Exclusive negotiations for DÉKUPLE to acquire a majority stake in the Brainsonic agency
Business combination to help drive the convergence of engagement, performance and data at the service of brands.
Paris, September 1 , 2022 (6pm) – The DÉKUPLE Group, a cross-channel data marketing expert, is announcing that it is conducting exclusive negotiations with a view to acquiring a majority interest in Brainsonic, a leading engagement communications agency.
Founded in 2003, Brainsonic, The Engagement Agency, is a multi-specialist communications agency with over 120 talents, who draw up and implement strategies and creations enabling brands to engage their audiences (BtoC, BtoB and employees). Brainsonic has an extensive portfolio of clients from diverse sectors, such as food distribution, banking and insurance, media, construction, industry, high tech and retail, providing global support through its multiple areas of expertise (digital, social media, events, advertising, corporate, editorial, etc.).
DÉKUPLE’s acquisition of a majority interest in Brainsonic’s capital would be fully in line with the ambition mapped out by the Group, which aims to become a European leader for data marketing by 2025, effectively expanding its fields of expertise. With a historically strong position on performance marketing and technology, the Group would further strengthen its conversational and engagement marketing capabilities, supported by a leading company whose strong culture and expertise will integrate perfectly with the DÉKUPLE Group’s multi-entrepreneur ecosystem.
This would enable DÉKUPLE to benefit from a powerful new driving force to accelerate its roadmap for development on the high-growth data marketing market. Considering the major potential for synergies with the Group’s other business units specialized in brand and performance marketing and influence marketing, this transaction is expected to create value for the Group.
Brainsonic is a profitable and growing company, with around 120 staff, and expects to achieve revenues of over €17m in 2022.
This transaction is expected to be finalized within the next few weeks, once the employee representative bodies have been informed and consulted and the legal documentation has been finalized.
Commenting on this announcement of exclusive negotiations, Bertrand Laurioz, DÉKUPLE’s Chairman and CEO, declared: “Our acquisition of an interest in Brainsonic will enable DÉKUPLE to once again accelerate its development, by further strengthening our fields of expertise, especially in terms of engagement marketing, supported by the outstanding teams in place whose values and culture are perfectly aligned with our ecosystem of innovative companies. Our services will complement one another very effectively and open up digital and data synergies to further enhance the performance of our marketing actions supporting brands, across both BtoC and BtoB. We will be delighted to welcome Guillaume Mikowski, who will be joining our Group’s management team and will continue to develop Brainsonic, while remaining on board as a shareholder and its chairman. DÉKUPLE, which will have more than 900 staff by the end of this year, is moving forward with determination with its diversification in data marketing with a view to becoming a European market leader by 2025”.
Guillaume Mikowski, Brainsonic’s co-founder and Chairman, added: “We are delighted by the idea of linking up with a major player like the DÉKUPLE Group, whose prospects for development are fully aligned with the current stakes in our business lines. We share the Group’s values, its multi-entrepreneur aspect and its long-term vision. In addition, two other reasons convinced us that it was the right move to join forces in this way. Firstly, the ability to continue building on our unique features and our position as a conversational player, and secondly, the opportunity to accelerate our ambitions and development thanks to a robust long-term partner and data marketing specialist”.
For Jean-Louis Bénard, Brainsonic’s co-founder and current majority shareholder: “Guillaume Mikowski and his teams have done an extraordinary job to establish Brainsonic as one of the most beautiful agencies in France. A partner like DÉKUPLE will enable Brainsonic and its teams to continue moving forward with their original and dynamic roadmap, while benefiting in particular from synergies around data marketing. The effective alignment of our values and expert capabilities between DÉKUPLE and Brainsonic is remarkable, and I am delighted to move into this new phase”. Jean-Louis Bénard left his operational roles with Brainsonic several years ago to focus on Sociabble, a Brainsonic spin-off that was launched in 2014 and has been independent since 2019.