Vianovo

Vianovo is a management, advocacy and communication consultancy with offices in Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Washington, D.C. and Mexico City.[1][2] The firm's services include opinion research, strategic planning, public campaigns, issue advocacy, public relations, coalition building, crisis management and cross-border expansion.[1][3][4] Vianovo serves as an advisor to corporations, startups and non-profit organizations.[5][6]

Notable clients have included AT&T,[7] the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,[8] the NBA,[4] Malaria No More,[9] Valeant Pharmaceuticals,[10] and Bears for Leadership Reform.[11] The firm also has an investment group, Vianovo Ventures, which partners with and supports startups.[6]

Vianovo is led by eight partners: Blaine Bull, Tucker Eskew, Matthew Miller,[12] Billy Moore,[1] Katherine Nash Goehring,[13] Robert Norcross,[1] Michael Shannon[1] and James Taylor.[14] Other key Vianovo staff members include vice presidents Julie Hillrichs,[15] Elizabeth Lippincott,[16] Cesar Martinez,[17] Lori McClure and senior advisor M.C. Andrews.[18]

Vianovo was established as a bipartisan firm in May 2005 by political strategists Bull, Dowd, Eskew and Taylor.[19] The firm merged the founders' four agencies: Eskew Strategy Group, Dowd Strategic Consulting, StratCom Group, and CIMA Strategies.[19] The name Vianovo is derived from the Latin root meaning “new way.”[20]

Previous to their work at Vianovo, Dowd and Eskew held senior positions on the presidential campaigns of former president George W. Bush,[19][21] and Eskew served as head of media affairs in the White House.[22] Bull, Dowd, Moore and Taylor worked for Senator Lloyd Bentsen in Congress.[14]

In 2005, the company employed a new proprietary process called AIMD, which stands for Audience, Insight, Message and Delivery.[5] Vianovo uses the process to plan and implement targeted communication.[23] In 2006, partners William "Billy" Moore, Michael Shannon and Robert Norcross joined Vianovo.[1] Moore was a veteran of over 50 political campaigns.[24] Shannon came to Vianovo from the Boston Consulting Group and had previously been a strategist on the 2004 George W. Bush presidential campaign.[1] That same year, Norcross opened a new Vianovo office in Dallas-Fort Worth.[2] Former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Antonio "Tony" Garza joined Vianovo as a partner in June 2009.[25] As of 2013, Garza is chairman of Vianovo Ventures, Vianovo’s investment arm, which partners with and funds startups.[25][26]

Matthew Miller joined Vianovo as a partner in 2011 after leaving his role at the United States Department of Justice, where he served as Attorney General Eric Holder's spokesperson.[27] In March 2014, the firm formed Mexico Energy Strategic Advisory (MESA), an advisory board that offers U.S. companies and investors information, strategic advice and policy analysis on the Mexico energy market.[2]

Founding partner Matthew Dowd left Vianovo in 2015 to launch Paradox Capital, a social impact venture fund.[28] Katherine Nash Goehring became a partner in 2015.[13] Prior to that, Goehring led communications and investor relations for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.[29]

Vianovo was hired by the National Basketball Association to help the league find a new demographic of fans in 2005.[4] The firm conducted focus groups and consulted with NBA Commissioner David Stern. Stern implemented a controversial dress code for players later that year, banning baggy jeans, gold chains and large white T-shirts while players represented the league in an official capacity.[4]

In December 2006, Vianovo handled media relations and communications for the White House-backed non-profit organization Malaria No More.[9] That same year, the firm developed a marketing campaign using a political model for AT&T’s launch of U-verse, the company's bundle of fiber-optic services.[30] AT&T and Vianovo held promotional neighborhood block parties, a tactic used by partner Dowd during the 2004 Bush campaign.[30]

In 2008, Vianovo partnered with Convio for a National Press Club panel discussion called “Converging Campaigns: How the Internet is changing philanthropy, advocacy and politics”.[31] The talk featured strategists and executives from Facebook, Rock the Vote, the American Cancer Society, and the Cancer Action Network.[31] In 2009, the firm partnered with Hart Research Associates to conduct a survey among registered U.S. voters to determine public opinion in America on immunizations for children in developing countries. The project was commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.[8]

In 2012, the firm invested in the series A round of an online fundraising platform, Rally.org, alongside Bully Pulpit Initiative, Greylock Partners, Charity: Water, and Google Ventures. Together, the investors raised $7.9 million.[32] In September 2013, Vianovo funded and completed a survey of 1,000 Mexican citizens on Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s energy reform agenda to assess the Mexican political landscape and gauge public opinion.[33]

In both 2012 and 2016, the firm and advertising agency GSD&M conducted a national poll of U.S. adults measuring American perceptions of Mexico.[34][35][36]

In 2015, Valeant Pharmaceuticals hired Vianovo for crisis management support related to public scrutiny and congressional investigations of the company’s drug pricing.[10] In 2016, the firm began representing Bears for Leadership Reform, a group of Baylor University alumni advocating for transparency and changes to the university’s governance in response to its sexual assault scandal.[11][37]

• Official website