We’re thrilled to announce that our “BÉ Part of It” recruitment platform film for Bus Éireann has secured a Silver Shark in the Best Writing/Idea Craft category at the prestigious Kinsale Shark Awards.

The Kinsale Shark Awards are a top-tier creative benchmark in Ireland, with serious international weight, making this win a huge achievement for the agency and a testament to the power of thoughtful storytelling in recruitment.

Launched earlier this year, the platform’s hero film is a 40-second piece that captures a quiet, deeply human moment between two people: one looking forward to a new journey, and the other reflecting on the road already travelled.

The film is a short, reflective story that sets the tone for the entire platform. By focusing on craft and clarity, and drawing loosely from a real family story, it successfully invites future drivers and engineers to see themselves in the Bus Éireann story.

Learn more here!

Check out the award-winning film

Michele Hart-Henry, Managing Director, Connelly Partners Health

Imagine the following situation (purely hypothetical): Maria, age 58, has successfully managed her Type 2 diabetes for years. Recently, she stopped checking her blood sugar, not because she’s ignoring her health, but because after going down a rabbit hole with Instagram posts and TikTok videos, she felt overwhelmed. Online, she found conflicting advice about new treatments. On TV, pharmaceutical ads promised miraculous results while disclaimers scrolled by. Even her doctor’s recommendations seemed to conflict with what she read on social media. Unsure who to trust, Maria postponed her next appointment and decided that using a combination of ginseng and a highly restrictive diet was a better way to take care of her health. Far-fetched, you say? Not really.

Her story is not unique. In today’s fraught times, wading through health information has become even more challenging, especially for those who may not have high levels of health literacy. 

Across the country, patients pause care, second-guess medical advice, and turn to non-expert sources for guidance. The erosion of trust in “traditional” healthcare professionals and institutions harms people directly. According to reports published by the Kaiser Family Foundation, when patients hesitate, they let chronic conditions worsen, skip preventive care, and potentially drive up costs for everyone.

Recent surveys confirm this pattern. Forty-five percent of adults say they delayed or avoided medical care because conflicting information confused them. Sixty-five percent report they feel overwhelmed by contradictory health messages (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2024). Confidence in hospitals and physicians dropped significantly over the past decade (Gallup, 2024). Meanwhile, misinformation spreads unchecked and deepens confusion (Edelman, 2024).

Case in Point: HPV Vaccine Hesitancy

The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine rollout shows just how trust problems can stall public health progress.

After health officials introduced the HPV vaccine, myths about safety and necessity spread widely. Holman et al. (2014) documented how social media amplified worries about side effects. Lower vaccination rates resulted in population-level protection being behind schedule and delayed reductions in HPV-related cancers (Walker et al., 2021).

Misinformation did not act alone. Providers gave inconsistent explanations, and anecdotal fears gained traction. Despite extensive research and monitoring by health organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), misinformation about the vaccine’s safety remains a significant barrier to its widespread adoption. Unsubstantiated claims linking the vaccine to serious health problems like autoimmune diseases, infertility, and chronic pain syndromes have circulated, often amplified by social media.

This example proves a simple point: even well-supported interventions fail when people do not trust the messages or the messengers.

Why Healthcare Marketing Matters

Healthcare marketing shapes how people perceive treatments and institutions. When marketers serve up ambiguous messaging, they fuel skepticism. Lyles et al. (2023) found that 35 percent of direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical ads used conditional or unclear claims, which undermined consumer trust.

The internet magnifies the problem. McKinsey (2024) found that 72 percent of consumers struggle to navigate online health information, and half rely on non-expert sources. In that environment, misinformation spreads faster and patients lose confidence in legitimate medical guidance.

Strategies to Rebuild Trust

As Marketers and communicators, we can take concrete, evidence-based steps to maintain or restore trust:

1. Be transparent. Disclose benefits, risks, and uncertainties up front, and use easy-to-understand language.
2. Use patient voices. Share authentic, diverse stories that humanize clinical evidence and humanize treatments, conditions and solutions.
3. Simplify and align messaging. Across all platforms and audiences, remove jargon and ensure consistency of your messages.
4. Rely on traditional, trusted messengers. Feature clinicians and community leaders to boost acceptance of messages and messaging. If you’re going to use Influencers, thoroughly vet those influencers to ensure that their corpus of work doesn’t conflict with your messages.
5. Counter misinformation quickly. Monitor all channels and mediums, not just yours,  and correct false claims in real time 

Confusion and lack of trust produce measurable harm. We’re all hit daily with an onslaught of information. Knowing who and what to trust is hard, especially for consumers who don’t work in the industry. They may delay care, skip prevention, and struggle to make informed decisions. 

