• by Larissa Faw , August 1, 2014

Independent agency network Project: WorldWide is acquiring Pitch, an award-winning fully integrated advertising agency based in Culver City, California.

Pitch will continue to operate independently and will not change its name. It will retain all 62 staffers, as well as its client roster. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 2008 by Jon Banks and Kim Thomsen, Pitch has quickly become an agency powerhouse fueled by clients including Burger King, Pepsi, Meineke and Living Spaces. It has received numerous awards, including two of Ad Age’s Best Campaigns of the Decade, the first Twitter “Creative Favorites Award” and a Titanium Grand Prix Cannes Lion. In 2013, Pitch increased revenues by 43% and clients by 50%.

“Rooted in powerful creative and sound strategic insights, Pitch is an agency experiencing tremendous momentum. It is a high-energy agency with a strong management team and philosophical foundation that they live every day,” said Robert G. Vallee Jr., Chairman & CEO of Project: WorldWide. “This acquisition is consistent with our approach to attract top talent with a strong entrepreneurial attitude and skills that can both stand alone and work well with our other agencies. We are a modern holding company, and Pitch is a natural fit with the rest of our agencies.”

Indeed, Project: WorldWide seeks potential acquisitions that deliver both great creative and top talent.

"Pitch, an agency that believes it should 'never stop pitching' is an agency that does that well. The other part of that formula is agencies that are led by people who are naturally collaborative. In order to deliver the range of services clients are seeking in today's world and do so on a large scale, we believe that collaboration among our agencies is both crucial and a competitive advantage for Project. The Pitch people are excellent collaborators, too."

For its part, Pitch was attracted to Project's scale.

“We thought long and hard about who we wanted to partner with as we look to further our growth, and it was Project: WorldWide that stood out head and shoulders above the rest,” said Jon Banks, CEO of Pitch. “As a privately held holding company, Project doesn’t report to Wall Street and therefore has the ability to make decisions based on what is right for its clients and the organization in the long-term. Their contemporary approach to building a global network of agencies enables us to resource our expanding client needs, while nurturing and developing top talent.”

This acquisition was sparked by its industry gossip. Project: Worldwide CEO Robert G. Vallee, Jr. met Pitch's CEO Jon Banks about a year ago after hearing a number of key players in the industry say great things about "this hotshot LA agency" and seeing some of their latest Burger King work. Then in the spring, the two CEOs began serious discussions about the possibility of Pitch joining the Project: WorldWide network.

The Pitch acquisition marks Project’s 11th agency in the network, which launched in 2010. Now, it has established a number of thriving agencies by bringing in industry leaders and building a new agency around their core capabilities. These agencies include School in Boulder, ARGONAUT in San Francisco, and Shoptology, which started off in Dallas, and now also has offices in Fayetteville and New York City.