• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, December 12, 2013

Billed as a merger, sports-focused social marketing startup S3i Digital is acquiring the data specialists at Circle Media. “We’re combining our software with their sports-industry relationships,” Mark Piening, Circle Media CEO, said Wednesday night. Piening declined to discuss the financial terms of the deal.

Assuming the Circle Media name, the new entity will specialize in combining data across transactions, social media, surveys and other systems to help clients understand the impact and value of live event audiences across digital and non-digital channels.

In late 2012, S3i Digital was founded to help big sporting schools streamline their social marketing efforts and glean useful insights from fan bases. With the help of the Austin Technology Incubator at the University of Texas, Circle Media was hatched as a platform for measuring brand engagement at live events.

Partially funded by Mother NY, Circle Media was helped to hatch by the agency’s co-head of strategy Charlie McKittrick. 

"Mother New York invested in Circle Media because it offers a solution to a problem no one has been solving effectively," stated Andrew Deitchman, founding partner of Mother New York. "We expect … clients and peers to be excited at the prospect of being able to get closer to their audiences through digital and data."

The new company will have offices in New York and Austin, Texas, both of which will be focused on developing an audience relationship management platform customized for sports, entertainment and brand sponsors.  

According to Piening, the new company’s clients include Rutgers University, Louisville University, Maryland University, and the University of California, Berkeley.