One thing is clear: from vaccine hesitancy to skipped treatments, individuals and the health system share the cost.

Healthcare leaders must earn trust, not assume it. When marketers prioritize clarity, transparency, and empathy, they can restore confidence and help people make better health choices. 

Ready to learn more about our anthropological approach to moving consumers through their healthcare journeys? Reach out to us to see how we can bring clarity and empathy to your needs.

References

• Blendon, R. J., et al. (2024). Public perceptions of health institutions in the era of misinformation. Health Affairs, 43(3), 123-131. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2023.0142
• Dempsey, A. F., & O’Leary, S. T. (2018). Human papillomavirus vaccination: narrative review of studies on how providers’ communication affects vaccine uptake. Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, 14(6), 1475-1487. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2018.1442153
• Edelman. (2024). Edelman Trust Barometer 2024. Edelman Intelligence. https://www.edelman.com/trust-barometer
• Freeman, D., et al. (2021). Transparent communication of uncertainty: Effects on trust and engagement. Medical Decision Making, 41(7), 822-832. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272989X211004586
• Gallup. (2024). Confidence in Healthcare Providers in the U.S. Gallup Poll Report. https://news.gallup.com/poll/
• Greenhalgh, T., et al. (2019). The impact of patient narratives on health behavior change. Social Science & Medicine, 234, 112348. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112348

What does a 175-year-old seafood brand have in common with sports culture? Until recently, not much. But that’s exactly the creative leap we’re taking with Gorton’s in the newest evolution of its 2025 campaign, bringing the brand to NFL game day with NBC Sports. 

It’s an unexpected, but intentional move to meet broader Gen Z and Millennial audiences where they are: in spaces that feel less like advertising and more like community. It also capitalizes on the massive cultural shift in football viewership, which has seen a 7% increase in viewers since 2015. 

Over the past three years, Gorton’s has been rewriting the playbook for how an established brand can show up authentically, in modern ways —through culture, not just category cues. They’ve leaned into the unexpected and kicked off 2025 by throwing a house party at SXSW that drew 3500+ attendees, lined up day and night to spend time with the brand. Not to mention, building off of previous success with an award-winning TikTok glow-up and ‘shockingly good’ merch drop . Now, the brand is doing the same by entering the sports arena. 

The campaign, which includes TV, social, media, and partnerships, will run through the end of the year. 

Watch the tongue-in-cheek hero spot below:

A look behind the scenes:

Two of the biggest names in Boston’s advertising circles have teamed up.

Connelly Partners announced on Tuesday that it has acquired McCarthy Mambro Bertino, a smaller ad agency and longtime neighbor in the South End, for an undisclosed amount. MMB cofounder Fred Bertino will work with Connelly Partners chief executive Steve Connelly, overseeing a marketing group that will keep the MMB name; partner Jamie Mambro has sold his stake and is no longer involved.

They’re two of the largest independent agencies in Boston, in an industry that’s often dominated by the mega holding companies like Omnicom and IPG (which are in the midst of their own, much bigger merger).

Connelly and Bertino have long shared the same parking lot, working in buildings owned by Mario Nicosia’s GTI properties.

“Freddie would park his car and turn left, I would park my car and turn right, and we would have lunch every now and then,” Connelly said.

In the past year, Bertino moved MMB into Connelly’s spacious digs at 46 Waltham St., and the two firms began bidding on jobs together.

“We’ve had a chance to ‘date’ while living together,” Connelly said. “It just kept making more and more sense. We were pitching things together. He was using our folks. We were using his folks.”

The two have known each other since the 1990s when they both worked for other firms, Connelly at Ingalls Advertising and Bertino at Hill Holliday. Both launched their own firms around the turn of the century. Bertino said his first client was Jim Koch at Boston Beer, to promote Koch’s new light beer at the time; MMB was often seen as punching above its weight, chasing after national clients, and winning over many of them, most notably Subway.

As the industry consolidated, Connelly Partners emerged as the biggest independent agency in the city, with additional services such as media buying and data analytics that MMB did not offer; Bertino said he’s happy to finally have those tools at his disposal. (Connelly also expanded to Vancouver and Dublin.) They see their firm’s independence as giving them an edge, as they don’t have to report profits up to an out-of-town holding company.

