MissionOne Media Acquires AI and SEO Performance Marketing Firm, Growth Skills

MissionOne EVP of SEO and AI Optimisation, Lavall Chichester

Weeks after launching MissionOne Media (MissionOne), BarkleyOKRP’s new media brand, MissionOne is accelerating its offering with the announcement of its first acquisition, the AI-driven SEO search specialist, Growth Skills.

As part of the acquisition, Growth Skills CEO Lavall Chichester joins MissionOne as EVP of SEO and AI Optimisation, reporting to MissionOne president Sean Corcoran. Lavall brings expertise in optimising brands not just for Google search but also for AI-powered assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude—ensuring clients remain discoverable across emerging search platforms.

“Brands need to be ready for the AI-powered future of search,” said Sean. “Growth Skills brings an innovative approach that moves beyond traditional SEO to help brands secure their place in AI-driven search. Our clients will be in place and ready to greet consumers where they are heading.”

MissionOne, built upon Adlucent’s proprietary performance technology, is designed for growth brands that seek to bring creativity, curiosity and control back to media. Offering full-funnel, integrated media services, close connections to creative teams, and analytic and CRM capabilities, MissionOne is an interconnected offering within BarkleyOKRP, the award-winning, full-service independent agency.

“Becoming part of MissionOne gives our clients a major advantage,” said Lavall. “We can double down on integrated search (connecting organic and paid search), help clients get discovered on traditional and new AI search engines, as well as create AI Agents to improve processes and build useful assets that convert traffic that their websites are getting. Plus, being able to connect this to MissionOne’s capabilities creates a symbiotic win-win relationship for everyone.”

In 2015, Lavall pioneered integrating SEO and paid search, helping brands like Western Union dominate both organic and paid rankings, making him an AdAge 40 under 40 award winner. He built Growth Skills to expand this work and help clients create content at scale that increases website traffic and revenue. The Growth Skills team leverages AI-powered tools and platforms to build interactive content to drive leads, donations and sales for clients like The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), Sunward Bank, Oar Health and others, showcasing its innovative approach to performance marketing.

MissionOne manages over $1.1 billion in billings and partners with clients, including the National Pork Board, Suja Life, TGL, Mariner, AMC Theatres, Ruiz Foods, The Vitamin Shoppe, Rawlings, and Global Industrial.

“This acquisition is another step toward pushing media forward—guided by science, data, and a drive to explore new frontiers,” said Sean.