MSL

The former Manning Selvage & Lee—a firm born more than 50 years ago, when Selvage & Lee merged with Farley Manning Associates—is the flagship full-service public relations operation of French communications holding company Publicis Groupe, on the comeback trail after a difficult decade in the 2010s. The firm has its primary strength in the consumer and healthcare spaces. In recent years, MSL’s consumer operations have garnered the lion’s share of attention with its burgeoning digital work to the fore (especially its proprietary Fluency approach to influencer marketing). That has tended to overshadow solid healthcare capabilities and a surprisingly strong corporate practice, all of which combine to make MSL one of the best-performing large agencies in recent times.

Having won both Midsize Agency of the Year and Consumer Agency of the Year honors from this publication in the past four years, MSL once again outperformed its peer group in 2024, with revenues increasing by better than mid-single digits, with new business from the likes of Caliber Collision, GSK, Juniper Networls, and Suburban Propane, along with new assignments from existing clients such as Inspire Brands (parent of restaurant chains such as Arby’s. Dunkin’ and Sonic Drive-In) and Procter & Gamble—two flagship clients for whom MSL has consistently produced award-winning work. Other high-profile clients include Home Depot, JM Smucker, Kellogg and Whirlpool, as well as a number of pharma companies who prefer to remain confidential.

Once again, MSL has been featured prominently in industry awards competitions, garnering plaudits from its creative work: partnering with Travis Kelce for Campbell’s to introduce the first-ever “legends edition” can of Campbell’s Chunky; modernizing the Mr Clean brand for P%G; “reinventing the square” for Charmin; building a partnership between Dunkin’ and Artists Equity; and helping Home Depot take advantage of Halloween shopping and Sonic highlight the path of the eclipse; and tapping the power of influencer marketing to make Special K cereal “Special for a Reason.”

Increasingly, that work is taking advantage of the massive investments Publicis is making in artificial intelligence and the intelligence with which MSL is applying it to its craft under the leadership of CEO Diana Littman and chief digital innovation officer Rob Davis. Not surprisingly, the firm has been using AI in influencer vetting, content, coding and channel activation; in its CultureIQ algorithmic trend tracking offer; in combating misinformation for clients; and in Message ShAIping and Talkability Testing. The goal is to deliver prescience, intelligence, and confidence “at the speed of culture.”

Littman has also transformed the employee experience at MSL during her six-year tenure, earning the firm recognition on our Best Agencies to Work For lists and building a strong leadership team that includes chief consumer brand officer Nicole Scull; managing directors Bailey Pescatore (health), and Nicole Messier (corporate), the latter joining last year from Mission North; chief strategy officer Shreya Mukherjee; chief client officer Lisa Talbot; head of marketing Natasha Vuppuluri; and—another new addition in 2024—chief creative officer Matt Zavala, formerly of Edelman.—PH