Connelly employs about 175 people today, including 100 in Boston. That number includes 20 people who came over from MMB, such as David Register, now Executive Creative Director at Connelly. Both firms had layoffs in the past year as the overall industry retrenched in part due to uncertainty around trade and tariffs.

Now, Connelly and Bertino are talking about growing again, building off recent wins such as an expansion of their relationship with Yale New Haven Health.

“We just felt like now is the time to get it all under one roof,” Bertino said. “That seems to be what clients want today.”

Read more here.

Media fragmentation has made it essential that marketers paint a clear picture of their consumers using data. Look no further than the host of ad agencies developing data offerings this year, such as WPP’s purchase of InfoSum in April.

Brands have no shortage of disparate data sets, but often struggle to derive meaningful insights from them, said Alejandro Fuenmayor, Chief Media Officer at Tombras. That challenge is only magnified as users opt out of sharing personal data and regulators scrutinize the collection and sharing of such information.

What brands often don’t realize is that meaningful consumer insights can be tucked away in unexamined data sets. AdAge spoke with data experts to identify four sources of consumer insights marketers frequently overlook.

Geospatial Targeting as an Alternative to Demographic Profiling

Marketers are focused on identity and demographics, and agency partners have indulged them with things such as AI offerings that test against synthetic audiences. But there is plenty of information on real humans that is being underutilized, including geospatial data, which refers to information gathered from a person’s location and movement.

Marketers have viewed the technology as more of a vehicle for gimmicky activations than a serious source for consumer insights, Fuenmayor said. However, as consumers become more savvy about data privacy, marketers are having a harder time finding a one-stop shop for demographic, psychographic and transactional data. That challenge has made geospatial data more enticing, as consumers still show a willingness to turn on location services that offer key insights about their behavior.

“People are carrying a GPS on their phone 24/7, so you can get a pretty complete picture of what people are doing at different times,” Fuenmayor said. “If you’re an advertiser and you’re thinking about a holistic campaign, suddenly understanding people’s migration patterns can give you a lot of insights.”

For example, seeing commuting details could inform investment decisions in media channels such as audio or out-of-home.

“These are things that can help you build a more logical explanation than what most advertisers do, which is just create an audience roughly based on demographic patterns and then put that into a Meta or Google to try and reach as many of them as possible,” Fuenmayor said. “That may have some degree of success, but it depends on your scale.”

Tombras recently leveraged location data for a grocery and gas client that was challenged by consumers who stopped in for gas without buying food. After launching a geospatial analysis, it found that consumers would get food and coffee at neighboring restaurants after stopping in to get gas. Seeing that consumers were indeed visiting the client while hungry informed the decision to begin marketing food and coffee more heavily.

The Less Popular Use Case for Retail Media

Retail media is by no means overlooked in marketing. However, advocates say it’s still underutilized relative to its potential for providing insights about consumer behavior leading up to a purchase. Marketers are accustomed to pulling insights from Amazon’s data clean room, but take less advantage of similar offerings from retailers such as Walmart and Kroger, said Tavo Castro, Executive VP and Head of Strategic Planning and Investment at Tinuiti.

Walmart offers marketers a data analytics product suite called Scintilla, and Kroger has a similar consumer insights platform called Stratum, which it runs through its loyalty program data business, Kroger Precision Marketing.

“Those are incredibly rich data sets that help us understand customers,” Castro said. “Marketers may see it as just purchase data, but there’s information about how customers shop and how they navigate and find products.”

Marketers typically haven’t searched these data sets for insights as often as they could because brand teams and strategists usually lack the technical know-how to navigate data fields, Castro added.

The advent of AI has lessened this problem, however, as marketers have been able to deploy agents to mine data reports and translate consumer insights into plain language. Tinuiti has been developing agents internally so it can navigate a variety of retail media spaces and program the tech to weigh first-party data more heavily than third-party sources or information coming from the open web.

Having tech that can navigate different retail data sets is key, as marketers still struggle to stitch together reports from different providers to create a coherent picture of their consumer base.

Retail networks are attempting to simplify their complexity, particularly for mid-sized and small brands. Last Tuesday, Kroger Precision Marketing launched an in-house team that will help marketers with off-site programmatic advertising across audio, connected TV and dynamic creative optimization for display ads. The managed-service offering will also include retail media measurement.

