Aegis Buys Glue To Extend Digital Offerings

Media communications and market research group, Aegis, has purchased digital creative agency, glue, for £14.75 million, strengthening its subsidiary digital network company, Isobar.

The acquisition of glue is consistent with Aegis’s strategy of building the “leading international digital network”. The agency specialises in highly creative advertising across the internet, email, mobile phones and iTV and brings with it to Aegis a number of prestigious clients, including BSkyB, Gillette, McDonald and Virgin.

The addition of glue’s expertise will allow Isobar to extend its client access to the very best creative people the industry has to offer.

Commenting on the deal, Robert Lerwill, chief executive officer of Aegis Group said: “Clients are increasingly turning to digital media to promote their brands. As a global digital media agency, Isobar provides a complete array on online services but, grabbing consumers’ attention is as much down to highly creative executions as it is to effective targeting and technical expertise.

He added: “glue’s award-winning creative skills will integrate seamlessly with the great online capability that we are building and I welcome glue’s extremely talented team to the Group.”

Digital is the fastest growing media and Isobar is developing its service capabilities and increasing its geographical reach to meet client’s expectations. As well as digital creative, Aegis’s digital one-to-one network has extended its service offer into a number of areas including online search, e-business solutions and internet consultancy.

In its latest annual general meeting, Aegis revealed that Isobar, was responsible for 13% of media revenues in the first quarter of 2005, on the back of a global trend seeing advertisers allocating budgets away from conventional media towards interactive and out of home media (see Aegis Trading In Line With Expectations).

The group also showed that trading for the year to date was in line with expectations, with revenues for the first quarter up 12.5% year on year and organic revenue growth up 5.8% compared with 4.8% in 2004.

Aegis Group: 020 7070 7700 www.aegisplc.com