• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, April 10, 2014

Two influential consultants -- Stamford, CT-based MLA and London-based Flock -- specializing in advising consumer brands on integrated marketing communications have teamed up to expand their global footprint.

“We share the same values and principles and have similar global experience and perspective which we will now be able to offer clients worldwide,” stated Maarten Albarda, a long-time top media and marketing executive at global marketers such as Coca-Cola Co. and AB-InBev, and big agencies including JWT, Leo Burnett and McCann-Erickson, before founding MLA.

While the companies characterized the arrangement as a “strategic partnership,” both companies are one year old and focus on advising marketers on evaluating and organizing their integrated marketing communications, which is the practice of coordinating all of a brand's disparate communications efforts to ensure they achieve common goals.