Granite Digital, Ireland’s leading full-service digital transformation agency, today announces that it has acquired Dublin-based digital and creative marketing agency, Connector. Granite Digital is forecasting additional revenues of €1 million over the next 12 months following the acquisition.
Connector is a multi-award winning creative agency which has developed innovative digital campaigns for leading Irish and multinational brands, such as Volkswagen, Dr. Oetker, Huawei, FreeNow, RTÉ, KBC Bank and Littlewoods Ireland. The agency offers digital strategy, content creation and influencer marketing services.
The acquisition of Connector opens a global market opportunity for Granite Digital, contributing to its increased forecasted revenues. Connector is already involved in the development of several projects with multinational clients in global markets, creating the opportunity for Granite Digital to offer these clients a range of additional digital services both in Ireland and overseas.
Granite Digital will retain the Connector brand and all of its existing employees, making it the largest independent digital agency in Ireland. The Granite Digital senior management team saw the opportunity to greatly enhance its creative offering and can now provide clients with a full suite of digital marketing services, as well as web and application development and design from the one entity.
Connector will continue to provide innovative campaigns and projects to its existing clients, now with additional digital and development services available, Conor Lynch, founder and former CEO exits the business to launch his new venture SelfMakers.com, a platform offering personalised career plans to enable employees, entrepreneurs, freelancers and others to achieve self-made success.
Granite Digital, which has offices in Dublin, Cork and Galway, remains on track to achieve its €10 million annual revenue target by 2023. In combination with strong organic growth, Connector is the latest company to be acquired as part of Granite Digital’s wider acquisition strategy to ensure it achieves its growth targets. The company also recently acquired application developer, Apps Made Easy, and is open to further opportunities.
Ivan Adriel, is Connector’s current CEO. He will assume a wider role as Granite’s Creative Strategy Director. He commented: “Both during and following restrictions imposed by COVID-19, it is more important than ever for businesses to leverage creative and digital opportunities to remain competitive in a changing world. For example, with less people on the high street, we are helping brands to divert out of home advertising spending into innovative areas, such as our influencer platform, to ensure that brands and their campaigns can still reach their target audience no matter where they are located.
“The coming together of Connector and Granite Digital means clients can get the best of creativity and the best of digital in a one-stop shop. With us, companies can now enjoy a seamless integration of all digital and creative channels, activities and strategies – ensuring brand consistency and significant cost savings.”
Seamus White, Co-Founder and Partner, Granite Digital, said: “This acquisition is fantastic news for everyone within Granite Digital and Connector and especially our existing and prospective clients. With our combined skills and knowledge, we can now truly provide companies both in Ireland and overseas with market-leading digital and creative services. Connector’s involvement on global projects with huge blue-chip organisations is opening entirely new doors for us, enabling Granite to offer a full suite of digital services to some of the world’s most recognised brands.
“It was evident from the outset that this partnership was the perfect fit not only from a business perspective, but also culturally. We share the same vision of enabling brands to thrive through rich engagement, excellent user-experience and highly-coordinated messaging, with the Connector team bringing real creative flair to this ambition. We are excited to bring our combined skills and knowledge to bear to provide brands with the creative edge needed to stand out from the pack and succeed today”.