Croud blends creative and performance with Born Social acquisition

Digital marketing agency Croud has acquired global social media agency Born Social to strengthen its brand and creative offer.

Born Social was founded in 2012 and provides services to brands including Nandos, Guinness, Primark, Uber, Seedip and Jägermeister. The agency’s proprietary measurement and effective tool, Caliper, will complement Croud’s data solutions offering, helping clients articulate the value social media provides for their business and digging deeper beyond measures like followers and engagement.

Croud’s acquisition of the agency marks its third purchase since November 2021 – when it bought VERB Brands. It then snapped up impakt advisors the following month.

Born Social will continue trading under its own brand, with additional signposting of ‘powered by Croud’. The agency’s leadership team – including chief executive Ben Tyson and chief operating officer Charlotte Hamill – is remaining with the business.

“Turbo-charge creative offering”

With the addition of Born Social’s UK and European workforce, its global footprint now exceeds 450 people, across the UK, US, Europe and MENA.

Luke Smith, Co-founder and CEO at Croud said: “This is a big step for us into the world of brand advertising and creative. Our plan is to bring our two worlds together with this acquisition, turbo-charging our creative offering and enhancing our creative services in the future.

“What we loved about Born Social was that we like and respect the management team and that they stand for something – the work that’s gone into achieving B-Corp status shows commitment to being a better business. Their appetite for the Croudie network, their shared vision for how that, plus Croud’s global reach, can help take them into new markets, as well as the crossover of our client portfolios, NPS scores, and cultures, were all major factors that helped seal this deal.

Smith added that Croud has “taken our time” on acquisitions, to get to know and integrate VERB and impakt.

“We’re now ready to add even more firepower to the group with the addition of the impressive team at Born Social. Despite the challenges our industry is going through at the moment, Croud is staying true to our vision and strategy to add smart, like-minded, innovative businesses to our group.”