RocketMill, the UK full-service digital agency, is being acquired by a larger US peer that is expanding into Europe following its capture of Nike’s North America media account.
PMG is making RocketMill, which has around 200 staff in Brighton and London, its first acquisition outside the US in its 13-year history. The parties declined to disclose the acquisition price.
The US company’s founder and CEO George Popstefanov is visiting RocketMill’s Brighton office today to talk to staff in person after completing the deal yesterday.
“Our similarities across people, offering, and ambition made RocketMill an obvious choice for accelerating our expansion into Europe,” he said.
The change of ownership comes 14 years after RocketMill chairman Sam Garrity founded the agency with his brother Ben in 2009, and it provides a windfall for its staff, who owned a significant portion of the company through an employee-owned trust.
Garrity said: “In PMG, we found a partner that shares our cultural values. Both businesses have been recognised for how we look after our teams and have maintained that focus throughout fast growth.”
RocketMill is one of the top five medium-sized companies in Campaign’s Best Places to Work ranking, while PMG is Fortune’s best workplace in advertising and marketing.
According to RocketMill’s latest accounts filed at Companies House, covering the year to 30 June 2022, the company made a pre-tax profit of £2.6m on turnover of £13.6m. PMG’s turnover is likely to be significantly larger, but is not required to be disclosed since it is a privately-held US company. It claims to manage a total of over $4bn (approximately £3.2bn) in client media spend.
PMG broke into the big league of US agencies last summer, when it was appointed by Nike as both North America media agency of record and global digital capabilities partner.
Nike licensed PMG’s proprietary data analysis software platform Alli as part of the deal.
RocketMill’s chief executive is Tom Byrne, who Garrity recruited from Jellyfish to replace him in the role in April 2022. He said: “Like PMG, technology sits at the core of our connected offering, underpinning everything we do and driving innovation for our clients. Joining forces with PMG enables us to integrate our own technology and talent to enhance both the sophistication and scale of delivery for clients.”
PMG's other clients include Apple, Intuit and Experian, in addition to at least three brands with a UK presence – Whole Foods, Sephora and J Crew.
There appears to be little overlap with RocketMill’s client list, which includes Skybet and Hyundai as well as US-headquartered companies Dropbox and Kimberly-Clark (which is based in Popstefanov’s home state of Texas).
The deal follows closely on the heels of PMG’s first ever acquisition, 150-strong Texas-based digital independent Camelot Strategic Marketing & Media in October. It takes the company’s headcount to around 900 people across offices in New York, London, Brighton, Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin, Atlanta, Costa Rica, and Cleveland.
Popstefanov was interviewed by Campaign US editor Alison Weissbrot earlier this year about how PMG has ridden the wave of digital and e-commerce development.
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