Creative agency BNO Inc. (also known as Baldwin & Obenauf), an award-winning, woman-owned business headquartered in Somerville, New Jersey, today announced the acquisition of Garfield Group, a creative marketing and PR agency based in Old City, Philadelphia.
The deal includes occupying the 5,000 square feet of office space in Garfield Group’s Old City headquarters on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia’s Historic District and represents the second geographical expansion in the last 18 months for BNO, which also opened an office in St. Petersburg, Florida in 2019. BNO employs 70 people and is led by President Trista Walker and Founder Joanne Obenauf.
BNO, with a roster of clients including Johnson & Johnson, Verizon, Aramark, and Mastercard, has been excelling for 40 years in branding, creative, social, search, and analytics capabilities. Garfield adds 33 years of award-winning branding, digital, broadcast video and public relations capability, and clients including Stride Learning, Marlin Capital, Prognos Health, and Clincierge. The integration will take place over the next six months and operate under the name BNO, with plans for the Philadelphia office to house an integrated BNO Garfield team.
“We are energized by the new opportunities our relationship with BNO offers,” said Matt Pfluger, Vice President of Strategy and Client Services at Garfield Group. “I’ve known the leadership team at BNO for several years. It’s a dynamic agency that is highly complementary to our focus on creating compelling brand experiences for everyone along the customer journey.”
Walker enthusiastically concurs. “The combination of our teams and expanded capabilities made this an incredibly attractive move,” said Walker, “We expand Garfield’s search, media, and analytics capability, and they add Public Relations to ours, exponentially increasing BNO’s ability to service current and future clients.”
The expertise of both agencies is complementary, and therefore no staff reductions are expected. The city’s diverse creative talent from well-known, prestigious colleges and universities, and high-tech Fortune 500 companies, creates an opportunity for BNO to expand its staffing further—something the agency is already doing. Both BNO and Garfield leadership will retain their current roles in the new company structure.
