Marketing & Advertising Acquisitions in 2020

David Centner Enterprises, the family-office vehicle of serial entrepreneur David Centner, acquired Canadian reputation-management firm Guaranteed Removals (rebranded Erase.com); the deal closed December 31, 2020 and was announced in July 2021. Following the acquisition the company relocated its corporate headquarters to Miami, Florida and appointed Alexander Kurian as CEO to scale the business in enterprise-level negative content management.

Crowd Content, a Victoria, British Columbia–based content creation platform, has been acquired by an investment group led by Cetina Capital with participation from Sage Capital. The investors plan to accelerate product and platform investment (including AI-driven content tools) while founder Clayton Lainsbury remains involved as a board member.

Private equity funds managed by Blackstone have reached a definitive agreement to make a majority investment in Liftoff, a Redwood City-based performance-based mobile app marketing optimization platform. The partnership will provide capital and resources to accelerate product development, expand Liftoff's global footprint, and support future growth initiatives.

1WorldSync, a product content solutions provider backed by Battery Ventures, has acquired Snap36, a specialist in 360-degree and 3D product imaging. The acquisition deepens integration of Snap36’s automated image-capture technology into 1WorldSync’s end-to-end product content suite to expand capabilities for brands and retailers in e-commerce and retail channels.

Traject, the marketing-technology suite backed by ASG (and ultimately Alpine Investors), has acquired PLANOLY, a visual social media planning, scheduling and analytics platform headquartered in Austin, Texas. PLANOLY's founders will remain for a transition period and the business will join Traject's MarTech portfolio as an add-on to expand Traject's social media capabilities.

An affiliate of The Jordan Company, via Resolute Fund IV, has acquired Spectrio, a Tampa/Oldsmar-based provider of digital signage, content management and customer engagement solutions, from affiliates of Bertram Capital. Bertram Capital will retain a minority equity stake and Spectrio’s existing management team will continue to lead the business; financial terms were not disclosed.

Publicus Community has acquired Real Living Productions, the in-house creative and marketing operations agency that worked with IMI Worldwide Properties. The acquisition expands Publicus's capabilities in resort, real estate and hospitality marketing and combines operations in Raleigh, North Carolina and Greenville, South Carolina under a refreshed Real Living Productions brand.

Denver-based private equity firm Mountaingate Capital has made a strategic growth investment in Acceleration Partners LLC, a global partner and affiliate marketing services firm. The capital will support Acceleration Partners' organic growth and selective add-on acquisitions; CG Petsky Prunier served as exclusive financial advisor to Acceleration Partners.

Bounteous, a Chicago-based digital transformation agency backed by Mountaingate Capital, has acquired Atlanta-based commerce and customer experience agency FortyFour. The acquisition strengthens Bounteous's Magento and commerce capabilities and brings FortyFour's enterprise clients (including Coca‑Cola, Fiserv and Boehringer Ingelheim) and team into the Bounteous organization.

Sparks, a Philadelphia-based experiential marketing agency, acquired Group Delphi's trade show and events business, including assets and facilities in Fort Wayne, Indiana and Paris, France, and the associated staff. Group Delphi will continue operating its Alameda, California facility focusing on museum exhibit fabrication, restaurant solutions, fine arts, and custom acrylic fabrication.

New Mountain Capital has made an investment in Tinuiti, the largest independent performance marketing firm, with current owner Mountaingate Capital exiting the business. The partnership will fund talent, product and capability investments and support international expansion while Tinuiti's management team (including CEO Zach Morrison and CSO Nii Ahene) remains in place; financial terms were not disclosed.

Knox Lane, a San Francisco-based middle-market investment firm, has made a strategic growth investment in Fingerpaint, a full-service health and wellness marketing agency. Financial terms were not disclosed; Fingerpaint founder Ed Mitzen and the existing management team remain significant investors and will continue to lead the company as it pursues growth and capability expansion across its healthcare-focused marketing, analytics and market-access services.

