Research group Kantar has acquired Mavens of London, a data-led digital marketing and analytics consultancy, which will be integrated into Kantar's analytics practice.
Mavens was founded in 2009 and employs about 100 people, who will all join Kantar. The business helps marketers analyse trends, patterns and customer needs and enables brands to optimise performance of their digital environments, SEO, reach and content strategies.
Kantar's analytics platform uses data and artifical intelligence combined with human insight to help brands hone their performance marketing. Mavens chief executive Daniel Singer, and the company's management team, will become part of the Kantar analytics practice, with Singer joining the UK and Ireland board.
The acquisition is Kantar’s first since it separated from WPP in 2019 after the holding group sold 60% of it to private-equity group Bain Capital.
Darren Bhattachary, co-chief executive of Kantar’s insights division in the UK, said: "Mavens brings a fantastic and differentiated skillset in to Kantar that really complements and strengthens our analytics portfolio. Clients are focused on developing a detailed understanding of which digital investments and content have impact.
"In particular, the addition of its digital consulting capability and performance content and search analytics offers strengthen our existing analytics portfolio in social and marketing effectiveness. We are now truly unique in providing a holistic view of a brand’s ecosystem and can support clients across digital from strategy to activation."
Singer added: "Joining Kantar provides us with an opportunity to have an impact at scale. We know from the work we do with clients like Dove and Philips that our smart combination of human and artificial intelligence delivers real return on their marketing investments.
"Kantar offers us the opportunity to integrate our AI and analytics capabilities with its world-class analytics team to build even more powerful tools and extend the impact we have to even more of the world’s leading consumer brands."
Mergers and acquisitions specialist Ciesco Group advised Mavens on the deal – the terms of which are undisclosed.