Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) agency Golin announced the appointment of Luke Peterson as the head of data & analytics for the Golin Group, North America. He will oversee and elevate measurement strategy for all four of the company’s agency brands. He started in June and reports to Dawn Langeland, president, New York and will have close alignment with Paul Parton, group chief strategy officer, The Golin Group.
Peterson brings a robust background in data, research and analytics supporting global communications and marketing campaigns. For the last six years, Luke served as deputy assistant secretary leading research and analytics for global public affairs at the U.S. Department of State, supporting top-priority U.S. government communications efforts aimed at shifting awareness, opinions and actions of audiences abroad on issues from improving global COVID-19 vaccination rates to fighting climate change to rehabilitating overseas trust and confidence in the people, culture and government of the United States. Alongside his team, he planned and executed omnichannel marketing campaigns, ran measurement and evaluation and conducted primary and secondary audience and media research, social listening and media monitoring on six continents. Peterson’s work delivered data-informed insights that regularly shifted the frames and narratives put forward by the U.S. and its friends, partners and allies to more effectively advance foreign policy objectives.
“Luke has served three Presidents and four Secretaries of State as a one-of-a-kind insights expert,” said Parton. “I look forward to integrating his expertise and unique background with our agency teams to help guide business decisions for our clients that draw a more quantifiable connection between brand reputation and media coverage with consumer perception and purchase power.”
Peterson will elevate the data and analytics function across Golin, The Brooklyn Brothers, Virgo Health and DeVries Global agency brands. He will deploy innovative tactics that fuse business data with communications data and introduce new opportunities to clients that connect them to audiences in unrivaled ways.
“Brands, agencies and organizations often aim to be insights-driven, but very few truly integrate qualitative and quantitative data into their strategic process to steer towards better business outcomes,” said Peterson. “I’m excited to join Golin in pushing our industry to new limits in how empirical insights shape targeted communications and business strategy. Together, we will better understand complex audiences through media and behavioral data analysis and apply learnings to drive more authentic and more impactful concepts, and greater precision in our messaging and earned media channel plans and pivots.”
Before his role at the U.S. State Department, Peterson worked in politics and the private sector as a database marketing specialist for four U.S. presidential campaigns and as a redistricting consultant. He also served as senior director and innovation lead at Burson-Marsteller where he planned hyper-targeted communications campaigns for clients like Bank of America, Chipotle, Dell, Fitbit, Ford and Oracle.
“Our clients rely on us to deliver best-in-class results during some of their most exciting and challenging moments,” said Langeland. “Luke is joining our team at the perfect time to raise and demonstrate our impact and prove the value of our earned-first ideas. His unique experience managing complex global communications challenges will set our agency up for the future and help us all do the best work of our lives.”
About Golin
Golin is a global public relations agency that helps companies create change that matters. Together, we discover powerful human truths that bind us, create with bravery and collaborate inclusively and obsessively. Golin’s 1700 global employees operate across 50+ offices worldwide, allowing us to provide our clients with comprehensive solutions for multi-market, regional and global communications programs. Golin was named PRovoke Media’s 2022 overall North America Agency of the Year, PRovoke Media’s 2022 and 2021 North America Large Agency of the Year, PRWeek’s 2021, 2020 and 2019 Global Agency of the Year, AMEC’s 2021, 2020 and 2019 Communications Research + Measurement Team of the Year, a 2021 Chicago Tribune Top Workplace and is the first-ever PR agency to be credited with “ideation,” when the firm took home Gold and Silver Lions at the 2019 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.
