Transaction

12 August 2019

S4 Capital plc ("S⁴Capital" or "the Company")

MediaMonks merges with Europe's largest influencer agency IMA to further enhance digital marketing services and expand global reach 

S⁴Capital plc (SFOR.L), the new age, new era digital advertising and marketing services company, announces that its digital global content arm MediaMonks today merges with IMA, the leading influencer marketing company headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The merger further strengthens MediaMonks' digital marketing expertise and ability to reach new customers, with engaging content across the full range of digital channels. 

IMA is the first full-service influencer marketing agency - and largest in Europe - founded in 2010 by Emilie Tabor and Maddie Raedts, who were joined by Anneke Schogt in 2016 as CEO. Together with a team of 85 digital experts, the agency is at the forefront of realising and harnessing the power of international influencers. 

In the past few years, the agency has built up its reputation as an expert in the fast-growing influencer marketing industry, which is on track to be worth up to $15 billion by 2022, up from as much as $8 billion in 2019, according to Business Insider Intelligence estimates, based on Mediakix data. IMA helps leading international brands, including Pernod Ricard, Under Armour, Beiersdorf, Diesel, Microsoft, Heineken, Samsonite and Booking.com activate the appropriate audience through tailored campaigns. Its network of 40,000 influencers reaches billions of consumers worldwide, divided over a number of different geographies and industries, including fashion, retail, consumer electronics, automotive, travel, beauty and lifestyle. A video showcasing work by IMA can be viewed on MediaMonks' YouTube channel.

For S⁴Capital, today's announcement is another important strategic step towards delivering a faster, better and cheaper offer for clients worldwide, with a unitary business model, following the acquisition in May of food and beverage content specialist Caramel Studios by MediaMonks and its proposed merger in June with Adobe-certified online marketing and customer experience specialist BizTech. 

Sir Martin Sorrell, Executive Chairman of S⁴Capital said: "This merger is yet another example of our focus on top line growth. Influencer marketing is an important sub-set of the digital content marketing industry and is predicted to double in size over the next three years. Emilie, Maddie and Anneke are also great examples of female entrepreneurs, who are building successful digital businesses. They will bring an added dimension to both MediaMonks and S⁴Capital"

Victor Knaap, Main Monk and CEO of MediaMonks said: "IMA has been at the forefront as this industry has started to come of age. We look forward to working with its entrepreneurial team in developing how powerful influencers can be as part of a digital marketing strategy. MediaMonks' scale and digital creativity - enhanced by our global content studios for fashion, beauty and food - together with a worldwide network of specialised influencers from IMA, makes a powerful tool for any brand."

Maddie Raedts, Founder at IMA commented: "It's with great pride we can today call ourselves part of the S⁴Capital family. Even more importantly, we hope this represents a success story that will help influence and inspire other female entrepreneurs and their endeavours." 

Emilie Tabor, Founder at IMA commented: "The influencer space is only just starting to properly mature - and with S⁴Capital's speed and worldwide scale, we can't wait to fully leverage our network with the talent and new content capabilities throughout the Group.'' 

Anneke Schogt, CEO at IMA commented: ''The cultural fit between both companies is spot-on and therefore, we foresee a seamless integration. It is quite unique that both global companies were founded in Amsterdam, with the same disruptive entrepreneurial mindset. We see big opportunities together in the field of content and taking the influencer marketing movement to the next level."

 Enquiries to:

About IMA

IMA is the first full-service influencer marketing agency founded in 2010 by Emilie Tabor and Maddie Raedts. As the true pioneer of the influencer marketing movement they take a stand for protecting the market through authentic connections. 

Together with a team of 85 digital experts, the agency is at the forefront of realising and harnessing the power of international influencers.  In 2016, Anneke Schogt joined the management team to support founders Maddie and Emilie in achieving international growth for the agency. Its HQ is in Amsterdam and its second office opened in New York City in 2018. 

In the past few years, the agency has built up its reputation as an expert in the growing industry of influencer marketing. IMA helps leading, international brands, including Pernod Ricard, Under Armour, Beiersdorf, Diesel, Microsoft, Heineken, Samsonite and Booking.com activate the right target audience through the development of tailored strategies and campaigns. This is made possible through the use of the authority and power of the best and most diverse influencers.

The total network of IMA consists of over 40,000 influencers, in all possible verticals, sizes, territories and niche categories. Altogether, this network reaches billions of consumers worldwide, divided over a number of different industries, including fashion, retail, consumer electronics, automotive, travel, beauty and lifestyle niches. IMA is the largest European influencer marketing agency.

IMA's founders, Maddie and Emilie, were honoured by Forbes in the 2017 Media 30 under 30 list, which represents Europe's leading young change makers and innovators.

About MediaMonks
MediaMonks is a global digital 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 digital 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 1100 Monks. Its work is recognized by advertising and craft awards around the world, producing 131 Cannes Lions and 220+ 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, Toronto, New York, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, London, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Moscow, Dubai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Singapore, Shanghai, Melbourne, and Auckland.

In July 2018, MediaMonks joined forces with S⁴Capital, to build out the production platform of the future. Under the direction of Sir Martin Sorrell, MediaMonks is increasing its firepower on all fronts, adding new Monks, monasteries and access to new services such as data analytics and digital media buying through MightyHive.

About S⁴Capital
S⁴Capital plc (SFOR.L) is a 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, multi-national, regional, local clients and millennial-driven influencer brands. This will be achieved initially by integrating leading businesses in three 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 2017 digital accounted for approximately 40 percent. or $200 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 percent.

S⁴Capital integrated 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.

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.

The company has a market capitalization of approximately £500 million ($600million) and approximately 1,500 people in 19 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 capitalization of over £16 billion on the day he left. Prior to that he was Group Financial Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Company plc for 9 years