Edelman India acquires Cream Events; forays into experiential marketing

Edelman India today announced the complete acquisition of Cream Events Pvt. Ltd. to strengthen the firm’s experiential marketing capabilities. The addition will enable Edelman to offer seamless integration across multiple channels for marketing and communications programmes. As part of the Daniel J. Edelman India group of companies, Cream Events will continue to trade and operate as an independent brand and separate legal entity.

The acquisition represents a further step by Edelman to bring its ‘Public Engagement’ communications model to the Indian market, a model that centers on the development of creative content and media-agnostic ideas. This content will engage stakeholders through multiple communications channels, including traditional media (print and broadcast), hybrid media (blogs and online publications), social media, owned media (websites, Facebook pages) and experiential marketing. Edelman has spearheaded the Public Engagement model as a response to the increasingly complex communications environment, where brands and corporations can no longer have full ownership or control over their messages and reputation.

Robert Holdheim, Managing Director, Edelman India, said: “Our partnership with Cream Events not only enables us to add experiential marketing to the mix, we believe it will boost the overall level of creativity of our programmes. Over the past three years, we have been busy building our capabilities in terms of both substance and infrastructure to execute against our broader, strategic communications model. In addition to enhancing our core strategic media relations capabilities, we have focused investment in value-added service areas such as public affairs, branding and digital communications.”

In addition, the acquisition enables Edelman to utilize Cream’s celebrity and influencer management business, which adds another capability to the mix. “Having it all in one basket ensures consistency of message and allows our clients to minimize their interface with multiple agencies” adds Holdheim.

Harshad Chavan, Managing Director, Cream Events, added: “We have established Cream as the preferred agency for the lifestyle sector by delivering brand experiences for more than 250 brands to date. It is the right time for us to diversify and expand our capabilities with creativity as the center of our success. We are confident of partnering with Edelman for the spectacular work and creative thinking displayed by the firm as well as a strong network of global best practices that enables us to leverage synergies.”