“It shouldn’t be that difficult for a brand to run what they need to run in the spaces where their audiences are,” said Christine Foster, senior VP of Commercial Strategy and Operations at 84.51°, the retail analytics subsidiary of Kroger.

“There are a lot of mid-sized brands and teams that don’t have the expertise to activate self-service programmatic on their own,” added Brian Spencer, Marketing Director of Kroger Precision Marketing. “This layer of managed service is really about helping those smaller teams and brands tap into retail data they haven’t been able to work with before.”

What Brands Can Learn From Health Data

Marketers can learn a lot about a consumer by looking at the health data they’ve opted into sharing with health tracking companies, said Kevin Dunn, Senior VP of Brands and Agencies at Liveramp. Health data can inform the types of foods, sleep products, clothes and even beauty products a person likes. It can also reveal social conditions that may affect their health, like their job, income, education or neighborhood.

“When you think about building a whole consumer profile, those social determinants of health are a big part of that profile,” Dunn said. “They naturally fit into what a person buys, what they do and where they spend their time. Does a person just buy items through an AI agent or take their time to go to a health company’s website? Marketers need to know this information to paint the story that continues to make a person feel loyal to that brand.”

There are risks to using this data, however. For one, it typically does not come packaged in the same ways that other marketing data does, making it difficult to slot into consumer behavior modeling environments. Certain kinds of healthcare data are also protected under privacy laws such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which may intimidate marketers, Dunn said.

He pointed to the importance of having clean rooms to handle information like health data.

“A health data collection company might be very interested in sharing a lot of the signals that their things collect, but it doesn’t want to share them with certain kinds of AI agents,” he said. “Having the ability to control when and how your data is shared is the advancement that’s going to make it possible for marketers to use so many more signals.”

Pulling Consumer Insights From Creator Marketing

Marketers need no convincing about the value of creators. Bullish brands are increasing spend year after year. U.S. annual spend on influencers is now projected to climb from $7.3 billion in 2023 to $13.7 billion by 2027, with the overarching creator economy expected to reach $480 billion by 2027. Companies such as Unilever, which plans to increase its influencer marketing spend twentyfold and allocate half of its total ad spend to social media, are leading the charge.

Creator marketing measurement is still in its growing stages, but early efforts already yield valuable consumer insights that go unnoticed, said Jen Hansen, Head of Data and Analytics at Connelly Partners. Earlier this year, the independent agency discovered that creators can share organic and paid performance data directly with their agency and brand partners on Meta by clicking into advanced settings and toggling branded content before posting.

This toggle sometimes gets ignored due to perceptions that social media algorithms deprioritize branded content. By forgoing proper tagging, creators lose the option to share performance data within the platform. Instead, they have often shared screenshots of posts and dashboards, or brands have paid third-party influencer analytics companies to relay performance information.

Accessing this information directly within Meta is both cheaper and faster, and has allowed Connelly Partners to make timely creative decisions. For one client, seeing Halloween-related content perform well in early July informed the decision to launch campaigns tied to the holiday ahead of the brand’s typical schedule.

“We’re starting to watch what our data is doing and then change the behavior of our marketing,” Hansen said. “Instead of that client waiting and holding content, we saw that the market was ready for it and we launched it.”

Learn more on AdAge

Bus Éireann Expressway and Connelly Partners have been busy filming in Dublin and beyond, capturing everything from awkward moments to spur-of-the-moment escapes. It’s all part of a new campaign, “There’s a Route for That”, rolling out across VOD, digital audio, OOH/DOOH, and social.

Expressway isn’t just about destinations, It’s about every weird and wonderful reason people travel. And whatever that reason is… there’s a route for that. The campaign celebrates the wonderfully specific, sometimes ridiculous, always relatable reasons people really travel. Need to escape small-town boredom for a gig in Galway? Decided hiking is suddenly your whole personality? Want to dodge bumping into your ex in Limerick? Whatever the story, Expressway has the route to get you there.

The work was filmed across two separate shoots with production partners Collective Films, leaning into humour, authenticity and a digital-first energy that connects directly with the 19–25 audience it was created for.

“The best stories aren’t just about where you’re going, they’re about why” – Mikey Fleming Creative Director at Connelly Partners Dublin. “This campaign brings that truth to life in a way that speaks directly to young adults, reminding them that Expressway is always part of the journey.”

