Last July, multinational ad agency Publicis Groupe joined the growing number of companies acquiring a stake in the creator industry. It paid $500 million to pick up influencer marketing business Influential, and described creator-led advertising as “a ubiquitous growth driver for brands due to the channel’s unique ability to meaningfully connect with their customers.”
Now Publicis is committing even more resources to our industry with the acquisition of Captiv8, a company that says it “unifies creators, commerce, and campaign performance” by using a data-central approach to hooking up creators and brands for campaigns.
Captiv8 was founded in 2015 on a $2 million seed round, and by 2016 had done deals with creators like Zach King, Casey Neistat, and iJustine, and brands like Amazon and Johnson & Johnson. These days its data platform processes 2.5 billion posts across social media sites each year, collecting data from 95% of content creators who have over 5,000 followers, it says. That data allows it to sift through over 15 million creators in 120 regions around the world, selecting the ones that might fit its brand clients’ next ad pushes.
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Financial details of Captiv8’s acquisition are not being released, but Publicis said the company (like Influential) will continue operating independently, but under the close umbrella of its Connected Media unit. Captiv8 CEO Krishna Subramanian will remain in charge.
Influential CEO Ryan Detert, who similarly remained in charge of his company under Publicis’s wing, said Captiv8 joining will “supercharge our offering for clients.”
“Creators [will] get access to more insights and even more deal flow across Fortune 1000 brands to further fund their passions,” he added in a LinkedIn post. And, in a separate statement, he noted that, “As two leaders in the influencer marketing space, together, we bring unrivaled expertise, innovation, and transformation for our clients. We’re excited to collaborate with Krishna and Sunil to co-author the future of global influencer marketing at Publicis.”
As part of their acquisitions, both Influential and Captiv8’s platforms were plugged in to COREid, a consumer identity verification system made by fellow Publicis subsidiary Epsilon. The system lets Publicis Groupe check names and addresses to be sure ad campaigns are being seen by real people.
“This platform is a one-stop-shop for our clients’ influencer marketing initiatives. They can uniquely unite, plan, and optimize creator strategies that are brand fit, brand safe, with fully transparent measurement,” Arthur Sadoun, Publicis Groupe’s CEO, said in a statement.
Publicis Groupe also plans to implement Captiv8’s ecommerce capabilities–it offers things like digital storefronts, affiliate marketing integrations, and ROI tracking–in its creator x brand deals.
Like we said when Publicis acquired Influential, this move shows that more ‘mainstream’ companies are looking at the hundreds of billions of dollars our industry is commanding and (finally!) seeing the legitimacy of creators and their power. Publicis, which made $14.2 billion in 2023, is one of the largest companies yet to take a stake here–and we think its acquisitions might open the floodgates for more businesses to get in on this space.
