Sir Martin Sorrell vaults over to LatAm, acquires Circus

Advertising mogul Sir Martin Sorrell’s S4 Capital has bought out Mexico City-based integrated digital agency Circus Marketing in a bid to spread its footprint across eight new locations, in the process adding the Americas and a new office in Spain.

The deal is expected to add approximately US$38m in projected revenues and $20m in gross profit, besides 350-odd employees to S4 across Latin America, Spain, and the United States. Half of the as yet undisclosed purchase price will be in cash and the balance in stock.

The cash element of the deal, which is expected to merge Circus into MediaMonks, S4’s global content agency, will be backed by the proceeds of a £100m capital-raising initiative opened by Sir Sorrell late last year.

Founded in 2005 by Bruno Lambertini, Circus curates multicultural content, strategies, and campaigns, and works with Facebook, Google, Netflix, Uber, and Spotify while employing 350 professionals across Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Los Angeles, the United States, and Spain. This latest move comes in the wake of last year’s merger of MightyHive, S4Capital’s programmatic practice, with Brazil-based consulting firm ProgMedia.

Sir Sorrell, who is Executive Chairman of S4 Capital, said: “Bruno Lambertini, Ignacio Liaudat, and Luis Alonso and their colleagues at Circus share our vision of focussing on purely digital content, unencumbered by analogue baggage. Circus also embraces our data-driven holy trinity model and embodies faster, better, cheaper or speed, quality and value. They are buying into our unitary model, combining seamlessly with our content and programmatic practices.”

Lambertini, the founder and Chief Executive of Circus, added: “Our culture is defined by diversity and the varied expertise of our team, and I am confident this merger will enrich our community even more, enabling us to bring our unique point-of-view on creativity to the world. We believe in ‘emotions driven by data’ and by bringing our talents, expertise, and networks into the S4 Capital family… we’re building a solid framework for a new era of advertising.”

In turn, S4 ushered in Circus to the company in a video. Starting with a message “to the ringleaders” of data-driven and multicultural marketing, the video says they will help S4 “break new ground with impactful ideas led by data”. And what is the end goal — “To become the greatest show on Earth”!

Meanwhile, following the merger, MediaMonks Founder Wesley ter Haar, in a tongue in cheek teaser, said, “Having a group of self-proclaimed misfits like Circus join the family proves once again that we are building the biggest and best tent in the industry for talent.”