MS&LGROUP INKS EXCLUSIVE DEAL WITH SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCH FIRM, « LINKFLUENCE »

Contract Provides PR Network with Superior Social Media Insights in Europe

Paris, 7th June 2010 MS&LGroup’s European digital PR practice today announced it has secured an exclusive contract in the digital PR market with social media research company linkfluence, a deal which provides the network with unrivaled social graph analysis and influencer identification capabilities in the digital space.

linkfluence helps companies optimise their communications strategies and brand offer through the analysis, segmentation and mapping of social media conversations. MS&LGroup has worked closely with the company over the last year across Europe to build a robust panel of social media communities for monitoring and strategic planning purposes, thus providing MS&LGroup’s clients with reliable social media measurement capabilities across markets.

EMEA digital practice leader at MS&LGroup, Stanislas Magniant, commented, “Securing the linkfluence deal means we can blaze trails for our clients in the social media sphere. Too often, clients have to rely on different tools and methodologies to measure the results of their social media marketing efforts. This provides our clients in Europe with the ability to compare apples with apples.”

MS&LGroup partnered with linkfluence in September 2009 to produce ‘Wahlradar’, Germany’s first mapping of political conversations in the blogosphere. A multi-award winning product, Wahlradar was created by linkfluence and MS&LGroup to coincide with Germany’s general election, and featured extensively in news agencies’ reports on voter sentiment. The two also partnered earlier this year on a Europe/US/China research project, analysing influencer sentiment on the issue of public trust in financial Institutions and governments.

Launched earlier this year, MS&LGroup’s digital practice in Europe is a key pillar among its growing digital capabilities worldwide. These include a strong digital hub in North America – integrated within the region’s broader Engagement offering – and an expanding digital footprint in China, India and SE Asia.

About MS&LGroup – www.mslgroup.com

MS&LGroup is one of the world’s top three PR and Events networks, offering the best in public relations, digital, social media, real-time communications, corporate and events communication. Operating in wholly owned and affiliate offices in more than 80 countries spanning the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific, MS&LGroup provides many of the world’s largest companies and most recognized brands with best-in-class communication strategies to help them reach their business and communication goals.

MS&LGroup is part of Publicis Groupe [Euronext Paris: FR0000130577], the world’s third largest communications group. With activities spanning 104 countries and 43,000 professionals. Publicis Groupe offers a complete range of advertising services through three global advertising networks, Leo Burnett, Publicis, Saatchi & Saatchi, and two multi-hub networks, Fallon and 49%-owned Bartle Bogle Hegarty. Media consultancy and buying is offered through two worldwide networks, Starcom MediaVest Group and ZenithOptimedia; and interactive and digital marketing is led by Digitas and Razorfish. Publicis Groupe recently launched VivaKi to leverage the combined scale of the autonomous operations of Digitas, Razorfish, Starcom MediaVest Group, Denuo and ZenithOptimedia to develop new services, tools, and next generation digital platforms. Web site: www.publicisgroupe.com

About linkfluence – www.linkfluence.net

linkfluence is an opinion and market research agency leveraging social media to generate insightful ideas for communications and marketing professionals.

With its innovative tools, methods and concepts, linkfluence allows its clients to divide, analyze and map the social web community by community. This is key to defining the best possible strategy for each of these and to put in place the necessary means while optimizing costs and managing strategies in real time. One can then picture and leverage all the community and influence energies on the web.

linkfluence is a young French award-winning start-up. The company is made up of two interconnected departments: a studies department that produces linkfluence’s deliverables and an engineering and design department that develops all the tools needed for these deliverable products and defines their format.