• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, March 6, 2012

The Interpublic Group of Companies has acquired Frukt Communications, the London-based music-focused entertainment marketing company. Frukt also has offices in New York. The unit will become part of IPG’s Octagon, the holding company’s sports and entertainment marketing unit, but IPG stressed that the Frukt brand would be retained.

Frukt was established in 2001 by CEO Anthony Ackenhoff and creative director, Jack Horner. Clients have included Coca-Cola, Southern Comfort, Diesel and Starwood Hotels.

IPG said that the Frukt team will collaborate with Octagon in a number of areas, including Octagon’s music and entertainment consulting unit, which has created sponsorship programs for clients such as Bank of America and MasterCard.

In addition, Frukt will work with Octagon’s talent management experts in music and television and provide input to other Octagon units, such as its content development and packaging team and its multicultural and lifestyle marketing division. Frukt will also work with sister PR shop Rogers & Cowan, whose clients include The Grammys, Coca-Cola and Microsoft. 

In addition to researching and developing event-oriented campaigns and sponsorships, Frukt publishes monthly trend digests and a yearbook focused on customized research into entertainment. 

Harris Diamond, CEO of the IPG Constituency Management Group, which includes Octagon and IPG’s stable of PR agencies, stated that the acquisition would “further strengthen” Octagon’s entertainment marketing business and its global reach.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.