Live arts and entertainment advertising and marketing agency Serino Coyne announced today that it is now an independent firm. The agency’s chief executive officer Matt Upshaw purchased the company outright from its parent company, Omnicom, for an undisclosed amount. (“Omnicom and I reached an amicable agreement about the value of the agency,” Upshaw told Broadway News.) The acquisition was finalized on Feb. 27. Though Serino Coyne will no longer operate under the Omnicom umbrella, the entity will maintain a strategic partnership with the advertising behemoth.
Additionally, the firm will relocate in April to newly designed offices at 1450 Broadway in the heart of Times Square. The agency has maintained its full staff of more than 70 employees in the transition.
Serino Coyne was originally established in 1977 by founders Nancy Coyne and Matthew Serino as an independent advertising agency to serve live entertainment, especially Broadway and theater. Omnicom acquired the company in 2003. Now, Serino Coyne returns to its roots. “Being the original independent agency on Broadway that literally broke the mold, created the whole idea of [advertising for live entertainment] — and then lots of competition was born out of that — to go back to an independent ownership model, I think, is actually just the continuation of the whole original idea,” Upshaw said, “which is: What is the best version of this [agency structure] that looks like it’s purpose-built for serving the Broadway live entertainment and attraction space?”
