A Stagwell event in London that was due to take place today (Wednesday) has been postponed due to “safety concerns”.
The postponement of Festival of Stagwell follows news from Drop Site, a “non-aligned investigative news organisation”, which was given a leaked copy of research conducted by Stagwell into consumer perceptions in Europe and the US of the Israeli government.
Undertaken via focus groups and surveys, the research included asking respondents to estimate how many people they believed Israel had killed in Gaza and how many of those were civilians.
In an email seen by The Media Leader, the agency holding group told delegates due to attend Wednesday’s event: “Due to safety concerns raised this morning, we will be postponing Festival of Stagwell.”
It went on to apologise for the late notice and inconvenience.
Festival of Stagwell was due to be hosted at the organisation’s London office and feature keynote speakers including EMEA CEO James Townsend and Sir Ben Ainslie, former Team GB Olympic sailor.
Townsend told The Media Leader: “The safety of our people and guests is our top priority. Due to safety concerns, we have decided to postpone the event. The environment would not have been conducive to a productive afternoon as originally intended.”
Stagwell is led by chairman and CEO Mark Penn, whose 40-career spans not just advertising but also market research, PR and polling.
According to a biography on Stagwell’s website, as a co-founder of market research company Penn Schoen Berland, he “is credited with developing several unique ad and polling methods used by presidents and major corporations”.
Having served as White House pollster to Bill Clinton and chief strategist for his 1996 re-election campaign, Penn has also advised “political leaders worldwide”, including in Israel, Thailand and Latin America.
Stagwell owns agencies including Assembly, Goodstuff Communications and Anomaly.
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