The Next Chapter for Reprise Media
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Written By Josh Stylman and Peter Hershberg | April 12, 2007 | Share This
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We are proud to announce that as of Wednesday, April 11, 2007, Reprise Media has officially joined the Interpublic group of companies.
Anyone familiar with Reprise Media knows that we’ve always been proud of our independence and our entrepreneurial spirit. Despite a flurry of recent investment and acquisition activity among our competitors, we’ve remained entirely self-funded and bootstrapped until now. So for some, news of this transaction may come as a bit of a surprise.
To-date, our reluctance to head down the investment road can be attributed to one simple issue: control. By remaining independent and never taking an outside dime, we have had complete control over our destiny (to the extent that any company can). We’re very happy to say that under the terms of this deal, we’re giving up very little of that control. Our entire team will remain in place, and Interpublic has afforded us the latitude to continue to do our best work in our own way. After all, that’s why they wanted to bring us on board in the first place.
As such, we want to recognize this deal for what it is: This isn’t part of some quick-exit strategy - it’s really a new beginning for Reprise Media and ourselves as co-founders. We’ve spent the last four years building up our capabilities, technology and reputation in a way that would allow us to scale and continue to innovate on our vision. We’re both confident in what we’ve built and the strategic plans we’ve laid out. We’re excited about what Interpublic brings to the table, and how it will help us grow our practice. It’s time to take Reprise Media to the next level.
While we’re expecting to field a lot of questions over the next couple of weeks, the one we’re expecting to hear most often is: Why Interpublic?
It’s a question we’ve thought long and hard about over the months leading up to this announcement. While the control issue was a big factor in our decision, it wasn’t the only one. After speaking to a wide range of potential partners and carefully considering our options we believe Interpublic is the right fit for us for a variety of reasons:
- Independence
Interpublic and Reprise Media both feel very strongly that our brand should live on as an ‘independent’ company within the Futures Marketing Group. This means that we have the opportunity to take advantage of Interpublic’s massive global reach without compromising the way we want to grow the company. Simply put, we’ll continue to deliver the same world-class services to our existing clients. We’ll also continue to establish direct relationships with the world’s leading brands, while simultaneously serving as a shared resource for clients within the Interpublic family of agencies. In a lot of ways, we view this as the best of both worlds.
- The Future’s Marketing Group (FMG)
IPG has recognized that the old media models don’t necessarily work anymore. As a result, they formed the FMG , led by Bant Breen, in an effort to break all of those models and create new ones. Reprise Media is the first ‘company’ to join FMG, although the division has made several key investments including Facebook, Spongecell and Spotrunner (we can’t wait to start building pipes into their platform!). Interpublic’s Emerging Media Lab is also part of the FMG. Given that we’re all emerging media and Web 2.0 junkies, we feel extremely comfortable with this group and hope to shape its future. As part of FMG’s advisory board we expect to do just that.
- Cross Channel
All advertising (TV, radio, print, etc) drives people to the search box. As a result, the marketing community is beginning to understand that search marketing can’t be viewed as a standalone channel anymore — it’s a key touch point for a much bigger integrated marketing program. We are excited to help Interpublic clients develop truly integrated campaigns that give consideration to where a potential customer may have heard about a product or service, thereby ensuring that search marketing helps guide a desired behavior. Furthermore, as Google and the other search engines continue to become the central nervous system for all online advertising – and possibly offline too – a search marketing firm that lives in the friendly confines of an international marketing conglomerate is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this opportunity.
- Global Footprint
Virtually all of the enterprise-level clients we work with are focused on reaching a worldwide audience. To grow with our clients, we need to start thinking globally. However, to this point in our history, we’ve worked almost exclusively on US-based campaigns - this will change. Past experience has taught us that to successfully enter global markets, a company needs to immerse itself in the cities and countries it’s interested in expanding into. Given that Interpublic currently has offices in over 100 countries, Reprise Media will have a much better chance of quickly building our international presence. Leveraging an existing infrastructure is a much better strategy than starting from scratch.
At some point during the roller-coaster ride of the past few weeks, we had a chance to take a deep breath and reflect on everything we’ve accomplished over the past four years. What started as a little “lifestyle business” in our living rooms has evolved into something more - something we’re both very proud of. Of course, we never would have made it to this point were it not for two incredibly important groups.
First, our amazing clients - many of whom have been with us since our earliest days - thank you for trusting us with your brands, giving us the freedom to push the envelope and helping us to grow in so many different ways.
Most important is our staff. You’re truly the best in the industry, and you’ve all worked incredibly hard to build the thriving business we enjoy today. We had the initial vision for Reprise Media, but you have helped us take it farther than we ever imagined we could go. We can’t wait to begin our new journey together as part of Interpublic! Thank you!!
Here’s to the next chapter,
Josh and Peter
Topics: Featured Item, Investment, M&A, Reprise Media |
Congratulations, guys. Interpublic gets a great acquisition in Reprise. Just goes to show how valued your practice is in today’s marketing landscape.
Congrats! Interpublic is lucky to have snapped you up.
Congrats! Keeping your space by the water?
Congrats!
moving forward with class, style and smarts - congrats Pete, Josh and the rest of the Reprise team.
All I can say is keep up the good work, guys. And we missed out on our bull session again this SES!