Houston-based property management firm Asset Living has acquired Poetic Digital, a Houston creative and technology agency that provides web and app development, digital marketing, and creative services. Asset Living said it will leverage Poetic's digital, design, and data capabilities to expand its marketing and website capabilities and deliver a more comprehensive set of services to its real estate clients.

STRAT7, a Horizon Capital‑backed customer analytics and insights group, has acquired cultural insights and strategy consultancy Crowd DNA. The deal brings Crowd DNA’s global cultural insight capability and offices (London, Amsterdam, New York, Singapore, Sydney) into STRAT7’s analytics and customer‑centric transformation proposition to better serve global brands.

NetReputation, a Sarasota-based online reputation management firm, acquired the assets of Denver-based InternetReputation.com, with the deal made official on November 20, 2020. The acquisition brings additional technology, staff and ORM capabilities to NetReputation as it expands its service offerings and geographic footprint.

Mountaingate Capital, a Denver-based middle-market buy-and-build private equity firm, has acquired Relevate Health Group, a Cincinnati-based data-driven healthcare marketing agency. Immediately following Mountaingate's investment, Relevate (backed by Mountaingate) acquired Arteric, a digital-native agency providing machine learning–based multichannel programs, creating a combined data- and ML-driven healthcare marketing platform.

MeritDirect, a Mountaingate Capital portfolio company, has acquired 180byTwo, an account-based marketing technology and audience solutions provider based in Clearwater, Florida. The add-on expands MeritDirect's digital and account-based marketing capabilities by adding 180byTwo's identity-resolution, data activation and AI/ML-powered Unifi platform.

Dolphin Entertainment (NASDAQ: DLPN) has acquired Be Social, a Los Angeles-based influencer marketing agency founded by Ali Grant. Be Social will continue to operate under its name from its LA offices with Ali Grant serving as CEO, and Dolphin expects to leverage the agency to cross-sell services across its portfolio and expand capability into influencer and creator-led marketing.

Lou Weisbach and an investor group, together with Westbridge Capital Ltd., have acquired the business of promotional-products distributor Overture Promotions and will operate it as a platform for an international branding company led by Weisbach and Overture CEO JoAnn Gilley. Westbridge will fund future add-on acquisitions and investments to expand Overture's services, technology, distribution capacity and global footprint.

The Stable, a commerce and retail-launch agency, has acquired Minneapolis-based Jacobs Marketing. The acquisition folds Jacobs’ staff of more than 50 into The Stable to bolster its retail activation, analytics and insights capabilities and expand its Minneapolis footprint.

Wunderkind (formerly BounceX) has acquired SmarterHQ, an advanced segmentation and orchestration engine for enterprise eCommerce, to accelerate product development and deepen Wunderkind's email and SMS personalization capabilities. The deal will integrate SmarterHQ's segmentation technology into Wunderkind's SMS platform to drive higher revenue for enterprise retailers and expand capabilities into travel and finance verticals.

Tulsa-based Momentum3 has acquired Minneapolis/Edina-based CRC Marketing Solutions. The deal combines CRC's strategic marketing, branding, UI/UX and web development capabilities with Momentum3's software and digital services, expanding Momentum3's service offerings and regional presence.

Testimonial Hero, a Boston-based B2B video testimonial production company, acquired Applause Lab—adding the startup's asynchronous video capture technology, team and assets (including a customer base of 77 companies). The acquisition expands Testimonial Hero's remote video testimonial capabilities and brings additional product and talent to accelerate its B2B customer-video offering.

A.P. Keaton, a New York–based full-service marketing agency, has acquired PASK Productions, an experiential design and brand engagement agency. PASK will operate under the A.P. Keaton name and its former president, Alyse Pask, will join A.P. Keaton as vice president of brand and strategy to integrate PASK's experiential capabilities into A.P. Keaton's service offering.

