Beyond, the digital agency Next Fifteen Communications Group established in August 2010, has acquired award-winning UK social engagement agency Content and Motion (C&M) for an undisclosed amount.
The acquisition will round out Beyond's services capability as a new style of socially driven creative digital agency. C&M will immediately become Beyond’s Social Acquisition and Engagement team and be integrated into the company's global service offering.
The C&M team is headed by founder and industry specialist Roger Warner, and works with global clients such as TomTom, Expedia, EMC and the RSPCA. Warner will join the board of Beyond with responsibility for its Social Acquisition and Engagement team and Beyond’s global marketing, and will report into CEO David Hargreaves.
Beyond’s Social Acquisition and Engagement team will sit alongside its existing Analytics and Creative teams to deliver programs that span data-driven planning and insight, design and technology, and real-time, always-on execution of social media engagement via earned and paid media.
According to Tim Dyson, CEO, Next Fifteen Communications Group: “This deal underscores our belief that digital marketing is being reinvented with data at its core and that social engagement is an absolute fundamental. There are plenty of digital agencies that can build nice shiny web properties or apps, but CMOs are asking for a lot more. They want tools designed around insight that drive the right kind of engagement. Having a cool app is simply not enough. By integrating C&M with Beyond, we are creating a new type of digital agency that brings together insight, technology and engagement.”
“We describe ourselves as ‘Moneyball For Social Brands’. We use unstructured social data to help brands win big by predicting what people will love and share online. Our work with Google, YouTube and Facebook on their social platforms, combined with the social engagement capability of C&M, gives us a winning combination for global brands looking to exploit the huge potential of social marketing,” said David Hargreaves, Beyond CEO.
An important part of the integration of C&M into Beyond is to develop its Social Acquisition and Engagement offering in the US. Beyond is already recruiting to hire a VP of Acquisition and Engagement to work with Warner, to replicate this services model in the agency’s New York office. This new hire will also be responsible for heading up Beyond’s East Coast US team.
Roger Warner, Beyond’s new Global Director of Acquisition and Engagement, said: “This is chapter two of a mission started with C&M back in late 2008. I’m incredibly excited about what we can do with the new Beyond services mix. The field is wide open to create a new generation of creative digital agencies with social media at their core. The Beyond team is totally connected with the companies that are shaping the future of the web through its amazing work with Facebook, Google and YouTube. We have a brilliant value proposition for brand managers and we’re really looking forward to delivering this on a global scale for clients old and new.”
Image Caption: The new Beyond director team (left to right): Matt Iliffe, Creative Director; David Hargreaves, CEO; Nick Rappolt, UK MD; Roger Warner Acquisition and Engagement Director.