Black-Owned Influencer Marketing Agency, Fanbytes, Gets Acquired By BrainLabs
Influencer marketing agency Fanbytes has been acquired by digital media agency Brainlabs for an undisclosed fee.
The UK-based 65-strong business was launched by its chief executive Timothy Armoo, chief operating officer Ambrose Cooke and chief technology officer Mitchell Fasanya in 2017.
Fanbytes now works with a client list that spans Samsung, Nike, Ubisoft, Mattel, Estée Lauder and H&M.
The agency also formed a talent management business dubbed Bytesized Talent. Now, it represents some of the biggest creators in the UK like EmandLoz (fashion and entertainment), and Mr Tov (comedy, lifestyle and family). It monitors growth, predicts trends, and pinpoints product conversations.
As if that isn’t enough the agency also operates the Fanbytes Impact Fund, a £250,000 investment scheme that aims to close the ethnicity pay gap among influencers.
The deal with Brainlabs will see Fanbytes retain its brand but it will provide Brainlabs’ influencer offering across the US, Latin America, and Asia Pacific regions.
Brainlabs is an independent, global media agency with 800 staff and offices in London, New York, Seattle, Manchester and Austin; it was ranked first in this year’s UK Digital Agency Census by industry peers.
Armoo explained to Adweek in an interview that the agency had reached a stage where it was looking to access bigger clients and scale globally at a faster pace which led them to decide that now was the right time to sell.
He said that 40% of the company’s revenue already stems from the US even though the company doesn’t employ a single person there, but within the first few weeks of signing the agreement with Brainlabs, he and his team have already begun to see the growth potential there, he reported to AdWeek.
According to Brainlabs’ global chief executive officer Daniel Gilbert, the acquisition is “an essential piece of the jigsaw in our digital media offering. Influencer marketing has rapidly become an integral part of the digital media mix, so to be able to offer it alongside our other capabilities under one roof is a huge advantage to our clients.”