Off Madison Ave, a Phoenix/Tempe-based behavioral marketing and communications firm, has acquired San Francisco-based Fineman PR. Fineman PR will operate as a division of Off Madison Ave with founder Michael Fineman retaining overall management and counsel; the deal expands Off Madison Ave's public relations, crisis communications and digital media capabilities.

Austin-based Your Fare has acquired Beyond4, a digital marketing and guest communication platform, to expand its suite of restaurant-focused tools. The acquisition brings Beyond4's email, SMS and direct-mail marketing capabilities into Your Fare's online-ordering and delivery management platform to provide restaurants with a single point of contact for ordering and multi-channel marketing services.

US-headquartered agency JUST has acquired UK-based Enigma Marketing and rebranded the combined business as Just Global, creating a full-service, data-driven B2B marketing agency with offices across North America, Europe and APAC. The deal combines JUST's performance-driven creative, media and data capabilities with Enigma's global operations and creative/digital expertise to deliver integrated brand-to-demand services for enterprise technology clients.

Minneapolis-based retail agency The Stable has acquired Bentonville, Arkansas digital agency RichContext to augment its social commerce and e-commerce capabilities. The deal adds RichContext's Hyphen shopping platform and social selling technology, and the combined company will operate under The Stable brand with more than 150 employees across multiple offices.

Kochava has acquired Thalamus, the largest research database of ad vendor data, and rebranded the asset as the Kochava Media Index. The Media Index will be integrated into Kochava's Marketers Operating System (m/OS) to expand vendor discovery and media-sourcing capabilities for advertisers and agencies.

SAP SE has acquired Emarsys, a Vienna-based provider of cloud-based omnichannel marketing and customer engagement software, from Vector Capital. Terms were not disclosed; Vector Capital had been Emarsys' first outside institutional investor since 2015 and helped scale the business globally, including expansion into the U.S.

McKinney, Texas-based marketing communications firm Bullseye Media has been acquired by independent investor ECT, LLC. As part of the transaction ECT Managing Partner Ernie Cote was named CEO of Bullseye Media; TobinLeff served as the M&A advisor to Bullseye.

Conyers Park II Acquisition Corp. completed its previously announced business combination with Advantage Solutions, resulting in the combined company trading as Advantage Solutions Inc. The transaction included a private placement and a comprehensive debt refinancing (new term facility, senior secured notes and a revolving credit facility) to strengthen the company's capital structure and support growth.

Boston-based private equity firm Cohere Capital completed a strategic growth investment in Sonobi, a Winter Park, Florida-based digital media technology platform. The capital will fund product and engineering growth, support Sonobi's JetStream platform development for a cookie-less future, and enable add-on acquisitions across data, martech, and ad tech; prior securityholder Safeguard Scientifics exited in the transaction.

Vision Integrated Graphics Group, a portfolio company of H.I.G. Capital, has acquired DX Marketing, a data-driven marketing and analytics agency. The add-on strengthens Vision's omnichannel customer acquisition and engagement offerings by integrating DXM's team, marketing technology, and one-to-one targeting capabilities.

GlynnDevins, a Kansas City-based data- and technology-enabled marketing firm, has acquired Linkmedia 360, a digital, data-driven marketing agency based in Independence, Ohio. The acquisition expands GlynnDevins' digital and analytics capabilities to strengthen lead-generation and performance marketing services for its clients.

Seattle-based marketing services firm DCG ONE has acquired Vertigo Partners, a Stamford, Connecticut qualitative market- and user-research firm. The deal brings primary research, UX research and consumer insights capabilities into DCG ONE's full-service marketing and creative offerings to support clients across CPG and financial services.

Entravision Communications Corporation has acquired a majority investment in Cisneros Interactive, a Miami-based digital advertising company serving the U.S. Hispanic and Latin American markets. The deal expands Entravision's digital product offerings and combines Entravision Digital and Cisneros Interactive's ad-tech, mobile video and audio capabilities to better serve brands and agencies across the region.

