Mediahub joins Mediabrands with an eye toward global expansion

IPG-owned media agency Mediahub will join the IPG Mediabrands network, which includes Initiative and UM, the agency said on Thursday.

Mediahub was launched in 2005 as part of creative agency Mullen; in 2015, it merged with Lowe to form MullenLowe Group. Since then, the media agency has grown significantly, promoting its spinout of MullenLowe Group in 2019.

Now that the agency has hit scale — managing $4 billion in billings globally, up from $1.5 billion five years ago — it’s clearly the right time to align with IPG’s media buying division.

“We just reached the scale and size where it made sense,” John Moore, global CEO of Mediahub, told Campaign US.

As part of Mediabrands, Mediahub will gain use of the tools, technology and expertise the group is building in high-growth technical areas such as e-commerce, app store optimization and platforms being built on Acxiom’s data spine, as well its global content studio.

“Clients will have access to certain things that are becoming more and more important in this new world of marketing,” Moore said.

Mediahub will also become privy to deals IPG Mediabrands has struck with major media partners, allowing it to access discounts on bulk media buys.

But the key reason for the alignment is to expand Mediahub’s global presence. The agency currently employs more than 1,000 people across major hubs in the U.S., the U.K., and Sydney, Australia. Moore wants to boost Mediahub’s presence in continental Europe as well, using the U.K. as a “springboard,” and to expand into APAC and LATAM.

“Our ambition is to be more global, and Mediabrands can help us do that,” he said, “not only for future clients, but to support existing global clients.”

Not much will change for Mediahub employees, except that they’ll gain the ability to shape group-level conversations about partnerships and technology. “A lot of our employees now are going to get a voice in those things, which is incredibly important,” Moore explained.

For IPG Mediabrands, Mediahub brings to the portfolio an agency that “has always zigged when the industry has zagged,” Moore said, and with it, a roster of important clients, including Pinterest, Netflix, Twitch, Chipotle and the NBA.

Adding another media agency to IPG Mediabrands’ portfolio also bulks up the group’s collective scale and negotiating leverage, and creates another opportunity to pursue accounts that might be in conflict with business at Initiative and UM.