Global giant buys ad2one in NZ & Australia M+AD!

Auckland-based digital sales house Ad2one has been purchased by Gravity4 – a US headquartered global company that describes itself as “the world’s first high-frequency marketing cloud”. Gravity4 also made its intentions clear in this part of the world by buying Ad2One Australia.

ad2one acting manager Johanna Cottor said the four staff in Auckland will remain with the company, which will also retain the ad2one name, address and branding for the next 12 months – at which time the Auckland company will start integrating more closely with Gravity4.

Ad2one NZ manager Lisa Ison, who is currently on maternity leave, will return to her role this year, while Cotter will revert to her sales manager role.

“ad2one now offers global reach, coupled with local expertise to deliver innovative, creative solutions across their exclusive portfolio of premium market leading brands,” Gravity4 said in a statement released in NZ over the holiday break.

Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The acquisition was closed on 31 December.

“This marks Gravity4’s 15th acquisition as we closed out 2015,” said Gurbaksh Chahal, a colourful* India-born American who is chairman and ceo of Gravity4.

“I’m looking forward in continuing our global expansion in new markets, and look forward in merging our premium marketplaces and programmatic offerings for our increased global advertiser demand,” he said.

“I’m very pleased to welcome all ad2one Australia and New Zealand employees to the Gravity4 family,” said Mr. Chahal.

ad2one founder Grant Allaway, who is based in London, said: “Gravity4’s Marketing Cloud is a great fit for both the Australian and New Zealand divisions. It’s ability to attract, engage, and connect with audiences at every stage of the purchase funnel, united with ad2one’s exclusive portfolio of premium, market-leading brands makes this a powerful combination.

“We’re eager to form a strategic relationship at the global level between other markets ad2one operates in withGravity4.”

ad2one says its mission is to generate maximum revenue for brands from all of their digital assets. The statement says they’ve delivered innovative and creative solutions for publishers such as Ticketmaster, BBC, Reuters, Linked In, Skyscanner, Allrecipes, and Sony PlayStation for over a decade, across an exclusive selection of market-leading premium brands.

“ad2one’s innovative premium marketplaces enable advertisers to reach and engage consumers whether at home or on the move, reaching in excess of 70% of Australia’s and New Zealand’s active online population,” the release said.

“In Asia Pacific, digital advertising spend will increase by 30% and is predicted to reach US$47 billion fuelled by growth in mobile, online video and programmatic advertising.

“Australia and New Zealand represents strategically important markets for Gravity4’s continued expansion in APAC with digital adspend expected to account for more than 40% of total share of ad spend.”

Gravity4 APAC’s Kuala Lumpur-based managing director Kevin Huang said: “The combined premium marketplace of ad2one and recently acquired Pixels are strong complements to our programmatic offerings for advertisers, agencies and publishers.” said Kevin Huang, Managing Director, APAC of Gravity4.

“ad2One has grown in its premium marketplaces, and we look forward to further deploying programmatic across both the Australian and New Zealand markets. Combining ad2one’s leading premium marketplace with Pixels’ recently acquired premium marketplace greatly enhances the Gravity4 Marketing Cloud.”

Gravity4 NZ & Australia managing director Joshua Rex, who’s based in Sydney, said: “This bolsters our presence across the Asia-Pacific region and enables a wider reach across premium and programmatic offerings in this part of the world, and Ad2One’s advertisers, partners, and employees will see immediate benefits of being part of Gravity4.”

The company’s NZ office is at Level 1G, 39 Market Place, Viaduct Harbour, Auckland 1010; ph 09 358 4114.

About Gravity4
Gravity4 delivers the world’s first high frequency marketing cloud that dramatically boosts digital marketing ROI across web, mobile, video, and social channels. Automation, simplicity, and design are the fundamental ingredients behind all the applications and solutions in the Gravity4 Marketing Cloud.

From day one, the Company’s goal has been to simplify marketing by humanizing the essential components behind it. Gravity4 offers a full suite of enterprise applications to aggregate social, web, email, mobile, CRM, search, and location data in real time for free. This offering allows marketers to save millions of dollars annually and enhance automation across all digital consumer touch-points.

Gravity4 is a global software-advertising company headquartered in San Francisco, CA with offices in the US, Bermuda, Ireland, Brazil, Denmark, Turkey, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Columbia, Sweden, Norway, Spain, and Finland.