Stagwell Acquires Movers+Shakers

The social creative agency joins Stagwell's Constellation network with sights on breaking out of its TikTok creative mold

By Aleda Stam | Published on November 02, 2023

Movers+Shakers, the creative social agency known for its viral work, has been acquired by Stagwell.

Founded in 2016 by partners Evan Horowitz, who is now CEO, and Geoffrey Goldberg, who is chief creative officer, Movers+Shakers will join Stagwell's Constellation network of agencies, which also includes 72andSunny, Instrument and The Harris Poll.

Stagwell has complete ownership of the agency, but the Movers+Shakers name and brand identity will remain, along with Horowitz and Goldberg at the helm. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Madison Alley Global Ventures served as the exclusive strategic M&A advisor to Movers+Shakers.

The acquisition was announced Thursday as Stagwell is set to report third-quarter results. In August, the company downgraded its 2023 revenue forecast after two consecutive quarters of falling net organic revenue. At that time, Chairman and CEO Mark Penn blamed headwinds caused by economic uncertainty and "tech client reorganizations," which he believed would be temporary.

Movers+Shakers has made a name for itself with viral TikTok campaigns, including the crossover of Chipotle and e.l.f. cosmetics that featured stars from "RuPaul's Drag Race," and using TikTok dupe culture to boost awareness of haircare brand Olaplex.

Justin Lewis, chair of Constellation, said he sees the acquisition as a chance to bring that experience to Stagwell.

"With their fluency of platforms, the team at Movers+Shakers has proven itself to be the foremost authority when it comes to helping brands create cultural relevance with Gen Z and millennials," Lewis said. "Their penchant for innovation goes hand in hand with our challenger mindset, and will be a boon for those clients eager to create influence and awareness among today's social-first consumers."

Joining Stagwell was a major step in pushing Movers+Shakers to grow the agency on a larger scale, specifically breaking out of the TikTok-specific creative niche, said Horowitz. While Horowitz admits the industry had a tough first half of 2023, Movers+Shakers recovered well, securing 21 new client wins, including Tinder and Elemis, and securing full social, culture and creative agency of record work.

Clients are already asking the agency to help strategize their media, experiential and traditional media plans, and Stagwell would help do that, according to Horowitz.

"Rather than build it all organically, we wanted to find a team of agencies and specialists that we could bring to our clients to build those deeper programs and have a bigger impact on the brand transformation that we're having with our clients," Horowitz said.

Stagwell's fondness for supporting independent, entrepreneurially run agencies was another reason for the move. "We absolutely love Movers+Shakers and the secret sauce that we've built, and we would never want to mess with that," Horowitz said. "We chose Stagwell partly because they also would never want to mess with that."

Stagwell's acquisition of Movers+Shakers is the latest in its buying spree this year. In October, Stagwell acquired AI solutions firm Left Field Labs, and earlier in the year Tinsel Experiential Design and In the Company of Huskies joined its stable of brands.