Cork-based digital agency Granite has agreed a deal to buy Creative Media, a Northern Ireland-founded performance marketing specialist with a significant client base across the US and Canada, for an undisclosed sum.
Granite said today's deal will enable it to target revenues of $40m by 2027, with North America set to account for $20m of company revenues.
It said today's deal anchors an ambitious US growth strategy, after a 400% year-on-year increase in organic North American revenue over the last 12 months.
Granite's strategy for continued expansion is backed by $10m in growth capital from BGF, Ireland and the UK's most active growth capital investor.
Creative Media's founder Marcus Isherwood will join Granite as Chief Revenue Officer, working alongside Rob Carpenter, Granite's US-based Chief Commercial Officer.
Today's deal will grow Granite's workforce to more than 200 specialists across strategy, engineering, design, data and marketing.
The company's clients include Intel, Pepsi, Sysco, Iron Mountain, Concentrix, Aer Lingus, Tesco and Dalata Hotel Group.
This will be the ninth acquisition Granite has made since 2020, and its most significant step into North America.
The company also said today that it had appointed Joy Marcus as Non-Executive Chair, bringing more than two decades of leadership experience across digital media, technology and venture capital. She has held executive roles at major organisations including Condé Nast, Time Warner and MTV Networks.
Conor Buckley, CEO of Granite, said that North America has always been central to the company's growth strategy.
"The Creative Media agreed acquisition, Marcus's appointment, and the team we're building in the US are all part of a deliberate plan to bring Granite's model to the world's largest digital market," he said.
"We've proven this works in Europe and the Middle East, and we’re actively pursuing acquisitions in North America to deepen our capabilities and accelerate our growth," he added.
Marcus Isherwood, the CEO of Creative Media, said he spent 25 years building client relationships in North America with a simple philosophy: every dollar spent on marketing has to deliver a measurable return.
"That's exactly how Granite operates, but at enterprise scale and with technical depth I haven't seen in an independent agency. Joining forces with this team gives our clients something genuinely new in the market," he added
