GRAND COMMUNICATIONS - Key Persons
Adam Fenton is a Senior Strategist of Grand Communications, specializing in developing effective publicity campaigns and initiatives and garnering key media attention for the firm's clients in the entertainment and licensing arenas.
A dynamic, hard-hitting communicator, Fenton has been a force in entertainment PR for more than 20 years. He is equally adept at building and leveraging relationships with the most powerful media professionals in the world and helping to guide the strategic direction for media conglomerates, video game publishers, motion picture studios, and other companies in film, television, consumer products and digital entertainment - from Fortune 500 businesses to start-ups. Fenton helps ensure a strong strategic approach and aggressive media relations program for every campaign. He has demonstrated a keen understanding of mediarelations and social media to achieve maximum impact for product launches and brand initiatives and to get above the "noise" at some of the world's largest consumer and industry trade shows and events.
Fenton joined the Grand Communications team in 2012 after serving 13 years as the head of the NY office for a leading entertainment PR agency. Throughout his career, he has orchestrated publicity campaigns for some of the world's highest-profile companies and brands, including Lionsgate, Nickelodeon, Marvel, Guinness World Records, BBC America, Scholastic Media, 4Kids Entertainment, Konami, Machinima, YouTube, LIMA, Electronic Arts, Sega, 2K, Pokemon, HBO, Cartoon Network, 20th Century Fox, ESPN, NFL and many more.
Fenton graduated from Lehigh University with a B.A. in Journalism. Following his graduation, he served as the Sports Information and Marketing Director at Kean University in Union, NJ, where he was in charge of media relations for 16 varsity programs. He subsequently received his Master's in Sports Management from the University of Texas, where he also served as the Sports Information contact for women's track & field/cross country teams.
Job Titles:
- Founder
- President
- Agency Founder and President
Alison Grand is a dynamic and sharp PR veteran with more than two decades of experience in publicizing some of the top names in entertainment, licensing and consumer electronics. She has made her mark working on behalf of prestigious clients such as Amazon, Entertainment One, BBC Worldwide, Discovery Channel, The Fred Rogers Company, HBO/ Cinemax, Nelvana, Out of the Blue Enterprises, PBS KIDS, Scholastic Entertainment, and XM Satellite Radio, among many others.
As agency Founder and President, Grand has directed numerous successful North American publicity campaigns for leading players in the tech and consumer electronics arena, including Amazon's indie-publishing and disc-on-demand platforms CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Coby Electronics, XM Satellite Radio, and Unwired Technology. She has also orchestrated maximum media attention for top-rated series, websites, apps, consumer products, live shows and events for preschoolers through teens, such as Peppa Pig and PJ Masks (eOne), Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Peg + Cat and Odd Squad (The Fred Rogers Co.), Super WHY (Out of the Blue), Ready Jet Go! (Wind Dancer Films), Teletubbies (Ragdoll), Charlie and Lola (BBC Worldwide), Wild Kratts (PBS KIDS GO!/Kratt Bros. Co.), George of the Jungle (Classic Media) and SciGirls (tpt National Productions).
In addition, Grand has led winning PR and social media programs for acclaimed documentaries, including Tribeca Film Festival entries "A President to Remember" and "From Two Men and A War" (Drew Associates), "Different is the New Normal" (WNET and Small Boys Productions), Emmy-winning Sopranos actor and activist Joe Pantoliano's "No Kidding, Me 2!" (Amazon), "SEIZED: Inside the Mystery of Epilepsy (Twin Cities PBS and Partisan Pictures); as well as a broad range of licensed and non-licensed products, from toys and playthings (Crayola, Ravensburger, Cepia, Jay at Play, YOTTOY, Wooky Entertainment) to DVDs (Anchor Bay Entertainment, Gaiam, Cinedigm), books (Amazon, Weinstein Books) and beyond.
Grand's strong writing and journalism background is evident in the well-crafted and compelling press materials she and her team develop for clients. Editorials she has ghostwritten have appeared in leading national media outlets, including USA Today, Los Angeles Times and Variety.
Prior to forming the firm in 2001, Grand was Director of PR for The itsy bitsy Entertainment Company, where the national PR campaigns she spearheaded for Teletubbies, Eloise and other top children's entertainment brands regularly captured the headlines of the world's most influential media. Grand directed and led all publicity efforts for the company and its chairman, ensuring widespread attention from top-tier national business and consumer press as well as leading industry trades.
Before joining itsy bitsy in 1999, Grand was Senior Associate at a SoHo-based PR firm specializing in TV, licensing, the arts and education. During her nearly five-year tenure at the boutique agency, Grand supervised national PR programs for a wide range of kids series, including Scholastic's The Magic School Bus, Goosebumps and Animorphs (Scholastic Entertainment) and Reading Rainbow (Lancit Media) as well as documentaries exploring a diverse array of political and social themes for HBO/Cinemax and PBS. Grand also established and grew the firm's licensing and consumer products division, achieving widespread publicity for licensed product ranges such as the Discovery Channel Exploration Toy Line and Nickelodeon Electronics.
Grand's background includes reporting for the Village Voice and Extra!, the magazine of media watchdog group, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). She is a cum laude graduate of NYU's School of Journalism with a BA in Journalism and Mass Communications.
Gabrielle Torello, a Senior Account Director of Grand Communications, specializes in children's television, documentaries, DVD and event public relations. In addition, she helps develop and execute publicity campaigns for the agency's education and nonprofit clients. A key member of the Grand Communications team since 2004, Torello has collaborated on the launch of top-rated PBS KIDS series for preschoolers, including Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and Super WHY, as well as PBS KIDS GO!'s SciGirls, Wild Kratts and George of the Jungle for the school-age set; garnered visibility for Anchor Bay Entertainment's DVD titles for children and families such as Chuggington, Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! and "The Dog Who Saved…" feature film series; and much more.
Prior to joining Grand Communications, Torello served as Vice President of a SoHo-based public relations agency, where she spearheaded the firm's TV programming and education PR areas. In this position, she successfully directed and implemented a variety of media campaigns for Scholastic Entertainment's award-winning slate of television properties.
Torello was responsible for publicity for Clifford the Big Red Dog (garnering more than 50 TV book covers at the show's premiere), I Spy, Scholastic's The Magic School Bus, Dear America and Royal Diaries. In addition, she handled television and licensing press for CINAR's Zoboomafoo and Caillou. Additional projects, which Torello supervised, included Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees, an IMAX film produced by The Science Museum of Minnesota, and the launch of National Geographic's school-based nonfiction literacy program.
Previously, Torello spent eight years in the Corporate Communications department at Scholastic Inc., where she publicized Scholastic's 27 classroom magazines, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and the launch of Scholastic's The Magic School Bus; as well as creating media events for the company. Immediately upon leaving Scholastic, Torello served as an Account Director at New York based PR firm from 1998-1999, with clients including Parents magazine, Home Office Computing, the Women's Consumer Network and React magazine, among many other projects.
Torello began her career in publicity at Columbia/Tri-Star Pictures and holds a B.A. in English Literature from Barnard College in New York City.