Audience Collective, the specialist digital insight group, has acquired PR and content agency, The Lucre Group. In response to client demand, the deal strengthens Audience Collective’s UK offering, with the group now able to provide clients with a full suite of marketing and communication services.
The search-savvy PR and content specialist joins six other independent agencies within the Collective, including brand communications agency, Ponderosa; market research and insight agency, Spark; and digital media strategy house, Crunch.
With offices across the UK and Ireland, the Audience Collective has seen rapid expansion since its inception in 2019. The group now comprises over 160 experts, and works with more than 240 organisations and brands in a wide range of sectors, including FMCG, Higher Education, Travel, and Food and Drink. Over that period, group revenue has soared by over 175%.
Steve Henry, Group CEO at The Audience Collective, said: “We’re delighted to welcome The Lucre Group onboard as we enter the next stage of growth. When we originally formed the group in 2019, we knew we were missing one key service offering, and that was PR.
“We have an incredibly strong vision for the future and ambitious plans to match. Within five years, we aim to be a £100m business operating in over 50 markets, with offices in five countries and we felt that Lucre’s values, and forward-thinking, ambitious nature matched our own. Their client base speaks for itself and with a highly talented group of individuals, the agency is a great fit. Lucre’s dedicated content arm – RICH – also offers an exciting proposition for all of the agencies in the Collective.”
Tamarind Wilson-Flint and Sophie Spyropoulos, Owner Directors at The Lucre Group, added: “We first launched our agency 16 years ago with Jet2, one of the UK’s leading airlines, which is still a client today. Accompanying our travel sector expertise, we developed our portfolio across food & drink, home & lifestyle, and tech & professional services industries, and are proud to offer our search-savvy expertise to some of the UK’s best-known brands, such as PizzaExpress, Park Plaza hotels, and Berkeley Homes.
“Always entrepreneurial in approach, we recently the launched L’Attitude, our international network of agencies, and have developed an influencer division to sit alongside our content and creative hub. Joining the Audience Collective, provides us with a fantastic opportunity to really scale our business, while offering further specialist marketing expertise to our clients and new career opportunities for our team. We’re delighted to join the Collective and we’re very much looking forward to the next exciting chapter in the Lucre story.”
The intrinsic strengths of Audience Collective’s independent agencies are at the crux of the groups’ ability to deliver holistic, industry-leading campaigns. The group draws together the expert teams from digital media strategy house, Crunch; digital brand communications and advertising agency, Ponderosa; market research and insight agency, Spark; search savvy PR and content agency, The Lucre Group; higher education marketing specialist, UNICOM; full commercial data service, VIDEMUS; and Ecommerce performance agency, Evolution.
With agencies now in place to provide a full suite of marketing and communication services, Audience Collective will continue to seek tactical acquisitions to further deepen and strengthen the skills under each specialism. The Collective will also launch new offerings to meet market demands in the UK, Ireland and beyond, whilst ensuring the best employment of the group’s collective skills.
