You & Mr Jones said Thursday it has acquired influencer marketing agency Collectively in a quest to create one of the top five global, scaled influencer marketing companies.
You & Mr Jones snapped up San Francisco-based Collectively for an undisclosed amount.
Collectively will be combined with theAmplify, the 25-person, LA-based influencer marketing firm You & Mr Jones bought in 2016.
“Collectively’s vision has always been to be the category leader in influencer marketing,” said its co-founder and CEO Ryan Stern. The acquisition gives them “the opportunity to accelerate the work we are doing with our clients on a global stage.”
Influencer marketing has performed better than other types of advertising throughout the pandemic, said You & Mr Jones founder and CEO David Jones. And he’s bullish on the word-of-mouth creative format over the long term.
“We have seen influencer marketing become a higher priority through the crisis,” Jones said. Brands have been cutting traditional marketing channels during the pandemic and shifting budgets to digital and social channels, he observed.
Overall, You & Mr Jones grew 27% over the first six months of the year, despite the crisis. And theAmplify outperformed that average, growing more than 50%.
Collectively also saw little interruption, as it works with a number of tech clients that were relatively unaffected during the crisis, and saw some clients grow while others pulled back.
Influencer marketing also benefited during the pandemic because it’s incredibly agile, Stern said. Influencers can calibrate messaging for a pandemic and create it themselves – without any social distancing issues. Since consumers aren’t going in stores to try on makeup, for example, influencers can fill that gap through their own product demonstrations and connection to their followers.
While some influencer agencies specialize in certain platforms or types of influencers, Collectively works with all platforms and influencer sizes instead of a “one size fits all” approach, Stern said. “We have a deep process for matchmaking and finding the right voice for your program.”
Collectively’s creative and intelligent approach, as well as its roster of tech clients and approach to diversity, all helped seal the deal for Jones.
Including Stern, all the senior leaders at Collectively are female. To address diversity in the marketing programs it designs, the influencer marketing firm adopted a mandate in 2019 to present at least 40% influencers of color for all its programs to brands – addressing opportunity inequity among influencers of color and helping clients with their own representation and diversity goals.
