Out of Home agency Talon has bought Grand Visual, a leading OOH digital creative specialist, plus its ad tech provider QDOT.
Grand Visual and QDOT employ 48 people globally across London, New York and a development hub in Montevideo, Uruguay. Both companies will continue to run with the existing management structure, led by founder and chief executive Neil Morris, and Grand Visual managing director Dan Dawson and QDOT managing director Ben Putland.
Grand Visual’s clients include Warner Brothers, Amazon Studios, Netflix and Spotify.
The purchase follows Talon’s acquisition of US independent OOH media agency Grandesign earlier this year, along with the launch of international network Plexus, connected traveller offering Latitude and proprietary ad tech platforms Plato and Ada.
Talon group CEO Barry Cupples (below left with Grand Visual’s Neil Morris) says: “As we continue to invest in our proposition as a global independent OOH media specialist, we are excited to bring Grand Visual and QDOT into the Talon Group. QDOT’s world leading technology platforms and Grand Visual’s expertise in digital storytelling, means we are in an enviable position to offer true end-to-end service for our clients – as well as providing a tailored solution to those who need to plug specific services into their own OOH ecosystems.
“As the industry moves towards a more evidence-based economy, we feel confident that the breadth of our experience, services and capabilities will help to elevate client services further enhancing our Smarter as Standard approach.”
Grand Visual founder and CEO Morris says: “I am proud of the entrepreneurial teams we have in place and the global, future- facing services we have developed. Digital OOH offers an incredible canvas that is crying out for intelligent, interoperable solutions to help brands drive meaningful results. Joining the Talon Group will enable Grand Visual and QDOT to integrate with complementary services, such as Plato and Ada to facilitate scale at an even faster pace.”
The deal is significant in a number of ways: it’s a further underlining of Talon’s global ambition as it competes with rivals including WPP-owned Kinetic and Dentsu’s Posterscope and is one of the first times a media agency has actually incorporated an all-singing and dancing creative resource.
