Digital performance pioneer Found has acquired youth marketing agency Disrupt, combining each firm’s data analytics, social content and performance marketing.
Disrupt was started by entrepreneurs Matt Thorne and Phil Kemish who met whilst working together with publishers and brands to create native content for culture-savvy audiences.
The agency has pioneered branded stories in the UK urban scene for such brands as AG BARR, Absolut, Thomas Cook’s Club 18-30, and House of Marley.
Phil Kemish, co-Founder of Disrupt, says: “We are really excited to join forces with Found. From the moment we met Tina and the team we could see that they were our type of people: creative, passionate, focused and, above all, we have a shared vision to create a digital agency for the future. By joining our entrepreneurial spirit, experience and talented people together, we believe we will be able to take what we’ve developed and super-charge it at scale to help our clients innovate and succeed in the rapidly changing disruptive digital era.”
Tina Judic, CEO of Found, says: “From the moment I met the Disrupt team, I was hooked. We’re now faced with an exciting new digital world led by the most connected generation of digital users. Disrupt operates in the thick of these users’ lifestyles, creating experiences and content that connects, entertains and enriches their lives. It is a company that has earned itself an enviable reputation for making brands famous at the cutting edge of culture.”
“Bringing together Disrupt’s brilliant understanding of how to successfully manipulate the social space with Found’s own passion for remastering ROI represents a major step change in how we can now elevate the way brands connect with their customers. It provides the industry with an exciting proposition for expanding the way businesses successfully market to these influential digital users to now help all brands to think more disruptively.”
Matt Thorne, co-Founder of Disrupt, says: “We believe the future of marketing lies in the ability to understand and measure content and engagement. We strive to go deeper and beyond the vanity metrics to really create brand fame. Together with Found, we have a real opportunity to solidify this approach and break the barriers of ROI for our clients, enabling us to offer truly exciting and measureable content on digital channels that has real impact and authenticity to the audiences.”
The Disrupt team will now relocate to Google Premier Partner Award winner Found’s Smithfield headquarters and will slot neatly into Found’s Web of Moments philosophy – the principle of there being an ever-shifting plane of touchpoints between brands and customers where strategies can be honed to reach, attract, influence, engage or convert at any relevant point in time.
Tina adds: “Found’s ability to analyse and break the digital world down into a Web of Moments means brands can now successfully accompany their customers in these moments, whatever the channel, whatever the device. Disrupt not only understands the critical reach social marketing has, but also the depth and style of content audiences demand if they’re going to engage with a brand. Fusing these two approaches together will allow us to not just connect brands through clever data insight but also provide our clients with a much deeper understanding of the physicality of audience engagement.”