Lobby PR Joins New CultureComm Group in Wave of Consolidation in London

LONDON— Consolidation has become a mega-trend in PR and marketing in these challenging times for fashion and lifestyle companies.

Lobby PR, founded by Ashley Smith, is the latest company to make a move, joining CultureComm Group, a new communications collective.

Lobby PR is joining alongside KiNC, a lifestyle communications agency founded by Paul Knipe, who will serve as chief executive officer of CultureComm.

Knipe said his aim is to form a group of “connected, culturally fluent, specialist, founder-led agencies,” while the plan is to create a “growth-minded structure” for those agencies as well as a broader base of service and experience.

“We are playing at the opposite end of the spectrum to the massive group ‘holdco’ model,” Knipe said. “Our structure talks to brands that recognize that cultural proximity and operational depth are best delivered by passionate and knowledgeable agency founders and their teams.”

Knipe believes there is strength in numbers and said he’s keen to talk to other “aligned agencies that might be interested in what CultureComm offers.”

Smith said that “joining CultureComm Group allows us to protect our philosophy, stay true to our values and continue doing what we do best, while gaining the structure and support to refine and grow our business into the future.”

He added that joining CultureComm will allow him to spend more time working with clients and his team, and on developing the agency, “with better support, experience and resources behind us.”

The move, Smith said, is also a way of “future-proofing a small agency in a volatile environment, industry and market, and remaining competitive as against more and more agency consolidation out there.”

Running a small agency right now, Smith argued, is like being on a tiny ship in a rocky sea surrounded by ocean liners. “Everyone is needing to find a moment of shelter from the storm — or just get on board a bigger boat,” he said.

Lobby is a fashion PR agency that aims to blend consumer insight and creative PR strategies to deliver visibility for brands. Clients include fashion labels Ashley Williams, Lucila Safdie and Ksenia Schnaider, and the Spanish sneaker brand Hoff.

KiNC was founded in 2012 and provides PR, social, talent and experiential services for a cross-section of consumer brands. Clients include Coca-Cola, the NFL, Southern Comfort, Vespa and The North Face.

As reported last May, AIPR and Lucien Pagès formed a joint venture for the U.K. market. The merger was supported by The Independents group, which acquired Lucien Pagès Communication in 2024.

In 2022, Purple became one of five founder-led companies to have sold “significant stakes” to Together Group, a full-service design, tech, marketing and communications provider. The founder-led agencies, which include Hot Pot China, The Future Laboratory and Obo, work in tandem to provide myriad services to multinational, regional and local clients.