WPP has acquired a leading influencer marketing agency, Goat which has offices in London, New York and Singapore.

The new acquisition has increased the presence of the agency globally. Worthy of note,  WPP plc is a British multinational communications, advertising, public relations, technology, and commerce holding company headquartered in London, England. It was the world’s largest advertising company, as of 2019. WPP plc owns many companies, which includes advertising, public relations, media, and market research networks such as AKQA, BCW, CMI Media Group,  Essence Global, Finsbury, Grey, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Mindshare, Ogilvy, Wavemaker, Wunderman Thompson, and VMLY&R. It is one of the “Big Four” agency companies, alongside Publicis, Interpublic Group of Companies, and Omnicom.

Media Post reports that Goat, now with 150-plus staff, specializes in data-led end-to-end influencer marketing campaigns and was founded by Arron Shepherd, Nick Cooke, and Harry Hugo in 2015.

The agency has worked with clients such as Dell, Beiersdorf, Meta, Tesco, Uber, EA, Natura and Augustinus Bader.

Since its founding, Goat has tracked the performance of over50,000 influencerchannelsand over250,000 pieces of content.

Goat will join GroupM and merge with its influencer marketing solution INCA to create a global influencer marketing agencywith more than300 employees in over 30 markets around the world. The combined entity – which will go to market as Goat – will operate as part of performance media division GroupM Nexus.

Christian Juhl, Global CEO, GroupM, said: “Influencer marketing is an exciting growth area for our business and one in which our clients are looking for globally scaled and outcomes-driven capabilities. The addition of Goat … gives us the ability to deliver accountable, cross-channel, and data-driven influencer solutions for clients anywhere in the world.”

Mark Read, CEO, WPP, added “Influencer marketing is a key growth priority for the industry and for WPP. Our clients are increasingly planning budgets at a global scale and require partners that have the global reach to help deliver, whilst driving engagement and impact at a local level. Goat’s proven track record in the influencer marketing space paired with GroupM’s record of excellence will continue to build on our unparalleled expertise in this area.”

In November 2022 Goat hired Ogilvy veteran Lauriann Serra to oversee its rapidly growing US business as managing director. She was previously a senior partner and managing director at Ogilvy where she was a strategic brand and marketing lead for multiple global and regional clients.

At the time Goat said its billings approached $100 million annually.