by Kent Jennings Brockwell
Staff Writer
The Dalton Agency is going worldwide.
The local public relations agency announced this week that it has joined forces with two other national firms to create a full service public affairs consulting company. The new company, called Voinovich, Needles and Dalton, LLC (VND), will be headquartered in Columbus, Ohio with offices in Akron, Ohio, Jacksonville, Washington, D.C. and Beijing.
VND comprises George Voinovich, an attorney in Akron, Ohio, Thomas Needles, founder of Statecraft, a government affairs consulting firm, and the Dalton Agency’s Jim Dalton and Michael Munz.
Dalton, president of the Dalton Agency, said the new company will be able to service clients with more options and opportunities. Dalton said the other two companies did not have advertising or public relations capabilities before now and had to outsource for their publicity needs. Now that the new alliances have been formed, he said VND is a true full service firm.
“This is an advantage for them to have us as a resource,” he said, “and it gives us added resources as well.”
According to a press release from VND, the new firm will be able to “simultaneously advise clients in the areas of government and public affairs, marketing, public relations, multimedia, strategic planning and business development.”
“Having this broad range of services is very unique,” said Dalton. “We are not aware of another agency that offers our scope of services.”
Needles, managing partner of VND, said he is excited that VND will be able to offer such a wide array of services as a single company.
“There is considerable merit in offering all of these capabilities as a one-stop shop,” Needles said. “There are many companies that want and need those kinds of capabilities under a single entity.”
Dalton said he is most interested in business development regarding VND’s China office. He said the Beijing office is being run by a former translator who is already in the know when it comes to dealing with the Chinese government and emerging businesses.
“There is a huge emergence of business opportunities there,” said Dalton. “Having somebody already on the ground in Beijing is a huge advantage for us as opposed to not having anybody over there.”
Dalton also said the creation of VND will help advance the Dalton Agency, allowing it to pick up new clients in different fields of business.
“It really effects (the Dalton Agency) in a positive way,” he said. “It allows us to expand. This new company gives us a wider scope of services to offer our clients.”
As far as working with clients from around the world, Dalton said the agency already works with a vast amount of clients with an international range.
“Over half of our business is done nationally or internationally already,” he said. “The new firm is just an extension of who we are.”