Grey has announced that it is fully acquiring and integrating its social media agency, Wildfire, into Grey London, effective June 1
Grey took a minority investment in 2008 and increased its shareholding to become a majority shareholder in 2011.
Wildfire was founded in 2005 and was then billed as the first specialist Word of Mouth agency in Europe.
Wildfire will form Grey Social, a new department, and a fresh social offering within Grey London. The move follows the integration of commerce and shopper agency Base into Grey London back in 2019.
Wildfire has been a partner of Grey for the last 16 years. During this time, transformative creative delivery across omnichannel touchpoints has become increasingly vital to deliver breakthrough brand experiences and successful campaign outcomes. The capabilities of Grey Social include social insights and research, planning, creative, content production, community management, media buying, performance optimisation, social CX, martech, analysis and measurement.
It is now a full part of Grey’s offering in the UK and in Europe, where Wildfire instigated the Grey Social European network and acts as the regional Centre of Excellence and coordinator for multi-country and multi-social channel management. Grey’s social network includes Italy, Poland, France, Germany and Belgium, with key clients including household names such as Volvo, GSK, HSBC, Pringles, Weber DE, Nikon Europe, Regina Europe and Hovis.
Laura Jordan Bambach, president & CCO UK at Grey, commented, “Bringing together Wildfire and Grey London will give us an incredible opportunity to deliver groundbreaking work. Through this change, we are simplifying how we work, integrating our areas of expertise and creating more moments in which unique skills can flourish and be shared.”
She added, “Working even more closely together will enable us to offer new and existing clients the best of all worlds: bold, brave creative thinking capable of transforming business outcomes delivered across every channel, to any audience.”
Olivia Clarkson, now director of connected culture at Grey, said, “This is a really exciting development for both agencies. Combining big-idea creative thinking with an omni-channel mindset will enable us to get the best out of the diverse talent that we are bringing together. Clients will now be able to enjoy Brand Advertising, Social, Digital, Commerce and Dynamic Production – all from one unified team.”
Wildfire’s management team is now a full part of Grey London: Ivan Palmer becomes director, social development & innovation; Clarkson, director of connected culture; Asad Shaykh, joint head of strategy; and Vikesh Amey-Bhatt group creative director.
