UK new media marketer's reach extended worldwide in acquisition by China's BlueFocus Group

When Robin Grant and Nathan McDonald founded social media agency We Are Social six and a half years ago, the company consisted only of the two founders and their laptops. Today the firm has more than 500 employees globally, and was acquired by the Chinese firm BlueFocus Communication Group in March.

Robin Grant, global managing director of We Are Social, says his team was looking for a partner for further expansion, although choosing BlueFocus required careful consideration. The Beijing-based BlueFocus offers marketing, public relations and other services.

"When we set out to find a partner, this wasn't the answer I was expecting. We were wary of the perceived cultural differences, but from day one we developed an empathy with BlueFocus that we have built on over the last year," he says.

Grant says they wanted to find a partner that shared the agency's values and beliefs, to put social at the heart of marketing, as well as helping the team achieve scale. Grant and McDonald investigated all options, including Western firms and financing scenarios.

"We want to continue growing and we were looking for a partner who wanted to change the world, not just someone who needed us to deal with their lack of skill sets. BlueFocus believed in us."

Earlier this year, BlueFocus acquired an 82.8 percent interest in We Are Social for an initial 18.7 million pounds ($29.3 million, 23.8 million euros), with further performance-based considerations, which the company would not disclose, over three years.

When the deal was reached a year ago, We Are Social had 400 employees globally, including 125 in the UK. Now there are 500, with 150 in the UK.

We Are Social is headquartered in London, but also has offices in New York, Paris, Milan, Munich, Singapore, Sydney and Sao Paulo.

Grant says We Are Social focuses on working with blue-chip brands to help them put social thinking at the center of their marketing strategies. He says the agency has played a defining role in the social media marketing sector as an early leader in the industry.

"We have a conversational rather than a broadcast mentality. We try to understand social behavior, and what people like to share and talk about, and why," he says.

Within the firm, analysts interpret data to provide an understanding of virtual communities and their behavior. Its community managers give qualitative feedback based on how they see consumers reacting and sharing information.

Meanwhile, its strategists use these insights to ensure they are reaching consumers in the most effective way, and its digitally experienced creative staff produces ideas that people want to talk about. "Every part of the agency has been built from the ground up to create truly social ideas," he says.

Company officials say their innovative strategies have won the team many clients on a local and global level, including Adidas, Mondelez, Jaguar and Heinz.

As Adidas' global social media agency, We Are Social was at the forefront of its campaign using the #allin hashtag, officials say. The company's campaign was widely credited with winning the "social World Cup", which was the competition of social media marketing efforts during this year's FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

Adidas' "#allin or nothing" campaign generated 2.1 million mentions on Twitter, earning it the greatest share of voice among all official sponsors, the company says.

On Twitter, Adidas updated fans on the latest happenings of the game, making all the audience feel that they were involved in the activities. "Activating the 'real-time World Cup' meant that we had to be prepared, nimble and reactive. A close working relationship with Adidas and other agencies was very important," says Joe Weston, an account director at We Are Social.

Immediately after the World Cup draw on Dec 6 last year, Adidas and We Are Social began to map out an hour-by-hour editorial calendar for the entire 32-day tournament, and then traveled the world to collect more than 1,000 images and 160-plus video clips of more than 100 Adidas-sponsored players.

"At the exact moment a spectacular piece of sporting action happens, all an online fan wants to do - as quickly as possible - is celebrate, cry, shout or scream like an offline fan would," Weston says. "Fans want content which tells their story, and when you know what the stories are, you can give it to them at the exact time they want it."

Company officials say they have had success with plenty of other social media campaigns. The Jaguar: Your Turn Britain campaign reached a large audience when it launched the new F-Type sports car.

Marketing website luxurydaily.com noted: "Consumers can enter to win a day's prize by completing a social media task that relates to the desirable item or experience. Prizes will include designer clothing, tickets to high-profile sporting events and F-Type experiences."

Then there was Reebok: Fit Club, the first reality show on social media, inspiring people all over Italy to achieve their fitness goals.

Both Grant and McDonald, who declined to reveal their ages, have had extensive experience working in digital agencies, which also allowed them to realize the challenges in the industry and want to address them.

They had both noticed the way that advertising agencies had spent 15 years failing to come to terms with the Internet. "We felt there was a similar opportunity in social media. If we could build an agency from the ground up, we would have a massive opportunity," says Grant.

So one day in early 2008 they quit their jobs and started their own company. Their first client was Skype and second was Ford. Initially, relationships involved one-off projects for 10,000 to 25,000 pounds. Now, big clients might spend around 2 million pounds a year.

After the acquisition, We Are Social remained an independent brand, led by its existing management team.

"A big part of the reason we chose BlueFocus as our partner was the freedom we'll have to continue being We Are Social. Our brand and culture will remain unchanged, but we'll be bigger, better and stronger," says Grant.

"For both companies, this isn't just an acquisition, it's a strategic partnership. It'll enable us to achieve our vision by building out our global infrastructure and entering new markets, accelerating our already fast growth trajectory. We'll have unparalleled insight and access to the fast-growing Chinese market, something our global clients have already been asking us for, and a presence of our own in China is certainly something we're considering now that we have BlueFocus' backing," he says.

We Are Social has also become BlueFocus' primary digital agency brand outside China, bringing social media expertise on a global scale to the BlueFocus Group, transforming it into one with an international network of operations, he says.

"BlueFocus may be an unfamiliar name to many people now. It won't be for long. They share the same global ambitions, track record of amazingly fast growth, entrepreneurial spirit and ambition as We Are Social, and have already cemented their position as leaders in the communications landscape in China," Grant says.

They have even bigger ambitions for We Are Social, and with BlueFocus' support, Grant says he is confident they can be achieved. "We'd like to maintain growth as an indicator of our success. We want to be agency of the decade and build a lasting legacy," he says.

cecily.liu@chinadaily.com.cn

Employees of We Are Social at their office in the United Kingdom. The company now has more than 500 employees globally. Provided to China Daily

(China Daily European Weekly 12/12/2014 page9)