You & Mr Jones Acquires Majority Stake In Inside Ideas Group

You & Mr Jones, the New York-based branding and technology group founded by former Havas CEO David Jones four years ago, has acquired a majority stake in Inside Ideas Group, a company that helps brands build in-house digital capabilities. Terms were not disclosed.

Companies in the acquired group include in-house agency builder Oliver, digital agency Dare, content agency Adjust Your Set and Aylesworth Fleming, which works with national brands on local marketing initiatives.

Simon Martin, CEO of Oliver and Inside Ideas Group, founded the company in 2004. It now has a staff of 1,500 working with in-house teams in 136 countries and annual revenues of more than $150 million.

Clients include Unilever, Adidas, Marriott, BMW, Microsoft, Virgin Media, Google and other blue-chip brands.

Martin said there was “a great deal of interest” from potential stakeholders, but that Y&MJ was “by far the most interesting,” given its “broad range of amazing tech-led products and capabilities.”

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Y&MJ launched in 2015 with a $350 million M&A war chest.

Since then, it’s made 39 deals, acquiring marketing firms like Mofilm, theAmplify and Mobkoi as well as making investments in platforms like Pinterest, Niantic and blockchain payments company Amino.

Regarding the latest M&A stake, Jones said: “Plugging Oliver’s in-house model and its sophisticated content creation and management technology platform into our You & Mr Jones tech ecosystem is a very powerful combination. Together, we can create enterprise-level marketing solutions at an unprecedented scale and transform profoundly how a brand does its marketing.”

 

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