Aegis Media has added to its search and performance marketing capabilities with the acquisition of Montreal-based performance marketing agency NVI. Financial terms of the deal, announced Wednesday, were not disclosed.
Guillaume Bouchard
Established in 2005, NVI offers a suite of services including SEO, web analytics and affiliation programs. Its client roster includes Allstream, Rona, Club Med, Michael’s and Chapters/Indigo.
The deal also marks the formal introduction of Aegis’ search and digital performance marketing division, iProspect, in Canada. NVI will be folded into iProspect, with co-founder Guillaume Bouchard taking over as CEO, reporting into Aegis Media Canada CEO Annette Warring.
iProspect will employ approximately 65 people between its two offices in Toronto and Montreal, and will benefit from access to Aegis’ global best practices, tools and resources, said Warring. iProspect joins Aegis Media Canada’s other business units Carat, Vizeum and Isobar.
Asked why Aegis couldn’t simply build a performance marketing offering organically, Warring said that speed was the key consideration in the acquisition of NVI.
“The world is changing so fast and we saw the opportunity for performance-marketing. [iProspect] is a very strong brand for us globally, and we identified NVI as clearly the market leader, very much aligned with the vision and values of iProspect and Aegis Media.
“We wanted to come out of the gate as market leaders and grow from that.”
The NVI acquisition will grow Aegis Media’s Canadian digital revenues by 15%, and its revenues in the Quebec market by as much as 33%, said the company in a release.
