Freeman has expanded its offerings to clients even more by acquiring mdg, a full-service event marketing and public relations agency.

The acquisition enhances the Freeman spectrum of services from pre-event marketing and on-site user experience to post-show communications based on data-informed insights.

“The events business is undergoing a significant transformation - one that requires a sophisticated degree of integration around the convergence of brand strategy, data and content,” said Bob Priest-Heck, president and CEO, Freeman.

He added, “Our ability to translate strategy and data into meaningful on-site experiences coupled with mdg’s expertise in translating insights into audience-building marketing campaigns, will enable us to offer organizers a seamless solution that was never before possible.”

mdg has served as a strategic partner for a broad portfolio of trade shows and events, helping customers market new events and reposition and rebrand more mature shows.

The company has a 41-year track record of creating powerful marketing strategies for its customers.

“What we’ve seen and heard from our clients is that they are looking for fully integrated event solutions. Our acquisition of mdg continues our initiative to create the seamless experience they crave,” Priest-Heck added. “With mdg’s ability to infuse attendee acquisition and marketing insights directly into the on-site experience, we can now leverage data from both digital marketing and live experiences to deliver more robust and integrated offerings for our clients.”

mdg brings together researchers and strategists, digital and interactive media experts, event and association management specialists, data analysts and a robust creative team to craft comprehensive campaigns aimed at increasing event and association attendance as well as increasing exhibit participation.

“Over its 41-year history, mdg has continuously evolved to stay relevant in a dynamic marketing landscape, blending strategy, creativity, and technology solutions to help clients achieve their organizational objectives,” said Kimberly Hardcastle-Geddes, president and co-owner, mdg.

She added, “Joining Freeman is another giant step in that evolution and helps ensure the continued success of both the agency and, more importantly, the clients it serves. Together we will create more engaging, personalized customer journeys through an omnichannel approach to event and association marketing.”

Vinnie Polito, mdg’s co-owner, said the time was right for making this move with Freeman.

“Over the past few years, the marketing landscape has been in the midst of a transformational shift, primarily driven by the fact that we now have access to a plethora of data, giving us total visibility into the effectiveness of our marketing programs and attendee behavior onsite.”

He added, “Our goal is to move away from a siloed approach into one that provides a more aggregated view of and holistic approach to the customer journey.”

Polito said in the short term there would be no impact on current mdg clients.

“In the longer term, we are going to be capitalizing on synergies with Freeman to better integrate brand strategy, tactical execution, content and the onsite experience around the convergence of data,” he added.