NEW YORK — Finn Partners has acquired two travel specialist agencies, Hawkins International PR and Maverick Creative, the latest in a series of moves by the firm to bolster its global travel practice.


Hawkins International is a 26-person boutique that specializes in luxury travel and hospitality, with offices in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Founder and CEO Jennifer Hawkins will join Finn as managing partner, luxury travel and be part of the firm’s global travel practice leadership team. The Hawkins team, which will remain intact, will transition to the Finn Partners brand name over time.

Hawkins specializes in serving premier multinational luxury travel, hospitality and wellness brands. The firm’s capabilities span the breadth of travel communications services including consumer and trade media relations, media intelligence, trendspotting, content development and storytelling, brand partnerships, social media strategy and advertising, influencer marketing, content marketing, digital marketing, experiential and thought leadership.

Hawkins clients include Montage International, Inspirato, Dorchester Collection, Seabourn Cruise Line, onefinestay, Gstaad Palace and Wilderness Safaris among others.

The deal also includes Finn acquiring Maverick Creative, Hawkins International’s 10-person affiliate agency specializing in creative communications for travel and lifestyle clients. Maverick will retain its current branding and operations will continue under managing director Catherine Colford, while expanding to the UK. Maverick also will remain intact.

Maverick clients include Rocco Forte Hotels, Arlo Hotels, The Point, The Shelbourne, RVshare, Asbury Ocean Club, the Nines, and Chebeague Island Inn.

News of the deal comes just a week after Finn announced its acquisition of another travel firm, Hawaii-based Anthology Marketing Group. The new acquisitions make Finn's travel practice a $20 million a year operation with more than 150 people serving clients across three continents.

The acquisitions are the latest in a series of moves by Finn Partners to significantly grow its travel practice, while supporting the larger tourism industry.

In January, the firm created a global travel advisory board, whose members include international industry experts, as part of the agency’s ongoing effort to position the sector for post-pandemic success. That followed the September 2020 appointment of  Debbie Flynn, formerly managing partner of Finn Travel Europe, as global travel practice leader – the agency’s first global practice head to be based outside the US.

In 2019, Finn acquired Hong Kong travel specialist CatchOn, and travel and lifestyle consultancy Brighter Group in 2018.

Finn has also made a spate of acquisitions to expand other offerings. In July, the firm bought Health IT specialist Agency Ten22 and tech agency Barokas Communications.

In April, Finn purchased digital marketing agency MintTwist. The move marked Finn’s fifth acquisition in  London in the past four years, coming on the heels of financial services firm Moorgate Communications and consumer and lifestyle agency ZPR in 2019;  Brighter Group in 2018; and B2B specialist ABI in 2017.

In May, Finn bought back Stagwell Group’s minority stake in the firm, putting an end to the companies’ four-plus year financial partnership that enabled Finn Partners to grow by 2020 into a $110 million operation which 750 people across 20 offices.