• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, June 11, 2015

You & Mr. Jones is giving a whole new meaning to “bringing technology in-house” -- the new company wants to use technology to build the house.

As first reported by Tech Crunch and The Guardian, former Havas CEO David Jones has raised $350 million for a new “brand tech” group called You & Mr. Jones. Headquartered in New York, the group wants to “build brands using technology,” according to its Web site.

You & Mr. Jones did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Real-Time Daily.

“Tech companies have a brilliant understanding of technology, but often aren’t experts in brands and marketing,” the company writes on its Web site. “The big communications groups are experts in brands and marketing, but often don’t get technology.”

According to Tech Crunch, the funds will be used to “acquire companies that create user- and machine-generated content; … creative, brand and content strategy; social media marketing; programmatic media buying; multi-channel networks; and real-time measurement analytics.”

The end goal, it appears, is to build out all of the components an agency needs to help brands grow -- content, creative, strategy, ad-buying tech, media measurement, etc. -- and root them deep in technology. “Technology can build brands much better, faster and cheaper than advertising,” the company proclaims on its site.

The ability to “create” content via technology seems to be one of You & Mr. Jones’ key selling points. On its Web site, the company notes that there has been a “dramatic increase in a brand’s ability to share content” -- via social media and programmatic targeting, for example -- “but not yet in its ability to create [content].” 

If one of its first named acquisitions is any indication -- You & Mr. Jones has already purchased Mofilm, a creative crowdsourcing company -- growing its capacity to generate content with the press of a button (or the activation of an algorithm) is where You & Mr. Jones wants to plan its seed.

How far You & Mr. Jones goes, and how fast they get there, will be a telltale indicator of how viable the newly coined "brand tech" model is. And the industry could find out sooner rather than later.

With $315 million in its pocket -- the Financial Times reports that the company has spent about 10% of the $350 million it raised already -- You & Mr. Jones has the firepower to acquire a handful of companies. Not often does a startup enter the fray with hundreds of millions of dollars at its disposal.