With “There’s a route for that,” Expressway strengthens its connection with Ireland’s young adults, embedding itself in their everyday routines and spontaneous adventures, reminding audiences that wherever they’re going – and for whatever reason – Expressway will get them there.

Bus Éireann Expressway and Connelly Partners Dublin have been busy filming in Dublin and beyond, capturing everything from awkward moments to spontaneous escapes. It’s part of a new campaign entitled ‘There’s a Route for That,’ rolling out across VOD, digital audio, OOH/DOOH, and social. The message – Expressway isn’t just about destinations.

It’s about every weird and wonderful reason people travel. And whatever the reason, there’s a route for that. Need to escape small-town boredom for a gig in Galway? Decided hiking is suddenly your whole personality? Want to dodge bumping into your ex in Limerick? Whatever the story, Expressway has the route to get you there, the ads suggest.

The work was filmed across two shoots by Collective Films, targeting specifically a 19–25 audience. “The best stories aren’t just about where you’re going, they’re about why,” Mikey Fleming, creative director at Connelly Partners Dublin, said. “This campaign brings that truth to life in a way that speaks directly to young adults,” he added.

Read more here.

Katie Coughlin, Associate Media Director
Matty Habersaat, Media Planner

At the recent Digiday Retail Media Summit in New York, one thing was clear: retail media has moved from a rising trend to an undeniable force. With more than 200 retailers now running their own media networks and global investment projected to hit $60 billion in 2025, it’s reshaping how brands connect with consumers and how retailers grow revenue. Walmart’s recent earnings call underscored the stakes: advertising now accounts for nearly a third of their operating income.

But while the category is still growing, expansion is slowing. What was once explosive is entering a new, more mature phase – one where scale alone isn’t enough, and differentiation, measurement, and consumer-first thinking become the true levers of success.

From Fragmentation to Integration

A common thread from the summit: the landscape is too fragmented. Each retailer’s network comes with its own audience, tools, and measurement framework, leaving brands to juggle multiple approaches. Leaders from Mars and RoC Skincare emphasized the same starting point: the consumer. Retail media strategies that begin with how people actually shop – whether that means impulse purchases, replenishment cycles, or curbside pickup – are better positioned to succeed.

The next evolution will depend on breaking down silos. Brands don’t want dozens of disconnected platforms; they want an ecosystem where planning, activation, and measurement feel seamless across partners.

New Growth Levers

With growth rates cooling, retailers are turning to new channels and tactics. Connected TV, “ownable moments”, and alternative placements are helping brands stand out while avoiding costly competition. At the same time, emerging disruptors like AI shopping tools are forcing both brands and retailers to rethink how consumers discover and purchase products – and how to keep ad dollars working in that journey.

Measuring True Impact: The Power of Incrementality

As retail media matures, the focus continues to shift from simple metrics like ROAS to understanding the incremental impact of campaigns – the value a campaign drives beyond what would have happened organically. Brands and retailers are investing in studies and measurement approaches that show how advertising actually moves the needle, rather than just attributing sales to impressions.

Closed-loop sales lift analyses, along with “in-flight” measurement that allows campaigns to be optimized in real time, are emerging as best practices. This approach helps brands answer the critical question: Which ad dollars are truly generating new sales or engagement, and which are just capturing what would have happened anyway?

Incrementality-focused measurement is becoming the gold standard for proving value, aligning brand and retail goals, and guiding smarter investment decisions in a complex, multi-network ecosystem.

The Road Ahead:

Retail media is at a turning point. The era of rapid expansion is giving way to a phase defined by collaboration, consumer-first strategies, and smarter measurement. Success will come to those who focus on understanding and engaging the consumer, integrating campaigns across platforms, exploring new channels, and measuring impact in ways that reflect true incremental value. The brands and retailers that can align around these principles will be best positioned to thrive in this evolving landscape.

Boston, MA – August 19, 2025 — Independent agency Connelly Partners (CP) is deepening its commitment to a performance-plus-creative model for brands, grounded in measurable business outcomes. CP has acquired McCarthy Mambro Bertino (MMB), the award-winning creative agency behind campaigns for Subway, Sam Adams, and Toyota. The agency has also won a series of global client wins and added key talent across its Boston, Dublin, and Vancouver hubs.

