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S4 Capital Mergers and Acquisitions Sir Martin Sorrell

S4 Capital bolsters Media Monks with Tomorrow acquisition

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By John Glenday, Reporter

January 11, 2021 | 4 min read

S4 Capital is looking to the future by folding Tomorrow, the 50-person Shanghai-based creative agency, into its MediaMonks content practice. The acquisition follows hot on the heels of S4’s takeover of two US firms last week.

Media Monks

S4 Capital bolsters Media Monks with Tomorrow acquisition

What’s the deal?

  • The latest addition to the S4 capital family will push employment in content, data and digital media across the Asia Pacific region to around 500 from a total workforce of approximately 2870.

  • Tomorrow brings a slew of high profile clients to S4’s table, including Budweiser, Starbucks and Red Bull and will operate under the MediaMonks umbrella temporarily until the launch of a new unified brand currently in the works.

  • Founded in 2015 by Rogier Bikker, Tomorrow will almost double MediaMonks’ headcount in China at a stroke, with Bikker serving as managing director of the combined Chinese operation.

Why it matters

  • The fast-growing Chinese market is a key growth target for MediaMonks, which saw its business in the territory surge by 45% over the past year.

  • The Tomorrow takeover promises to further propel that growth by combining its double-digit growth trajectory with S4’s muscle to scale up its regional offering.

  • The Chinese online advertising market is estimated to be worth over $107bn according to the latest estimates from Credit Suisse, outperforming Covid-19 hit global economies to surge 17.1% in 2020.

  • This direction of travel is anticipated to continue next year when further growth of 18.1% is expected to be logged.

  • Digital spend is now thought to represent over 80% of the Chinese advertising market, according to an analysis by GroupM, the highest proportion of any major international market.

  • Offering a personal take on the deal, S4 Capital executive chairman Sir Martin Sorrell said: ”I’ve always been a raging bull on China’s economy, its consumers and its brands. I’m delighted to welcome Rogier and his colleagues at Tomorrow to the S4Capital family, in what is a priority market for us and one of several more moves in what will become the largest economy in the world.”

  • A similarly ebullient Michel De Rijk, Asia Pacific chief exec, added: “Tomorrow has quickly established itself as a creative leader specialized in representing global brands to the Chinese youth in a challenging market like China. We look forward to scaling new heights as Rogier leads the combined MediaMonks/Tomorrow team and drives forward S4Capital’s content practice.”

  • S4 Capital is undergoing a period of breakneck expansion fueled by an aggressive mergers and acquisitions strategy designed to bring it to scale at speed, evidenced by the new year additions of Decoded and Metric Theory, which were brought on board before most of us had a chance to digest our steak pies.

S4 Capital Mergers and Acquisitions Sir Martin Sorrell

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