Source: DiGennaro Communications

sparks & honey Taps CNN Veteran to Lead Data-Driven Newsroom

New Hire Points to Continued Evolution of the Media and Marketing Landscape

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Jun 10, 2013) - sparks & honey, a next generation cultural identification agency, today announced the appointment of Kristine-Ellis Petrik as Senior VP, Director of Newsroom Operations, effective immediately. In this newly created role, Petrik will oversee all newsroom operations across all sparks & honey clients, including real-time branded content activation, and optimization and acceleration of content. She will report to Terry Young, Founder and CEO of sparks & honey.

"Over the course of her tenure at CNN, Kristine lived and breathed the fast-paced news industry -- she learned how to digest news, identify interesting angles, and in turn create highly engaging stories," said Terry Young. "Having a seasoned news expert on board -- one who grew up outside of the advertising industry -- to drive our data-driven newsroom will undoubtedly help to grow our capabilities in strategic trend identification and real-time activation."

Petrik joins sparks & honey following a 24 year stint with CNN/Time Warner Inc. Most recently, as director of integrated promotion with CNN/Time Warner Inc., she was responsible for leading brand, marketing and creative strategy for all integrated promotion on CNN, HLN and CNN.com. While there, she directed marketing campaigns for over 20 shows, including "Anderson Cooper 360," "Nancy Grace," "CNN Heroes," and award-winning breaking news coverage. Prior to that, Petrik was the assistant creative director of marketing & on-air promotion where she created marketing and brand strategies for twelve networks and websites.

"The newsroom environment helps create the ability to actively and successfully plan for the known, while quickly and effectively executing on the unknown," said Petrik. "I'm thrilled to be able to use my years in broadcast to oversee sparks & honey's newsroom activities."

Petrik's appointment follows the recent hire of industry veteran, Sarah DaVanzo, who now heads up the agency's cultural strategy team as Chief Cultural Strategy Officer.

For more details on sparks & honey, visit www.sparksandhoney.com

About sparks & honey:
sparks & honey (www.sparksandhoney.com) is a New York-based agency with a mission to synchronize brands with emerging culture. Employing a disruptive marketing platform and newsroom model called Wave Branding, sparks & honey leverages proprietary tools, algorithms and human insights to identify emerging cultural trends and engage brands in authentic and meaningful conversations. sparks & honey offers brands cultural innovation workshops, reports and consulting services as well as culturally infused social media and real-time content activation for clients. sparks & honey is a part of Diversified Agency Services, a division of Omnicom Group Inc.

About Diversified Agency Services
Diversified Agency Services (DAS), a division of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (www.omnicomgroup.com), manages Omnicom's holdings in a variety of marketing communications disciplines. DAS includes over 200 companies, which operate through a combination of networks and regional organizations, serving international and local clients through more than 700 offices in 71 countries.

About Omnicom Group Inc.
Omnicom Group Inc. (www.omnicomgroup.com) is a leading global marketing and corporate communications company. Omnicom's branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, digital and interactive marketing, direct and promotional marketing, public relations and other specialty communications services to over 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries.

Contact Information:

PRESS CONTACTS:
Gemma Pollard
DiGennaro Communications
gemma.pollard@digennaro-usa.com
212.966.9525