Madison Alley Advises Movers+Shakers on Strategic Acquisition by Stagwell Inc.

Stagwell Inc., the challenger network built to transform marketing has announced its acquisition of Movers+Shakers, the premier social-first creative agency connecting the world’s largest brands to culture.

Madison Alley acted as exclusive strategic M&A advisor to Movers+Shakers on the transaction.

 

NEW YORK – Nov. 2, 2023 – Madison Alley Global Ventures, the preeminent strategic Corporate Development, M&A and capital advisory firm for disruptive marketing, advertising, and commerce companies, today announced that it served as the exclusive advisor for Movers+Shakers, the premier social-first creative agency connecting the world’s largest brands to culture. Madison Alley advised Movers+Shakers on strategic, operational, and financial facets of the business while leading a successful M&A process that resulted in a strategic acquisition by Stagwell Inc.

“We’re very grateful to Madison Alley for the phenomenal thought partnership. Their expertise and guidance have not only helped us surpass our expectations for the outcome of an M&A transaction, they’ve made us wiser leaders, incredibly well positioned for this next phase of our journey,” quoted Evan Horowitz, CEO and Co-Founder of Movers+Shakers.

Madison Alley’s deal team included Andreas Roell, Managing Director of Digital Marketing Services; Bill Flatley, Director; and Michael Teytelman, Senior Analyst.

Roell commented, “We are very excited for the entire Movers+Shakers team and for Stagwell. It was a great pleasure to work extensively with Evan, Geoffrey, and their leadership team as true partners to address key operational issues and ensure a strategic premium value transaction. The agency is a fantastic, market-leading business.”

Stagwell issued the following press release this morning: Stagwell’s (STGW) Acquisition Momentum Continues with Addition of Fast-Growing Creative Agency, Movers+Shakers

Stagwell Inc. (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network built to transform marketing, has acquired Movers+Shakers, the award-winning disruptive creative agency connecting brands to culture. The agency will join Stagwell’s Constellation network of agencies, which includes 72andSunny, Instrument, The Harris Poll, and others. Dubbed, “The TikTok whisperers,” Movers+Shakers has quickly become the go-to agency for brands looking to push into new frontiers via mainstream and emerging social media platforms, with 250 billion campaign views to date. New business momentum includes 21 new clients in 2023, including being named social media and culture agency of record for Tinder, and creative and culture agency of record for Elemis.

“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,” said Justin Lewis, chair, Constellation. “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.”

Recognized as one of the Most Innovative Companies in the World by Fast Company, two-time #1 Fastest-Growing Agency by Adweek, and three-time Best Small Agency by Ad Age, Movers+Shakers has a track record of spurring significant sales growth and equity for brands. Employees and clients unite around the agency’s mission to “Spread joy.”

By connecting brands to culture, Movers+Shakers drives growth for clients across CPG, beauty, retail, entertainment, fashion, toys, and technology, including:

• e.l.f. – Over the course of four years, Movers+Shakers has helped e.l.f. rise from #8 to #1 favorite beauty brand among teens and achieve 19 consecutive quarters of net sales growth. Their drumbeat of disruptive campaigns includes the #eyeslipsface challenge (the most viral campaign in TikTok history) and iconic brand collaborations with Chipotle, Dunkin, and American Eagle.
• Neutrogena – Since 2020, Movers+Shakers has helped Neutrogena earn credibility and equity with Millennial and Gen Z consumers, through innovative social-first campaigns and content. Successes include the launch of Neutrogena’s SkinU platform across social, experiential, and retail; as well as the socially native “Hydro House” reality show (300M+ total views and 2.4M+ total likes)!
• Netflix – Movers+Shakers helped propel viewership and conversation for Netflix titles. For example, the agency created the first-ever TikTok-native movie trailers, helping propel “Red Notice” to become the #1 most-watched Netflix movie of all time. And Netflix and Movers+Shakers pioneered the first live TikTok takeover on a Times Square Billboard, driving buzz for romcom “Your Place or Mine.”

“Joining Stagwell allows us to drive brand transformation on an even bigger scale,” said Evan Horowitz, CEO and Co-Founder of Movers+Shakers. “Clients are inviting us to help them in a global capacity, as well as with connected capabilities like media, experiential, data, and commerce. We chose Stagwell because we are excited to partner with its like-minded, disruptive agencies.”

The agency’s leadership continues unchanged, with Horowitz and Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer Geoffrey Goldberg at the helm.

Movers+Shakers marks Stagwell’s fourth acquisition of the year, following Left Field Labs in October, Tinsel Experiential Design in July, and In the Companies of Huskies in April.  Madison Alley Global Ventures served as exclusive strategic M&A advisor to Movers+Shakers.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Nearly 20 years ago, Madison Alley was founded as the world’s first M&A and capital advisory firm designed to strategically develop and realize premium value for digital marketing, advertising, media and commerce companies. Notable deals include the merger between Media.Monks (S4 Capital) and TheoremOne, the innovation and engineering consultancy; Omnicom’s acquisition of Jump 450, the data-driven digital performance marketing agency; the merger between Media.Monks (S4 Capital) and Jam3, the award-winning design and experience agency; and the strategic investment in Digital Remedy, a leading CTV media buying  and attribution platform.

Led by former global CEOs, strategic M&A buyers and investors, Madison Alley provides distinct industry expertise coupled with strategic Corporate Development experience, enabling clients to realize transactions for Strategic Premium Value (SPV).

MadisonAlley.tv broadcasts exclusive interviews and insights from Global CEOs, CMOs, and Distinguished Founders across the digital marketing, media, advertising and commerce sector.

To learn more, visit MadisonAlley.com and MadisonAlley.tv.

Meet creative powerhouse Movers+Shakers, an agency that creates culturally-relevant brands in a socially-native world. With 250+ billion views across its social campaigns, the agency pushes clients into tomorrow — whether that’s reinventing playbooks for mainstream platforms or pioneering success on emerging platforms. Clients include e.l.f., Unilever, Target, Hasbro, lululemon, and Netflix.

The company was founded in 2016 when Broadway performer and director Geoffrey Goldberg posted a musical video on Facebook that garnered 30k views overnight. Marketing expert and Harvard MBA Evan Horowitz saw the potential for Geoffrey’s genius storytelling to drive cultural relevance for brands. They created a partnership that became the #1 fastest-growing agency in the US, even though neither founder had ever before worked at an agency. Learn more at www.MoversShakers.co.-

Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW) is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.