Martin Sorrell's S4Capital buys influencer agency IMA, merges it with MediaMonks

Martin Sorrell’s S4Capital has announced the acquisition of Europe’s influencer agency IMA to merge with its MediaMonks digital content business. Both are based in Amsterdam.

MediaMonks itself became a part of S4 Capital in July 2018 and has since expanded its reach into APAC with an office opening in Singapore earlier this year.

For S4Capital, the 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.

S4 also owns the MightyHive programmatic media business.

IMA was founded in 2010 by Emilie Tabor and Maddie Raedts, who were joined by CEO Anneke Schogt in 2016. IMA has a staff on 85 and clients include Pernod Ricard, Under Armour, Beiersdorf, Diesel, Microsoft, Heineken, Samsonite and Booking.com.

S4 in a press statement said IMA’s network of 40,000 influencers reaches billions of consumers worldwide in fashion, retail, consumer electronics, automotive, travel, beauty and lifestyle.

The influencer marketing industry is said to be worth $8bn in 2019 and forecast to grow to $15bn in 2022.

“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,” said Sorrell. “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.”

IMA's two founders Maddie and Emilie and CEO Anneke with Victor Knaap of MediaMonks

Mediamonks CEO Victor Knaap 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, said, “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.’’

“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,” IMA CEO Anneke Schogt added.