A.T. Kearney picks Makovsky as MarComms partner

A.T. Kearney has hired Makovsky Integrated Communications to support its global PR & MarComms activities. Makovsky will work within the firm’s Vision 2020 framework as well as manage its day-to-day media and communications needs.

Global consultancy A.T. Kearney boasts globally an impressive standing in consulting awards and placements. According to Vault’s most recent ranking, the firm is the 7th most prestigious consulting firms in Europe and ranked 14th on the list of top for profit thinking tanks. Besides external praise, A.T. Kearney has also been named the 4th best management consulting firm to work for, while being recognised as a leader on LGBT issues on diversity in the work place. 

Winning awards shows that the firm has performed outstandingly in the field and is a leader in thought leadership. To get this message out to clients, and others, given its strength and range of services, the firm has selected Makovsky Integrated Communications to develop and run its global media activities.

After a review process of seven weeks, Makovsky won out over 10 firms that initially applied for the position. The firm will reportedly be endowed with a budget of $300,000 globally, of which $150,000 will be spent in the US, and be responsible for the firm’s external communications and PR for the brand at the global level. Makovsky joins Meir Kahtan PR and Qorvis MSLGroup, who have been supporting A.T. Kearney for a number of years and will continue to work with the consultancy in dedicated areas, such as the public sector vertical.

"Makovsky’s professional services background and understanding of our firm really stood out for us and we hope this is a longstanding relationship," says Abby Klanecky, A.T. Kearney’s head of Americas Marketing and Global Communications, relating to the PR’s track record. Makovsky works for large names in the consulting industry such as Arthur D. Little, Mercer, EY, Grant Thornton, and previously for Booz & Company before it was sold to PwC.

Klanecky in addition highlights that the company brought on Makovsky to support the realisation of ‘Vision 2020’, A.T. Kearney’s strategy which aims to develop the firm’s performance and brand into the "most admired firm" among the company’s peers, which includes renowned rivals such as McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group, Bain & Company and Oliver Wyman. "We need to create brand awareness and be understood and valued by clients in the industries we play in as well as recruit people from the top business schools."

Plethora of channels
The role of Makovsky will be multi-varied and will cover a number of specific kinds of outreach along a plethora of channels. Focusing on practices and industry verticals such as communications, media and technology, strategic IT, strategy, marketing, sales, and the company’s global business policy council. The scope will involve “media relations, news jacking, and integrated communications and media strategies for book releases and events, including social media, digital, and print.” Specific campaigns have not yet been disclosed, yet it is apparent that the PR will support the launch of large research reports and play a role in A.T. Kearney’s thought leadership for the World Economic Forum*.

As part of the deal, Makovsky will also support PR activities geared at employer branding and recruitment. In the past years the firm’s footprint has grown strongly, growing its partner base to more than 320 partners working out of 61 offices in ~40 countries, and going forward Johan Aurik – A.T. Kearney’s Dutch origin global Managing Partner – has unveiled bold plans.

"Meir was our only PR agency for the past nine years, but our goals and focuses have changed as we have grown rapidly, and we saw the need to expand our roster of support," explains Klanecky. “Now Meir will be more targeted in the areas they have been most successful in supporting us in to date, such as our content strategy, as well as a number of industry verticals."

"A.T. Kearney produces a lot of intellectual capital from white papers and positioning papers as well as books," comments Makovsky EVP Scott Tangney, who leads the firm’s financial and professional services division. "We will be helping them to promote those and assert their thought leadership." Four Makovsky employees will work on the account on a day-to-day basis, including Tangney, Kona Luseni (served on the Booz Allen and Booz & Company account) and Michael Goodwin.

* A.T. Kearney is one of the twelve consulting firm that has the privilege of calling itself a Strategic Partner of the World Economic Forum.