Boston-based private equity firm New Heritage Capital made a growth investment in Massachusetts-based Carnegie Dartlet, a provider of digital marketing, lead generation and research services to higher education institutions. The transaction provides liquidity and financial flexibility to the company while leaving operating control with the reinvesting founders to accelerate future growth.

Vungle, a San Francisco–based mobile ad network and in-app monetization platform, acquired AlgoLift, a Los Angeles–based LTV-powered marketing intelligence and ROAS optimization platform. The deal brings AlgoLift’s predictive LTV models, probabilistic attribution and automation technology into Vungle’s ad network to improve campaign optimization and provide a privacy-friendly approach to targeting and measurement.

CORE Industrial Partners completed a platform investment in TCG Legacy, Inc., a Raleigh-based marketing solutions provider specializing in printing and packaging for pharmaceutical, consumer products, technology and higher education clients. CORE said it will augment TCG Legacy's capabilities and geographic reach and use the company as a platform for complementary acquisitions to build a national organization.

W2O has acquired influencer and entertainment marketing agency starpower, integrating the team into W2O’s single, integrated P&L to expand its influencer, celebrity and branded-entertainment capabilities for health, wellness and consumer clients. The starpower leadership will remain in place and will gain access to W2O’s proprietary data models and 1,500-person multidisciplinary team; the deal is part of W2O’s buy-and-build strategy since partnering with New Mountain Capital.

Genpact has acquired e-commerce agency Something Digital and will integrate the business into its experience arm, Rightpoint, to expand commerce and customer experience capabilities. 7 Mile Advisors served as exclusive sell‑side advisor; terms were not disclosed.

CM Group, the Insight Partners–backed family of martech brands, has acquired Selligent Marketing Cloud from HGGC. The acquisition—carried out by CM Group entity Campaign Monitor Europe UK Ltd—adds Selligent’s omnichannel marketing and AI capabilities and strengthens CM Group’s enterprise focus and European coverage.

HH Global Group Limited completed its acquisition of InnerWorkings, Inc., valuing InnerWorkings at approximately $3.00 per share in a cash transaction announced July 2020 and closed October 1, 2020. The deal combines HH Global's outsourced marketing execution capabilities with InnerWorkings' creative, print, direct mail and branded merchandise services to create a global end-to-end marketing solutions provider.

Cincinnati-based marketing technology and services provider Vya has acquired Direct Options, a customer data management and analytics firm, to expand Vya's marketing resource management capabilities. The acquisition adds marketing data management and analytics to Vya's offering, enabling capability expansion and broader service delivery to utility and other enterprise clients.

MBO Partners has acquired MindSumo, an open innovation and crowdsourcing platform based in Durham, North Carolina. The acquisition adds MindSumo's community and crowdsourced innovation capabilities to MBO's independent-workforce platform, enabling expanded services for enterprise clients focused on product development, market research and co-creation.

Spectrio, a Bertram Capital portfolio company, has acquired Industry Weapon, a Pittsburgh-based digital signage provider. The deal broadens Spectrio's customer engagement technology suite by adding Industry Weapon's digital signage platform and integrations to enhance content, strategic communications, and third-party app capabilities for enterprise customers.

Airship acquired ReplyBuy to extend its customer engagement platform with conversational commerce, SMS payments and two-way messaging capabilities. The deal brings ReplyBuy's commerce and payments technology and team into Airship to enable turnkey mobile commerce across channels and industry verticals.

Barrington Media Group, a Fort Point Capital–backed marketing services platform, has acquired Chicago-based digital advertising agency Blackbird Garage. The add-on expands Barrington's digital media and e-commerce advertising capabilities; Blackbird Garage leadership will remain with the business.

Global independent PR agency Ruder Finn has acquired New York–based public relations firm jacobstahl to relaunch its Bloom incubator and establish Bloom Health, an integrated communications practice focused on healthtech. jacobstahl will operate as "jacobstahl, a Bloom company" led by partners Sandra Stahl and Jeremy Jacob and will leverage Ruder Finn's global footprint and capabilities.