This week’s round-up of the latest mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, and account moves includes Miroma Group, Clever Advertising, Meta and Midnite
Deal Desk rounds-up the latest moves across the global affiliate and digital marketing industry and why it matters.
This week, Miroma Group acquires Ad Results Media; Meta expands affiliate partnership programmes; and Midnite renews partnership with Southamptom FC.
Miroma Group buys stake in Ad Results Media
Independent marketing and content firm Miroma Group has announced it has acquired a majority stake in Ad Results Media (ARM).
ARM roster of clients include Grammarly, FanDuel, and Ritual, for which it creates audio campaigns for podcasts, video, and YouTube.
The acquisition represents a significant expansion into the US market, and raises the group’s annual media investment to over $750m.
Marc Boyan, founder and chief executive of Miroma Group, said: “Creators have become one of the most powerful forces in modern media, and the convergence of audio, video and social is at the heart of that transformation.
“ARM has built one of the world’s leading creator and audio businesses, helping brands connect with audiences through the creators and voices they trust most. Bringing ARM into Miroma strengthens our position as a global leader in media, entertainment and the creator economy, while creating a platform that helps both brands and creators grow.”
Leaders take
This is a big step forward for Miroma as it looks to tackle the North American market. ARM is a specialist creator in the audio space, and is the world’s largest buyer of audio, creator, and podcast media.
This acquisition is set to push Miroma into a secure space in the market with over twenty specialist businesses across technology, creative, entertainment, and performance.
Together, the groups partner with an array of industry giants like McDonalds, Amazon Audible, and Adidas – securing Miroma’s place as a creative powerhouse.
Meta expands affiliate partnerships
Meta has expanded its affiliate partnerships programme with Shopee to include Instagram, which will enable eligible creators across Brazil, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Malaysia to earn commissions when they recommend Shopee products on reels and feed posts.
This builds on Meta’s previous Facebook Affiliate programme, in which five million content creators around the world have connected their accounts to start earning from the links they include in their posts.
Leaders take
Meta has obviously seen some success with the rollout of its Facebook Affiliate programme, and it is capitalising on the rise of creator-led content and marketing by ensuring its platforms remain a critical part of the purchasing journey.
The programmes are a win-win: content creators and influencers are further incentivised to use the tech giant’s platforms to earn from the affiliate links; while Meta keeps creators inside its walled garden.
Midnite renews partnership with Southampton FC
Midnite has officially signed an agreement to continue on as the official training kit and back-of-shirt sponsor for Southampton FC for the 2026/2027 season.
This will be the second season the Midnite has partnered with the team, with the betting company also bringing a host of initiatives to engage with Saints supporters.
This includes 2UP, a campaign inspired by Southampton’s two-goal home lead (which they held on six occasions), that saw a Saints fan win a prize pot every time the team went two goals up in a home match.
Leaders take
This partnership has been positive for Saints fans with the efforts from Midnite to go above and beyond by delivering rewards, prizes, and even luxury away travel through the Midnite Express.
That being said, Premier League teams have collectively agreed to withdraw gambling sponsorships from the front of their shirts next season in the first ever voluntary restriction of betting ads from a major UK sport. While Southampton is not currently in the Premier League, they will no doubt be hoping to return – so this may not be a long-time partnership (unless the club really wants to ruffle some feathers).
Other notable market developments
Global performance marketing firm, Clever Advertising, has announced a strategic investment into iGaming Nuts. The investment allows Clever Advertising a way to develop its presence in the central and eastern European markets, and capitalise on iGaming Nuts’ expertise in the complex markets.
Channel 4 is partnering up with consumer and market intelligence specialists, CACI. This new partnership will bring CACI’s geospatial intelligence technology to develop a classification system for all UK households and postcodes to help build more highly targeted audience data.
Mr Gamble, an igaming affiliate programme is expanding across the US and Canada; and has hired to Brian Roth and Manual Mora to lead the move across the sports betting, casino, DFS, and prediction market verticals.
German adtech, Almedia, has officially opened its new London office. The new space will be a hub for the company’s data team, which is quickly growing to include data science, data engineering and machine learning.
