Veritas Communications’ VP and creative strategist Lisa Kwong (left) with president and CEO Krista Webster. 

Veritas Communications has hired Lisa Kwong as VP and creative strategist, while also announcing a new client win and a new media-focused offering.

Arriving last month, Kwong will work across both Veritas and Meat & Produce, a sister content production agency launched in February aimed at co-creating digital content with clients and influencers. She will focus on helping brands evolve and reach new customers, particularly in the areas of lifestyle, alcohol and beauty, according to Krista Webster, president and CEO of Veritas Communications.

Kwong joins from Toronto-based Pomp & Circumstance, where she was vice-president, and also has prior experience from Narrative and NKPR, among other PR shops. Throughout her career, she has worked on a range of brands, many in the fashion, lifestyle and luxury categories, including Joe Fresh, Gap, Grey Goose Vodka, Aldo Group and L’Oreal.

Webster says Kwong’s hiring comes as clients face ever-more complex business challenges. She believes the creative strategist will add value to brands by offering “not just a great idea, but [one that is] strategically wise and anchored in an insight, that is truly going to break through.”

“For us, and for me, adding bench is always important, and I thought that Lisa really brought that extra understanding of lifestyle, a level of creativity but from a very strategic standpoint that is difficult to find in the market,” she says.

According to Webster, Kwong will also help support the growth of both agencies under the Veritas umbrella. The PR shop saw “unprecedented growth” during its last quarter, with a good portion of it coming from the newly launched studio.

So far, 60% of the growth within Meat & Produce has come from existing clients (which had early access to the offering) and 40% net new opportunities, Webster says. It has grown from a three-person team into one with 15 employees. “Our success with Meat & Produce and continued momentum with Veritas has afforded us the ability to bring in someone with such high-calibre talent as Lisa.”

In addition to the hire, Veritas has picked up an assignment with 29Rooms, an immersive pop-up event created by women’s lifestyle website Refinery29, which will come to Toronto for the first time this fall as part of a five-city tour. The agency will lead all PR and influencer relations for the event, which features “interactive installations and thought-provoking performances” developed in collaboration with “brands, visionaries and emerging creative voices,” according to its website.

Finally, Veritas has also officially unveiled Amplifeye, a media offering supporting both Veritas and Meat & Produce. Webster describes Amplify as “our media point-of-view on how to strategically optimize our influencer and co-created content.” Amplifeye allows Veritas to facilitate media directly, in some cases, and offer strategic advice on how to optimize media, in others.

Amplifeye has been operating internally for the last six months, but Veritas wanted to prioritize rolling out Meat & Produce before making it public, according to Webster.