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RNS Number : 2213R

S4 Capital PLC

28 October 2019

 

28 October 2019

S4 Capital plc

("S⁴Capital" or "the Company")

ConversionWorks and Datalicious Korea to merge with MightyHive

MightyHive strengthens analytics capabilities, adds talent and expands global footprint

S⁴Capital plc (SFOR.L), the new age, new era digital advertising and marketing services company, announces that its programmatic media practice MightyHive today merges with two companies to build on its existing analytics capabilities - ConversionWorks, an award-winning digital analytics, biddable media and data science company in London, and Datalicious Korea, a South Korea-based data and analytics consultancy. Under the terms of the agreement, ConversionWorks and Datalicious Korea will be integrated into and rebranded MightyHive as part of S⁴Capital.

ConversionWorks is an award-winning digital analytics, biddable media and data science consultancy. With founder and managing director Russell Sutton at the helm, ConversionWorks partners with companies such as Boots, Diageo, Schuh, giffgaff and Wiggle to help them gather first-party data, curate audiences, predict behaviours and target them with focused creative with the goal of driving increased conversions. The company was recognized as Analytics Agency of the Year 2018 by The Drum.

Datalicious Korea is a Google Analytics premium reseller and Google Analytics Certified Partner in South Korea. Founder and CEO of Datalicious Korea, Sun-Young Kim is a recognized expert in analytics, social media return on investment (ROI) measurement and social customer relationship management (CRM), and the author of "Social Analysis." The company's current clients include Samsung, Adidas Korea, and Lotte Members.

According to The CMO Survey in August 2019, only 40% of marketers today have the quantitative tools to demonstrate marketing's impact on company performance, and over the next three years, CMOs expect to grow their investments in marketing analytics by 61%. By combining forces with ConversionWorks and Datalicious Korea, MightyHive has the capability to fill the digital measurement and analytics gap for marketers around the world with its presence in 15 countries and 21 cities.

S⁴Capital Executive Chairman Sir Martin Sorrell and Chief Growth Officer Scott Spirit said "We are delighted to welcome both Russell and Sun-Young and their colleagues to S⁴Capital. Data and Analytics are at the heart of our new age/new era model and we look forward to working with our clients in Europe and Asia Pacific as they invest in deeper first party data driven content and programmatic capabilities."

"First-party data is part of the S⁴Capital 'holy trinity' and these mergers support our strategic vision of creating the leading digital-only, new era marketing services firm," said Pete Kim, founder and CEO of MightyHive. "Marketing analytics expertise is a key part of marketers' foundational toolkit and critical to execute more agile and personalized campaigns. The teams at ConversionWorks and Datalicious Korea and their stellar reputations in the respective regions naturally complement MightyHive's global consulting services as we continue to expand and prosper worldwide."

Sutton said, "Marketers need experts to help them adapt to new analytics standards, to remain compliant and to gain valuable insights required to grow their business, specifically in the European market where data privacy regulation and technology changes have further complicated the process. Our existing analytics practices and consulting offerings will increase the depth of MightyHive's analytics services. The ability to offer MightyHive's entire suite of media consultancy services is an exciting move for ConversionWorks and our clients."

Datalicious Korea founder and CEO Sun-Young Kim said, "Asia-Pacific is the world's fastest-growing economic region and we are thrilled to join the MightyHive operations locally. Datalicious Korea's home of South Korea is headquarters to many large multinational companies, and we look forward to bringing them MightyHive's full suite of services in conjunction with our analytics expertise."

Merging Datalicious Korea and ConversionWorks into MightyHive builds on the existing S⁴Capital analytics capabilities. It adds media buying and consultancy services for current clients of ConversionWorks and Datalicious Korea to access the full roster of capabilities MightyHive clients around the globe expect and enjoy.

Enquiries

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

About MightyHive

MightyHive is a new breed of media consultancy that partners with global brands and agencies seeking transformative marketing results in a time of massive disruption and opportunity. Recognized as a global leader in advanced marketing and advertising technologies, MightyHive provides consulting and services in the areas of media operations and training, data strategy and analytics. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Bangkok, Chicago, Hong Kong, Jakarta, London, Melbourne, Milan, Montreal, Mumbai, New York, Paris, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Vancouver. In 2018, MightyHive merged with S⁴Capital plc (SFOR.L), the new age/new era digital advertising and marketing services company established by Sir Martin Sorrell in 2018.

About ConversionWorks

ConversionWorks is an award-winning digital analytics, biddable media and data science consultancy. ConversionWorks partners with companies such as Boots, Diageo, Schuh, giffgaff and Wiggle to help them gather first-party data, curate audiences, predict behaviours and target them with focused creative with the goal of driving increased conversions.

About Datalicious Korea

Datalicious Korea Co is a subsidiary of Datalicious Pty Ltd, a data and analytics consultancy helping marketers make sense of their data. The company is led by Sun-Young Kim, a widely recognized expert in analytics, social media ROI measurement, and social CRM in South Korea. Established in 2016, Datalicious Korea have helped clients such as Samsung, Adidas Korea, and SKT with analytics consulting and platform implementation.

About S⁴Capital

S⁴Capital plc (SFOR.L) is the 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 three practice areas: first-party data, digital content, digital media planning and buying, 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 2018 digital accounted for approximately 45% or $225 billion of total global advertising spend of $500 billion (excluding about $400 billion of trade support, the primary target of the Amazon advertising platform), and projects that by 2022 this share will grow to approximately 55%.

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 programmatic solutions provider for future thinking marketers and agencies, led by Peter Kim and Christopher S. Martin, in December 2018. In October 2019, S⁴Capital's MediaMonks merged with Firewood Marketing, the largest digital marketing agency based in Silicon Valley that was recently ranked, along with MediaMonks, as one of the fastest growing agencies by Adweek.

Victor, Wesley, Pete, Christopher and Peter Rademaker (formerly Chief Financial Officer of MediaMonks, now Chief Financial Officer of S⁴Capital), all joined the S⁴Capital Board as Directors. The S⁴Capital Board also includes Rupert Faure Walker, Paul Roy, Daniel Pinto, Sue Prevezer, Elizabeth Buchanan and Scott Spirit.

Following the fundraising for Firewood, the company has an implied market capitalization of over £650 million ($850 million) and over 1,800 people in 23 countries, across the Americas, Europe, the Middle-East and Africa and Asia-Pacific.

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 £12 billion. Prior to that he was Group Financial Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Company plc for nine years.

 

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