Goodway Group has announced the acquisition of UK-based Canton Marketing Solutions. The business will be merged with its marketing transformation consultancy Control v Exposed (CvE), which is run by ex-Havas Media Group CEO, Paul Frampton-Calero.
The expanded 40-person strong operation will accelerate CvE’s growth, and strengthen its expertise in martech consulting, data engineering and in preparing global consumer brands for third-party cookie depreciation.
Founded in 2019, CvE has become recognised for its expertise in helping global brands define and deliver the future state of their marketing organisation. It does this by operating at the strategic transformation level, through agnostic advisory services and hands-on expertise in platforms, analytics and marketing technology.
The business has since expanded its service offering from a focus on operating models (developing effective in-housed or hybrid agency/ staff marketing teams and helping brands gain media-buying independence) – into technical models; namely martech consultancy (evaluating and selecting the right technology to power marketing operations) and data engineering (ensuring data connectivity and liquidity between platforms).
Canton’s co-founders Rob Webster and Nick King both join the CvE leadership team as Global VPs of Strategy and Commercial respectively, reporting to Paul Frampton-Calero.
CvE president Paul Frampton-Calero said:
“Few businesses can be impartial when it comes to consulting. Whether it’s opting to in house media buying or technology transformation, a consulting arm’s vested interest is usually to recommend the product its parent sells. That doesn’t always lead to the best growth outcomes for clients. Only through independence, where the business model isn’t built on selling someone else’s product or one of your own sister companies, can you be impartial. Ambitious global consumer brands value marketing transformation consultancy, when it’s truly independent.”
“Canton has incredible capability in helping companies choose and onboard the best martech, and are experts in data engineering, a perfect complement to our operational team-and-culture strategic approach.
“They’re well-known for helping Vodafone successfully inhouse its media, and we have already collaborated successfully on transformation projects for CvE clients, Boots Media Group, HMD (Nokia), Staples, TravelSupermarket, Ziglu/ RobinHood Crypto and others.”
CvE Global VP of Strategy Rob Webster said:
“All businesses are on different stages of digital marketing maturity but very few could be described as fully optimised. As such they’re losing money through ineffective digital marketing.”
“CvE stands out in this growing category because they take a strategic, trusted advisory role in between agencies and management consultancies, and we could not be more excited to join the team and help drive growth both in the UK, the US and APAC.”
CvE Global VP of Commercial Nick King said:
“Canton disrupted the market when we launched four years ago, giving businesses a new way to get advice and support to upgrade their digital marketing. This acquisition represents the second phase of our evolution and will be a continuation of the work of the last three and a half years’.
“CvE stands out in this growing category because they take a strategic, trusted advisory role in between agencies and management consultancies, and we could not be more excited to join the team and help drive growth both in the UK, the US and APAC.”
With respective growth rates of 277% and 183% for CvE and Canton in 2021 – and considering the complementary nature of existing and target client profiles – Goodway Group believes that combining the two businesses will give the company greater scope for growth.
The company also plans to use the merger to broaden its service offering for a new and expanded client roster which now includes Flutter Group (Paddy Power, Betfair, Pokerstars), Vodafone, Reckitt Benckiser, BBC, Ice Travel Group/ TravelSupermarket, KFC, Boots Media Group and HMD/Nokia.
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