Consultants unite.
On Tuesday, MediaSense, a UK-based company that specializes in handling media account reviews, announced its acquisition of R3, an independent marketing consultancy that helps improve marketing efficiency.
Apiary Capital, a private equity firm that bought a majority stake in MediaSense in 2021, backed the deal.
This is MediaSense’s second acquisition this year. In May, it also acquired PwC’s Marketing & Media advisory team to scale and improve its own offerings.
Greg Paull, co-founder and principal at R3, declined to share the deal price. But this acquisition will expand MediaSense’s reach beyond Europe into North American and Asian markets, and increase its headcount by 30% to 230.
A ‘perfect jigsaw fit’
MediaSense and R3 had worked together previously on projects for mutual clients, including consumer health care company Haleon and Chanel, Paull told AdExchanger.
It makes sense to unite because the companies have “a perfect jigsaw fit,” said Paull, who is joining Shufen Goh, his fellow R3 co-founder and principal, on the combined business’s executive leadership team.
More importantly, Paull was convinced by the prospect of “bringing marketing back to the boardroom,” which he explained as “making marketing a more central part of a business decision.”
MediaSense’s investment plans are focused on “making marketers better at their job [and] making marketing more important in a company,” he said. “And I think that interested me more than anything else, that we can go on this journey together.”
Staying independent
Beyond their distinct geographic footprints, MediaSense and R3 also offer slightly different but complementary services to clients.
MediaSense is best known for auditing and optimizing media plans for companies, having worked most recently on multibillion-dollar media reviews for Amazon and Unilever. R3, in contrast, has experience consulting on creative, content and digital, having worked on high-profile pitches for health CPG brand Kenvue and food manufacturer Kellanova (formerly Kellogg’s).
It remains to be seen whether either company will undergo a rebrand. For now, both will operate under their existing brands.
But either way, the acquisition doesn’t change R3’s status as an independent agency, Paull noted, in the sense that the new ownership structure won’t create any conflicts of interest.
“There are certain consultants in our space that have a model where they get paid by agencies, or they get paid by ad tech vendors,” he said. “That’s absolutely not our model. Both of us were getting 100% of our revenue from marketers, and we will continue to do that.“
