The Knot Group new New York City office has landed Arts Brookfield as as client, extending a Canadian relationship across the border.
Arts Brookfield, an initiative by real estate firm Brookfield to present free arts and culture events year-round in public spaces, has named The Knot Group as its public relations agency of record for the New York region. The agency will manage all PR activities generating media coverage to increase awareness for the brand and its initiatives.
The three-year contract began in January and the agency is dividing work between its two-person office in New York and nine-person office in Toronto.
“This is a really exciting one for us to bring on in mere months” after making a foray south of the border, says Amy Burstyn-Fritz, one of the partners at The Knot Group.
“It’s a really big win for us both in size and in terms of the content of work that we’re doing. It really falls well within our mandate of what we’ve been doing as a company and the growth trajectory that we’ve been looking at.”
The Knot Group has been working on a project basis for Arts Brookfield’s Toronto division for the last two years, which allowed it to build a relationship with New York arm, she says. Nevertheless, the agency still had to win “a big RFP” that was issued last September.
Burstyn-Fritz says The Knot Group’s work for arts and culture clients such as Luminato, the Canadian Opera Company and the Canadian Arts Foundation stood it in good stead, as did the fact Hilary Bonebakker, another agency partner, held an event management position at the Guggenheim Museum.
“It’s the start of a really nice marriage for us, being able to bring what we’ve been doing in Canada on an international scale to New York.”
Debra Simon, vice-president and artistic director of Arts Brookfield, said The Knot Group has “world-class experience” working in arts and culture. “They have a great appreciation and understanding of the arts landscape, as well as the social responsibility of businesses to support this community, and have the capacity to share our story on an international level,” Simon said in a statement.
Since 1988, Arts Brookfield has supported performances and exhibits in the fields of music, dance, theater, film and visual art. Aside from Toronto and New York, it operates in Los Angeles, Denver, Houston, Perth and Sydney.
Founded in 2009, The Knot Group’s U.S. expansion came on the heels of a rebrand last February when the agency changed its name from Knot PR and created a new event management division, which Bonebakker was brought in to helm.
Correction: The original version of this story incorrectly stated Arts Brookfield was the New York office’s first U.S. client. The Knot Group was already working with fashion designer Kaelen NYC.