This growth reflects a larger industry shift as brands look for agencies that can unite creative storytelling, media expertise, and data-driven decision-making under one roof.

“We have always been committed to relentless creativity and measurable accountability in our work.” said Steve Connelly, President and Copywriter at Connelly Partners. “The moves we are making and the talent we are bringing aboard are reflections of that commitment.”

Welcoming MMB to the CP Network 

With a 20+ year legacy and deep roots in Boston’s creative scene, MMB joins CP’s global independent micro-network. The agency’s work has earned recognition from the Clio Awards, Emmys, Effies, The One Show, and more. 

MMB’s category experience includes Automotive, QSR, Retail, Sports and Healthcare, working with brands like Toyota, Subway, Sam Adams, Yale New Haven Health System, Newell Rubbermaid (Elmer’s and Brute), Foster Grant, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and more. 

MMB will retain its brand within CP, while tapping into the network’s full suite of services to expand its offerings for larger clients. The MMB team will also build towards integrating across the CP network – as ZOO Digital and VRX Studios have done. 

Fred Bertino, MMB Co-Founder and President, will continue to lead the MMB brand within CP, reporting to Steve Connelly. A former President and CCO at Hill Holliday, Bertino helped scale that agency to over $1.2 billion in revenue before co-founding MMB. 

“MMB and Connelly Partners have been successful rivals for two decades. Coming up as creatives, both Steve and I share a fervent love and belief in the power of insight-based creativity to propel brand and business growth,” said Bertino. “Now we’ll amplify that with deeper strategic and performance chops and global reach. By partnering with CP, we’re bringing clients full-service capabilities with the creative they’ve come to know us by.”

David Register, longtime creative lead at MMB, joins CP as Executive Creative Director. He brings a wealth of storytelling, writing, and directing experience to the agency, with a portfolio that includes iconic campaigns like Fidelity’s “Keep Doing What You Love,” featuring Paul McCartney and Progressive’s “Flo,” as well as work for Aetna, New Balance, and CenturyLink. He reports to Chief Creative Officer, Alyssa Toro. 

Momentum in Client Growth Globally 

CP’s offering is resonating as more brands look to consolidate agency partners under one roof, seeking a balance between bold creative work and measurable business outcomes. The agency is now working with: 

Pollock Clinics: A world-leading men’s sexual health brand. With corporate clinics in Vancouver and some 25+ franchised clinics spanning North America, Ireland, and Australia, the brand is now expanding into the UK and Middle East. CP was awarded the performance marketing business for the corporate brand (Digital Media, Web, SEO, Analytics) as Pollock consolidates agency partners under one integrated agency to support future growth ambitions and continued brand evolution. CP will also support brand strategy, creative, social and influencer marketing on project-by-project as the business scales. CP’s Vancouver office led the win following a year-long strategy engagement, with support now extending across all three of the agency’s global hubs.

Yale New Haven Health: Connecticut’s largest healthcare system, and the teaching hospital affiliate of Yale School of Medicine, has awarded its media & analytics business, including integrated media strategy, planning, execution and measurement, to Connelly Partners. The health system has been a client of MMB since early 2020 and the move now consolidates all MarCom efforts under the network umbrella — including brand strategy, creative, and integrated media planning and execution. 

Another health win: Continuing CP’s momentum in the health space, the agency has been named a performance marketing partner for a leading supplier to the global Life Science industry. 

As a result, CP’s Health business has increased 65% YoY, fueled by both new business and organic growth.

“In today’s world of fragmented consumer attention, clients need more than isolated media buying or creative concepts; they need holistic, evidence-based strategies,” said Michelle Capasso, Chief Media Officer. “Our strength lies in precisely that: unifying insights, storytelling, and execution to deliver tangible business outcomes.”

Strategic Talent Investments

To support this growth and evolving client needs, CP has made several leadership hires.

Jen Hansen joined as Director of Analytics. Jen brings a wealth of experience from her previous roles, including VP, Marketing Optimization and Analytics at Constant Contact and Global Head of Business Analytics at Vistaprint. In her new role, Jen spearheads CP’s efforts to elevate measurement, empowering clients worldwide to unlock critical insights and make more confident, data-driven decisions. This strategic appointment lays the groundwork for advanced capabilities, including forecasting, predictive analytics, and machine learning, to further enhance our offerings. Jen reports to Michelle Capasso, Chief Media Officer.

