and respect for our differences in the workplace, in the political arena, and in our society as a whole.”Joining them from the media industry are influential figures such as News Corp CEO Robert Thomson, Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch, U.S. News & World Report CEO Eric Gertler, Vox Media CEO Pamela Wasserstein, and Hearst President and CEO Steven Swartz. Their endorsement underscores the media's commitment to promoting peace and respect in public discourse.The Partnership for New York City highlighted the attack as a wake-up call, urging all Americans to commit to non-violence and mutual respect. This unified stance by both PR and media leaders aims to foster a more civil and respectful societal environment, encouraging dialogue over discord.

Leading communications and marketing consultancy, Ruder Finn, has acqured Flightpath, an award-winning New York-based digital marketing agency. This acquisition further builds on Ruder Finn's expansion of the agency's Digital Integration Group and AI-powered RF Studio53.Flightpath Founder & CEO, Jon Fox, will report to Kathy Bloomgarden, Global CEO of Ruder Finn. The deal will add a team of 25 creative and digital marketing experts. There will be no layoffs or redundancies as a result of this acquisition. "As communications channels continue to diversify and consumers become more advertising averse, engaging existing and new customers requires smarter, intent-driven targeting through personalized dialogue and experiences," said Kathy Bloomgarden, CEO of Ruder Finn. "Flightpath brings the expertise and tools to help us continue to enhance how we shape interactions and drive marketing impact for our clients."Flightpath works with clients including Goya Foods and AkzoNobel. Flightpath's work targets consumer and B2B audiences to build awareness, generate leads, acquire new customers, and build purchase continuity. The agency's strategic digital marketing services include Website Design & Development, Online Advertising, Social Media, Content Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, CRM & Targeted Mail, Online Video and more. Flightpath specializes in Healthcare, Petcare, Consumer, CPG, Business and Financial Services and Non-Profit industries."Flightpath has always been an independent agency, so joining Ruder Finn aligns with our values and is a great fit," said Jon Fox, Founder of Flightpath. "As we think about our next chapter, we are excited to be able to further expand our global work with Ruder Finn, as well as the ways in which we will be able to utilize the resources of a larger agency as we continue to work on innovative new programs with new and noteworthy clients."