In this, the first of our blogs for 2013, we’re going to take a look back at the past twelve months to see if we can get a feel for what the trends might be for the next year. 2012 saw around 150 deals in our industry, from the big (WPP snapping up AKQA, possibly […]
To any old-school ad creative, there’s not much to be said for data. It’s really boring, they’ll tell you, especially when you compare a day spent at your desk crunching figures to the allure of shooting a new car ad in South Africa. They have a point – up to a point. At Green Square, […]
It’s a familiar ritual for the less organised among us. We put off our Christmas shopping and leave ourselves open to last-minute panic buying. However, it seems that a number of businesses (none of whom we could regard as being remotely disorganised) have put off present shopping and gone for a different kind of retail […]
The first of the deals we’re going to look at this week involved the Norwich- based (what is it about Norwich at the moment? – see previous blogs) digital agency Selesti acquiring – for an undisclosed sum – the search marketing division of Online Media Group (OMG). Selesti, by contrast, is a youngster. It only […]
One of the big misconceptions about the marketing services industry is that it’s a pond in which big fish swim around, sizing up smaller fish and then gobbling up those they regard as the most attractive and the most potentially nutritious. While it’s true that most acquirers in our industry consist of large groups – […]
What’s interesting about all these acquisitions are that they signal the intent of medium-sized marketing agencies to grow and develop both scale and a wider, more integrated range of offerings. Will one of them be the next big integrated group? Who knows – but we’ll be taking a look at how these growing agencies might […]
We’re pleased to announce the sale of the UK’s leading in-store research and data collection agency, ESA (Market Research) Limited, to BDRC Group, the UK’s largest independent market research consultancy. The acquisition will lift the annual turnover of the BDRC Group to over £20m. Established in 1979 and under 100% ownership of Belfast based branded […]
We’re delighted to announce the start-up of a new advertising agency, Hometown, funded by a 35% stake from world-class brand, design and retail environment agency, StartJG. Hometown’s founders have deep experience across advertising and digital disciplines, having previously founded one of the UK’s most highly awarded digital agencies, Saint, as well as producing numerous above-the-line […]
We’re delighted to announce the sale of one of the world’s best known and highly regarded strategic creative music and entertainment agencies, FRUKT Limited, to the US headquartered Interpublic Group of Companies (“IPG”). IPG is a global advertising and marketing group and FRUKT will be joining IPG’s Octagon Entertainments, the world’s largest sponsorship consulting practice. […]
We’re pleased to announce the sale of one of the UK’s leading strategic medical communications companies, Succinct Communications, to Chime Communications PLC, a leading marketing services group for a potential total value of £10.6m. Based in Amersham, Succinct has particular expertise in market access and key opinion leader and advocacy development in the field of […]