SACRAMENTO—Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide and social media advocacy firm Activate Direct have formed a new digital public affairs offering in the Western US and a strategic alliance between the two firms that will help clients address challenges and promote their agendas in the rapidly expanding digital space.

The new offering will allow Ogilvy and Activate Direct to expand their public affairs offerings in issues management, messaging for complex political issues, legislative and regulatory affairs, crisis communications, ballot initiatives and coalition building. The partnership includes a focus on environment and land use issues.

The offering will be led by Bryan Merica, CEO of Activate Direct, and Michael Law, president of OgilvyWest.

Activate Direct brings a heavy technology emphasis with web tools and social media apps specifically built for the world of public affairs. Since its inception in 2004, Activate Direct has served hundreds of political and public affairs campaigns on the Activate Direct platform, providing a full set of tools for persuasion, grassroots, fundraising and data intelligence.