Kantar might be without a global CEO, having ousted Eric Salama last month, but it is ploughing ahead with its expansion strategy by acquiring Mavens of London, a data-led, digital marketing and analytics consultancy, for an undisclosed sum.
Founded in 2009, Mavens claims to help marketers understand trends, patterns and needs and then optimise the performance of their digital offerings, SEO, search and content strategies to address them.
Kantar, which received a financial shot in the arm in July last year from new majority owner Bain Capital, insists the Mavens team will complement Kantar’s Analytics Practice. The firm claims this service, which combines Kantar’s data-driven approach with artificial and human intelligence, gives businesses the confidence to make bold and complex decisions.
Commenting on the acquisition, the global CEO of Kantar’s insights division, Richard Ingleton, said “On becoming independent, we signalled our intent to accelerate our investment strategy. Today’s acquisition illustrates that intent and the ambition we have for our business and clients.
“Our Analytics Practice is a key growth driver for Kantar, as clients turn to us to help them unlock deeper insights about consumers and how they think, feel and act to fuel growth for their business.
“Mavens’ analytics consulting capabilities in particular are unique in their ability to combine data literacy, marketing strategy, commercial expertise, and technical delivery to offer solutions from strategy through to implementation.”
Mavens chief executive Daniel Singer added: “Joining Kantar provides us with an opportunity to have an impact at scale. We know from the work we do with clients like Dove and Philips, that our smart combination of human and artificial intelligence delivers real return on their marketing investments. Kantar offers us the opportunity to integrate our AI and analytics capabilities with its world-class analytics team to build even more powerful tools and extend the impact we have to even more of the world’s leading consumer brands.”
Ciesco, the London-based sector specialist M&A firm, acted as exclusive advisors to Mavens.
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