Jonah Keel and Briana Richard Elevated to Senior Vice President and Vice President, Respectively

Division’s Gaming Team Adds Industry Veteran Blake Shuster, Former Head of US Communications for Red Bull, Gaming

LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / September 28, 2022 / Eyeing both current and anticipated growth, BHI, a division of 42West/owned by Dolphin Entertainment (NASDAQ:DLPN), has significantly bolstered its executive leadership by promoting two key employees and adding a new Vice President to its team. 42West/BHI Co-Presidents Dean Bender and Shawna Lynch promoted Jonah Keel to Senior Vice President from his Vice President role, Briana Richard to Vice President from her Account Director position, and hired Red Bull’s Head of US Communications, Gaming, Blake Shuster as Vice President.

“Since BHI was acquired by Dolphin Entertainment and subsequently merged with 42West in January 2021, the division has experienced high double-digit growth,” said Lynch. “We owe a great deal of that success to the leadership skills of Jonah and Briana. They are both client and staff relationship builders that drive the efforts of our best-in-class clients, while simultaneously bringing on new and exciting partners.”

Jonah Keel, who has been with BHI for more than five years, initially led business development efforts but quickly segued to gaming, tech, streaming, consumer products and influencers. A few of the clients under Keel’s leadership include Warner Bros. Games, Devsisters, Tyler Blevins (Ninja) and Jacksepticeye. Prior to joining BHI, Keel was a campaign strategy manager at Click Communications.

Based in Austin, TX, Briana Richard (formerly Rojas), who spearheads the division’s entertainment content and consumer products accounts with Co-President Lynch, leads initiatives for clients such as Funko, Loungefly, Mattel TV and Rebel Girls, among others. Richard began her public relations career at BHI in 2015 and, most recently, led campaigns for Netflix’s Emmy Award-winning series, “Arcane,” Funko’s debut at the 2021 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with their Pop!-inspired Grogu balloon and the launch of the hit Disney Jr. preschool series, “Dino Ranch.”

With the hiring of Blake Shuster as Vice President, the senior leadership of the gaming practice expands to meet the growth of both traditional video game publishers, as well as several new Web3 accounts representing metaverse, blockchain gaming and NFT experiences. Shuster, who joins 42West/BHI after five years as Red Bull’s Head of US Communications, Gaming, led the creation and execution of communication, brand, marketing, and programming initiatives around gaming marketing events, athletes, and

content across all of the company’s owned and managed platforms. Prior to Red Bull, Shuster had stints at Twitch, Blizzard Entertainment and Fortyseven Communications. He will lead the company’s gaming practice with Bender and Keel.

“Blake is joining the company at the right time in terms of recent and anticipated growth,” said Bender. “42West/BHI’s gaming practice has deep roots in the ever-evolving world of interactive entertainment and with Blake’s appointment, our teams and clients gain a creative, respected and experienced leader with both agency and in-house experience.”

About Dolphin Entertainment

Dolphin Entertainment is a leading independent entertainment marketing and production company. Through our subsidiaries 42West, The Door, Shore Fire Media and BHI (a division of 42West), we provide expert strategic marketing and publicity services to many of the top brands, both individual and corporate, in the film, television, music, gaming and hospitality industries. All three PR firms were ranked among the most recent Observer’s “Power 50” PR Firms in the United States, an unprecedented achievement. Viewpoint Creative and Be Social complement their efforts with full-service creative branding and production capabilities as well as social media and influencer marketing services. Dolphin’s legacy content production business, founded by Emmy-nominated CEO Bill O’Dowd, has produced multiple feature films and award-winning digital series. In early 2022, Dolphin launched WCIP (pronounced We Come In Peace), its new marketing, consulting and communications agency focused solely on developing and marketing blockchain, metaverse and Web3 projects and initiatives, for both current and future clients, as well as wholly-owned project investments. To learn more, visit: https://www.dolphinentertainment.com.

About 42West

42West is one of the entertainment industry’s leading full-service public-relations firms. With offices in New York and Los Angeles, 42West has four divisions: Talent, Strategic Communications, Entertainment Marketing, and BHI, the firm’s gaming, esports, Web3 and consumer products practice. The company has developed and executed marketing and publicity strategies for hundreds of movies and television shows as well as countless actors, filmmakers, recording artists, personalities and authors. In addition, 42West provides strategic counsel to a wide variety of high-profile individuals and corporate clients-ranging from movie and pop stars to major studios, charitable organizations, and media conglomerates-looking to raise, reposition, or rehabilitate their public profiles.

42West is a subsidiary of Dolphin Entertainment, the parent company to a super group of marketing agencies renown within their respective industries: 42West for entertainment marketing and PR; BeSocial for digital communications and influencer marketing; Shore Fire for music PR; Viewpoint Creative with branded marketing and content; and The Door, which handles epicurean, hospitality, and lifestyle marketing and PR.

This press release contains ‘forward-looking statements’ within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These forward-looking statements may address, among other things, Dolphin Entertainment Inc.’s offering of common stock as well as expected financial and operational results and the related assumptions underlying its expected results. These forward-looking statements are distinguished by the use of words such as “will,” “would,” “anticipate,” “expect,” “believe,” “designed,” “plan,” or “intend,” the negative of these terms, and similar references to future periods. These views involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict and, accordingly, Dolphin Entertainment’s actual results may differ materially from the results discussed in its forward-looking statements. Dolphin Entertainment’s forward-looking statements contained herein speak only as of the date of this press release. Factors or events Dolphin Entertainment cannot predict, including those described in the risk factors contained in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, may cause its actual results to differ from those expressed in forward-looking statements. Although Dolphin Entertainment believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be achieved, and Dolphin Entertainment undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Michael Rizzo
[email protected]

INVESTOR CONTACT:

James Carbonara
Hayden IR
(646)-755-7412
[email protected]

SOURCE: Dolphin Entertainment

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