London indie agency Creature acquired by Dutch marketing group Candid
Indie advertising agency Creature has been acquired by Dutch marketing group Candid for an undisclosed sum.
Creature and Candid's founders: the agency has been acquired by a Dutch marketing group / Creature
The London agency's acquisition is the latest buyout of a high-profile independent agency in the UK. In March, Engine was snapped up by Next Fifteen and Candid itself has acquired UK companies Positive and Brand Potential in the last six months.
Candid Group’s chief executive Rudiger Wanck said: “Our goal is to empower strong individual specialist agencies like Creature and enable them to scale and collaborate without the distraction of the layers within a traditional holding company.”
According to a statement from Candid, the acquisition marks "the beginnings of a global agency group," signalling an ambition to follow the path of fellow Dutch network Dept, which has rapidly expanded through agency acquisitions in recent years.
Craeture's clients include Moonpig, homewares retailer Dunelm and challenger bank Atom. XXS, a Dutch agency owned by Candid, will be rebranded as Creature Amsterdam. Creature chief executive officer Dan Cullen-Shute will take on the role of worldwide chief exec, overseeing both offices; XXS founder Piet Hein Smit and its managing director Sanne Tolsma will remain in their current roles in the Netherlands.
Cullen-Shute said: “We’ve been doing this for a long time now, and while we’ve definitely made a few mistakes along the way, we’ve ultimately become very, very good at knowing what’s right: the opportunity to take Creature to new worlds, supported by a platform in Candid that values our independence of thought, action and approach as much as we do is incredibly exciting.
“Add into that the fact that we get to welcome an agency of the stature and reputation of XXS into the Creature family, and you’ve got an opportunity far too good to turn down. It’s time to show the world what Creature can do.”
Candid's other agencies inlude Havana Harbor, Millford, media agencies Stroom, de Media Maatschap and M2M Media, as well as social agency Daily Dialogues.
Wanck added: ”Acquiring Creature London and adding Creature Amsterdam through XXS marks the starting point to further amplify our creative capacity and bolster the platform as a whole on a global level.”