Jimmy Murphy becomes Deputy Managing Director, Dublin. One of Ireland’s most respected advertising leaders, Jimmy joins from ACNE Dublin, part of Deloitte Digital where he served as Chief Commercial Officer. He’s also held roles across Publicis Dublin, The Hive, alcohol brand marketing compliance organization CopyClear, the Marketing Society, and IAPI. He reports to Dublin Managing Director Vaunnie McDermott. 

Sam Moorhouse and Mikey Fleming,  join as Co-Creative Directors. They’ve been a creative team since 2011, partnering at TBWA/Ireland, Boys + Girls, and later founding Verve’s in-house agency, Showrunner. Their work for brands like Three Mobile, Aldi, SKODA, Lyons Tea, Tayto, VHI, and LEGO have earned multiple awards. They join David Register, legendary ECD Mike Garner, digital specialist and CD Chris Preston, and CCO Alyssa Toro, under a unified global creative offering.

BOSTON — Independent agency Connelly Partners (CP) has acquired McCarthy Mambro Bertino (MMB), the creative agency behind campaigns for Subway, Sam Adams, and Toyota. CP has also won a series of global client wins and added key talent across its Boston, Dublin, and Vancouver hubs.

“We have always been committed to relentless creativity and measurable accountability in our work,” said Steve Connelly, president and copywriter at CP. “The moves we are making and the talent we are bringing aboard are reflections of that commitment.”

With a 20+ year legacy and deep roots in Boston’s creative scene, MMB joins CP’s global independent micro-network. MMB’s work has earned recognition from the Clio Awards, Emmys, Effies, The One Show, and more.

MMB’s category experience includes automotive, QSR, retail, sports and healthcare, working with brands like Toyota, Subway, Sam Adams, Yale New Haven Health System, Newell Rubbermaid (Elmer’s and Brute), Foster Grant, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and more.

MMB will retain its brand within CP, while tapping into the network’s full suite of services to expand its offerings for larger clients. The MMB team will also build towards integrating across the CP network–as ZOO Digital and VRX Studios have done.

Fred Bertino, MMB co-founder and president, will continue to lead the MMB brand within CP, reporting to Connelly. A former president and CCO at Hill Holliday, Bertino helped scale that agency to over $1.2 billion in revenue before co-founding MMB.

“MMB and Connelly Partners have been successful rivals for two decades. Coming up as creatives, both Steve and I share a fervent love and belief in the power of insight-based creativity to propel brand and business growth,” said Bertino. “Now we’ll amplify that with deeper strategic and performance chops and global reach. By partnering with CP, we’re bringing clients full-service capabilities with the creative they’ve come to know us by.”

David Register, longtime creative lead at MMB, joins CP as executive creative director. He brings a wealth of storytelling, writing, and directing experience to the agency, with a portfolio that includes iconic campaigns like Fidelity’s “Keep Doing What You Love,” featuring Paul McCartney, and Progressive’s “Flo,” as well as work for Aetna, New Balance, and CenturyLink. He reports to Alyssa Toro, chief creative officer.

CP has made several other leadership hires:

Jen Hansen joined as Director of Analytics. Hansen brings a wealth of experience from her previous roles, including VP, marketing optimization and analytics at Constant Contact and global head of business analytics at Vistaprint. In her new role, Hansen spearheads CP’s efforts to elevate measurement, empowering clients worldwide to unlock critical insights and make more confident, data-driven decisions. This strategic appointment lays the groundwork for advanced capabilities, including forecasting, predictive analytics, and machine learning, to further enhance agency offerings. Hansen reports to Michelle Capasso, chief media officer.

Jimmy Murphy becomes deputy managing director, Dublin. Murphy joins from ACNE Dublin, part of Deloitte Digital where he served as chief commercial officer. He’s also held roles across Publicis Dublin, The Hive, alcohol brand marketing compliance organization CopyClear, the Marketing Society, and IAPI. He reports to Dublin managing director Vaunnie McDermott.

And Sam Moorhouse and Mikey Fleming join as co-creative directors. They’ve been a creative team since 2011, partnering at TBWA/Ireland, Boys + Girls, and later founding Verve’s in-house agency, Showrunner. Their work for brands like Three Mobile, Aldi, SKODA, Lyons Tea, Tayto, VHI, and LEGO have earned multiple awards. They join Register, ECD Mike Garner, digital specialist and CD Chris Preston, and CCO Toro, under a unified global creative offering.

Read more