This week’s round-up of the latest mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, and account moves include X, Havas Play, Twelvio, Accenture, Google, and more.
Deal Desk rounds-up the latest moves across the global affiliate and digital marketing industry and why it matters.
This week, Havas Play has appointed iion as its exclusive playable game tech partner; X has partnered with Samba for third-party measurement; Twelvio has paired with WIDER for creative production; while Dentsu has been appointed as Netflix’s EMEA media agency.
Havas Play’s new deal with iion
Havas Play has appointed iion, a premium gaming ad technology firm, as its exclusive partner for playable and mini-game developments across Asia-Pacific.
The new partnership will come alongside Havas Play:able, a new offering from Havas which allows agencies to build interactive ads for gaming, digital and social platforms.
Yun Yip, chief commercial officer for iion said: “The era of passive media is over, every ad should be an invitation to play, interact, and engage.”
This will be available throughout the Havas network and directly for brand clients.
Havas confirmed that beauty retail, and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) clients are already experimenting with casual gaming builds.
Leaders take
The partnership aims to address an ongoing issue with playable advertising of high upfront costs and development times often running into a period of several weeks to build a working concept.
The combination of Havas Play’s deep understanding of the market and landscape with the technical expertise of iion will compliment each other to hopefully produce a streamlined experience for advertisers.
Samba and X partner for entertainment analytics
X has partnered with media intelligence company Samba.
The deal will combine Samba’s independent, third-party measurement capabilities for campaigns with X for marketers to gain a deeper understanding into consumer behaviour.
Advertisers will be able to use Samba Entertainment Outcomes to connect X campaign exposure with real actions such as cinema ticket purchases or TV show streams.
Monique Pintarell, global head of advertising for X said: “X sits at the centre of live conversation, where culture is shaped in real-time and influence turns into incrementality. With Samba’s independent, cross-screen intelligence, entertainment marketers can see how X performs across the full funnel — from conversation to cultural impact to conversion — and use that data to engage existing audiences, attract new ones and win consumer attention.”
Leaders take
Being able to demonstrate return on adspend is a significant part of each marketer’s strategy and consideration, so proof of effectiveness will be a welcome addition for advertisers. This partnership with Samba will able to give marketers measurable impact and a deeper understanding of how effective campaigns are at a granular level on X, in turn providing actionable insights to help reduce duplication across investments and improve campaign performance.
Twelvio pairs with WIDER for creative production
Social gaming and digital entertainment marketing agency, Twelvio, has announced a strategic partnership with WIDER.
The deal will see WIDER’s AI platform connect to a brand’s ad accounts, analyse the driving force behind results, and read live competitor ad libraries across the category.
From there, WIDER will show what competitors are running, as well as how long the ads have been active, and how much momentum each concept has gained.
The insights will be used to produce user-generated contet and reaction videos, statistics, gameplay ads, and playable ads. These can be produced for Google, Meta, AppLovin, Liftoff, Moloco, and Unity – and can be localised by language and market.
Jonothan Karmi, chief executive and co-founder of WIDER said: “Gaming teams are not short on ideas; they are short on throughput. The industry automated distribution and left creative on human hours. We built the engine that removes that ceiling, so a two-person team can ship what used to take an agency and a quarter.”
Leaders take
The partnership between WIDER and Twelvio will give gaming brands faster creative output, as well as a technological layer for campaign optimisation and creative production.
The tech will be demonstrated live at SBC Summit Lisbon, with audiences able to see how the platform analyses competitor and campaign data and identifies patterns to turn into ready-to-launch advertising.
Other notable deals
The Social Group is expanding its offering in Germany by opening a new venue in Dortmund, in partnership with hospitality firm, GA Bars. The venue opens with 6 SHUFL Tech and 13 Flyby Darts to bring tech-powered darts and shuffle board experiences.
Netflix has appointed Dentsu as its media agency of record for EMEA. This will bring together senior leaders from Dentsu’s Media Practice and Dentsu Lab into one team.
Google Cloud and Accenture are launching the Accenture Gemini Enterprise Business Group. This will be a global group aimed at helping clients scale Gemini Enterprise outcomes in the modern agentic AI era.
Mark Glasgow has acquired Just Shot, a video production company. The company has a wide client base, and covers corporate and commercial events, as well as sound design, 3D animation, and scriptwriting.
Brave Bison has launched a fourth increased offer for System1 Group. The offer values each System1 share at 360 pence using a mix of cash and newly issued Brave Bison shares.
