Jam3 to merge with MediaMonks

RNS Number : 4646T

S4 Capital PLC

25 March 2021

 

25 March 2021

S4 Capital plc

("S⁴Capital" or "the Company")

Jam3 to merge with MediaMonks

MediaMonks strengthens its creative and content capabilities, adds talent and expands global footprint

S⁴Capital plc (SFOR.L), the tech-led, new age, new era digital advertising and marketing services company, announces that it has entered into a conditional agreement in relation to a merger of Jam3 , an award-winning Toronto-based design and experience agency, with MediaMonks, S⁴Capital's Content practice. Through the merger, MediaMonks will deepen its creative capabilities and expand its presence in Los Angeles, The Netherlands, Canada and Latin America--with an all-new expansion in Uruguay.

Founded in 2004, Jam3 is a design and experience agency in Toronto, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, and Montevideo led by Pablo Vio , Michael Dobell , Mark McQuillan , Adrian Belina , Jordan Cuddy , Miguel Moraleda . A global agency, Jam3 has over 150 employees worldwide who uncover relevance, purpose and innovation in everything they do. Together with their client portfolio of brands such as Facebook, Sonos, Adidas, eBay, Levi's and CrowdStrike, Jam3 launches new products and design platforms, bringing moving experiences to customers-digitally and beyond.

This merger represents the natural convergence of two partners with a shared regard for creative excellence, and award-winning work at scale on behalf of shared clients including Google, Facebook, Spotify, and Netflix. Jam3 and MediaMonks combine their global teams of powerhouse talent under a single P&L void of silos and barriers to productivity. Named two of the '10 Digital Agencies to Supercharge Your Marketing' by Forrester, MediaMonks and Jam3 are two of the most iconic, award-winning teams who share a vision for the future of brand experience. With a 20-year track record for award-winning work, MediaMonks and Jam3 have topped the leaderboard in industry award shows around the world. Both members of the FWA Hall of Fame and the FWA 100 Club, MediaMonks and Jam3 have collectively earned 386 FWAs. More recently, Jam3 was awarded 2020's Campaign US Digital Innovation Agency of the Year (Gold) - and MediaMonks won 2020's Campaign Digital Innovation Agency of the Year in EMEA (Gold) and the UK (Bronze). With Jam3, MediaMonks and Superhero Cheesecake, S⁴Capital is one of the most awarded digital craft and design companies.

S⁴Capital Executive Chairman Sir Martin Sorrell said, "We are delighted to welcome the Jam3 team to S⁴Capital. Data-driven, Creativity is at the heart of our offering and Jam3's reputation, talent and client base is second to none. Jam3 is another key step in our seizing the next decade and converting clients at scale to our new, unitary model."

"With shared clients, a shared focus on creative excellence and a shared ambition to disrupt the market, Jam3 and MediaMonks are obvious partners," said Wesley ter Haar, Founder MediaMonks, and S⁴Capital Executive Director. "We've long admired the work of the team at Jam3  and we can't wait to see what we can create together."

Mark McQuillan, Partner and Managing Director, Jam3 added, "Our ambition at Jam3 was to find a partner who can inspire us to multiply our efforts, together. We couldn't be more excited to team up with The Monks and S⁴Capital for our next chapter."

Enquiries

S4Capital plc	Tel: [phone]
Sir Martin Sorrell, Executive Chairman
Powerscourt (PR adviser to S4Capital plc)	Tel: [phone]
Elly Williamson
Jack Shelley

About MediaMonks

MediaMonks is a global creative production company that partners with clients across industries and markets to craft amazing work for leading businesses and brands. Its integrated production capabilities span the entire creative spectrum, covering anything you could possibly want from a production partner, and probably more.

From creative campaigns and content to bespoke development and design, MediaMonks works above the line and below the fold at the intersection of creativity and technology. Operating across teams, time zones, and technologies with an incredible in-house team of more than 1500 Monks, including recent S4Capital mergers. Its work is recognized by advertising and craft awards around the world, producing 131 Cannes Lions and 275+ FWAs to date.

Founded in 2001 and rooted in digital, you can find MediaMonks anywhere on the Web as well as in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Mountain View, Sandpoint, Toronto, New York, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Dublin, London, Amsterdam, Hilversum, Cape Town, Stockholm, Kiev, Dnepr, Moscow, Nur-Sultan, Dubai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Singapore, Shanghai, Sydney, Melbourne, and Auckland.

