Dolphin Entertainment, a marketing and production company, has acquired Elle Communications, a public relations agency specializing in social and environmental impact for a client roster of mission-centered brands, nonprofits and foundations, activists and leaders.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. As part of the sale, Elle Communications will become a division of 42West, the PR giant that Dolphin acquired in 2017. It will also join other PR firms and speciality agencies that are owned and operated by Dolphin Entertainment, including Shore Fire Media, and The Door, influencer marketing agency The Digital Department, and celebrity booking and event agency Special Projects.
Elle Communications was founded in 2008 by its CEO Danielle Finck and was a pioneer in the field of social and environmental impact PR. In 2016, the company added Silvie Snow-Thomas to the executive team. She would go on to become president of the firm. Over its 16-year history, Elle Communications has worked with social, racial and environmental justice leaders and organizations like Dr. Edith Eger, Michael Tubbs, Meena Harris, Mónica Ramírez, Ai-jen Poo, Martin Luther King III and Arndrea King, Alicia Garza, Adrienne Maree Brown, Christianna Figueres, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Chamber of Mothers and the National Immigration Law Center. It has also worked with ethical and sustainable consumer products like Seed, Cleobella and Nisolo, as well as politicians and media figures like President Biden, Maria Shriver and Justin Baldoni.
The Elle Communications team has staffed countless red carpets, media-trained activists for the Oscars, led successful media events on Capitol Hill and strategized the communications platforms for for-profit companies like Uber’s equity and diversity arm, as well as world-changing NGOs like Baby2Baby and UNICEF. Elle Communications maintains offices in Los Angeles and New York.
Dolphin Entertainment said its founder and CEO Bill O’Dowd saw the potential of adding Elle Communications to the portfolio of nine specialized world-class agencies that operate under his company’s umbrella.
“Everything Danielle and Silvie have done at Elle Communications over the past 16 years has been in pursuit of building a better community, society and world as industry leaders in social and environmental impact,” O’Dowd said in a statement. “Our colleagues, clients and consumers alike care more than ever about the impact being made by the causes they care about and the brands they support and we are honored to have their decades of experience, unmatched relationships, and the passionate, innovative minds of their whole team guiding the future of what impact will look like at Dolphin Entertainment.”
“Danielle and Silvie have built an incredibly smart business, counseling clients on their social and environmental impact,” Amanda Lundberg, CEO of 42West, said in a statement. “The entertainment and media organizations, talent, global brands and game-changing startups with whom we work at 42West continue to look for ways to increase their own positive impact in the world, so we cannot wait to discover all the ways we will collaborate on both existing and future clients and projects ahead.”
“Our mission has always been to work with best-in-class world changers and put them at the center of cultural conversations,” Finck said in a statement. “No one knows how to tap into the zeitgeist better than 42West and its sister agencies that make up Dolphin Entertainment and we’re excited for the way we can scale our clients’ progress even more with our new partners.”
Finck and Snow-Thomas will lead Elle Communications. Its entire senior leadership team and staff will also join Dolphin Entertainment.
John Burns of Clare Advisors made the introduction between Dolphin Entertainment and Elle Communications and helped facilitate the transaction. Clay Parker and Erin Fogarty of K&L Gates served as legal counsel for Dolphin. Malte Farnaes served as legal counsel for Elle Communications.
