Iris Acquires Digital Acquisition Specialist Atom42 as Ecommerce Growth Accelerates

iris has acquired digital acquisition specialist atom42, in a move that will enable the network to join up longer-term brand building and shorter-term acquisition activity; helping clients to create and convert new customers. 

This will strengthen iris’ capabilities in search marketing, conversion and digital content distribution, providing a seamless solution for clients demanding a more transparent and integrated approach to campaign ecosystems and a better understanding of how to drive sales in a challenging digital landscape.

The deal comes at a time when eCommerce is growing at an exponential rate (according to data from the Office for National Statistics, online sales increased by 21.3% during 2016, and this is set to rise further by the end of 2017).  Traditional media plans often lack the agility and pace needed to optimize on this digital opportunity, and help clients grow and convert customers online. 

Andrew Atalla, Founder, atom42: “As well as having a reputation for stand out creative work, iris genuinely challenges brands to think differently, which we love. We share a straight talking, no bullshit approach to what we do. We think clients want an agency that is transparent, agile, and able to help them navigate the increasingly complex landscape that they operate in. As part of the iris network, we can supply that.”

atom42 will work alongside brand, business strategy and content teams at iris, including the consultancy teams in iris Concise, to drive effectiveness. The ability to use data to inform content creation and distribution will be key to the new offering. 

Founded in 2007, atom42 have won a number of industry awards during their growth to the 40-strong team they now have servicing clients such as Match.com, Three, Drinkaware and Solarplicity, which is also an existing iris client.  

Claire Humphris, founding partner, iris: “We want to offer clients an alternative to the cookie cutter digital media plans they’re presented day-in, day out. We all know how important it is optimise at pace and yet old school SLAs still dominate. Iris and atom42 coming together means clients can benefit from bespoke on-line acquisition plans, delivered in a fast and agile way. This partnership is strategically important as we lead our clients through their digital transformation agendas as they look to capitalise on the opportunity offered by Ecommerce.”

Since acquiring management consultancy iris Concise in 2008, iris has challenged the traditional agency model, from actively funding product innovation with start-ups, to acquiring Datalytics in 2013 to generate more robust methods of evaluation, measurement and targeting, and more recently this year to the addition of Pricing Solutions into iris Concise, extending its consultancy capabilities into pricing strategy.  

The terms of the deal will not be disclosed.