About Jam3

A design and experience agency known for smart, innovative and inspired work. We work closely with our clients to first understand their problems and then solve them in creative ways. From our offices in Toronto, Los Angeles, Amsterdam and Montevideo, we team up with forward-thinking brands from around the world. Our partners include Google, Spotify, Microsoft, adidas, Facebook, Sephora, MTV and Disney Pixar. Modesty aside, our diverse work has received global recognition from Cannes to The One Show, and even the Pulitzer Prize.

About S⁴Capital

S4Capital plc (SFOR.L) is the tech-led, new age/new era digital advertising and marketing services company, established by Sir Martin Sorrell in May 2018.

Its strategy is to build a purely digital advertising and marketing services business for global, multinational, regional, local clients and millennial-driven influencer brands. This will be achieved initially by integrating leading businesses in two practice areas: Data & digital media and Content, along with an emphasis on "faster, better, cheaper" executions in an always-on consumer-led environment, with a unitary structure.

Digital is by far the fastest-growing segment of the advertising market. S4Capital estimates that in 2020 digital accounted for over 50% (for the first time) or $290 billion of total global advertising spend of $525 billion (excluding over $500 billion of trade promotion marketing, the primary target of the Amazon advertising platform), and projects that by 2022 this share will grow to approximately 60% and by 2024 to approximately 66%, accelerated by the impact of covid-19.

S4Capital combined with MediaMonks, the leading AdAge A-listed creative digital content production company led by Victor Knaap and Wesley ter Haar, in July 2018 and with MightyHive, the market-leading digital media solutions provider for future thinking marketers and agencies, led by Peter Kim and Christopher S. Martin, in December 2018.

In April 2019, MightyHive combined with ProgMedia to expand operations into Latin America and MediaMonks acquired film studio Caramel Pictures to expand content studio capabilities. In June 2019, MediaMonks announced a planned combination with Australia-based BizTech, a leading marketing transformation and customer experience company. In August 2019, MediaMonks combined with Amsterdam-based digital influencer marketing agency IMA. In October 2019, MediaMonks combined with Firewood Marketing, the largest digital marketing agency based in Silicon Valley, that was recently ranked, along with MediaMonks and Circus (see below), as one of the fastest growing agencies by Adweek, and MightyHive combined with award-winning UK-based digital analytics, biddable media and data science company ConversionWorks and South Korea-based data and analytics consultancy MightyHive Korea. In November 2019, MediaMonks announced its combination with Delhi-based content creation and production company WhiteBalance (completed in August 2020 - the delay due to necessary merger clearance procedures) and then with fully integrated digital agency Circus Marketing in January 2020 (completed in March 2020).

In May 2020, MightyHive announced a combination with Digodat, one of the leading Latin American data and analytics consultancies, and in June 2020, MightyHive announced its combination with Lens10, a leading Australian digital strategy and analytics consultancy. In July 2020, MightyHive announced a combination with Orca Pacific, a market leading full-service Amazon agency and boutique consultancy firm based in Seattle. In August 2020, MightyHive announced a combination with London-based Brightblue, an econometric and media optimisation consultancy. In September 2020, MediaMonks announced its combination with Dare.Win, expanding its geographical presence to France. In January 2021, MediaMonks announced its combination with integrated creative, technology and media agency Decoded Advertising, Shanghai based creative agency TOMORROW and Stuttgart based automotive specialist STAUD STUDIOS. MightyHive also announced its combination with integrated digital performance marketing agency Metric Theory. In February 2021, MightyHive acquired the assets of Datalicious, a leading Google Marketing Platform, Google Cloud and Google Analytics partner in Asia Pacific.

On 16 July 2020, S4Capital announced the successful placing of 36,766,642 new ordinary shares at a price of 315p raising approximately £116 million gross proceeds which will be used for further expansion and combination purposes.

Victor Knaap, Wesley ter Haar, Pete Kim, Christopher Martin, Peter Rademaker and Scott Spirit all joined the S4Capital Board as Directors. The S4Capital Board also includes Rupert Faure Walker, Paul Roy, Daniel Pinto, Sue Prevezer, Elizabeth Buchanan, Naoko Okumoto, Margaret Ma Connolly and Miles Young.

The Company now has over 4,400 people in 31 countries across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Asia-Pacific and a current market capitalisation of approximately £2.5 billion (c.$3.5 billion), and would rank around the FTSE 150. It achieved Unicorn status in a little over one year, unique in the advertising and marketing services industry

Sir Martin was CEO of WPP for 33 years, building it from a £1 million "shell" company in 1985 into the world's largest advertising and marketing services company with a market capitalisation of over £16 billion on the day he left. Today its market capitalisation is £11 billion. Prior to that Sir Martin was Group Financial Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Company Plc for nine years.

 

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