The geography of social media marketing, which knows no time zones but cares very much about client rosters, is being redrawn once again.
Samy, a Madrid-based agency that has built itself into a global social-first operation with more than 1,200 employees across 55 markets, has acquired Get Engaged, an Atlanta-based shop that specializes in creator and influencer marketing. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, which is the industry's way of saying the number was either embarrassingly large or strategically modest.
Get Engaged was founded in 2016 by Alex Dermer, who serves as chief executive, along with Cam Fordham and Ben Hiott. The agency has grown to more than 120 employees with offices in Atlanta, New York, Nashville and Los Angeles — a footprint that suggests someone has been paying attention to where the content creators actually live.
The three founders will continue to lead the agency, the companies said, in what has become the standard arrangement for acquisitions that wish to retain the founders' client relationships and institutional knowledge (and, presumably, their willingness to keep showing up).
Samy itself became part of a larger financial story last year when Bridgepoint Group, the London-based investment firm, acquired a majority stake in the agency. The Get Engaged deal represents the next logical step in that expansion, extending Samy's American capabilities at a moment when social and creator marketing budgets continue to migrate away from traditional media channels.
The acquisition combines Get Engaged's expertise in influencer relationships with Samy's scale in research, strategy and creative — a pairing that reads like a marriage announcement in which both parties bring complementary assets to the household.
Whether the union produces the growth both sides are counting on will depend, as these things always do, on whether the clients follow the press release.
Original story published in MediaPost: "In US Expansion Move, Samy Acquires Get Engaged"