Granite Digital expands to the US with majority stake in New York creative agency LCM247’s Digital Division

Granite Digital, Ireland’s leading full-service digital agency, today announces that it has acquired the majority stake (75%) in the digital division of New York’s innovative creative agency, LCM247.

The acquisition – which will see the formation of LCM by Granite – is expected to significantly boost Granite’s revenues beyond €13 million this year. This is being boosted by a projected $3 million in new US revenues in the first 18 months following the acquisition.

The move will also provide Granite Digital with a strategic foothold in the US and will see the team expand beyond 110 digital professionals, with the addition of LCM247’s 12 experienced digital specialists. Patrick Heaphy, founder and president of LCM247, will also serve as Chief Creative Officer of LCM by Granite. It will solidify the company’s position on both sides of the Atlantic, with offices in Cork, Dublin and Galway in Ireland and now LCM247’s office located just outside Manhattan.

LCM247 is a renowned and Emmy-nominated New York creative agency. With its expertise in film production, marketing, branding, and visual creativity, the acquisition will enable Granite Digital to enhance its suite of digital experience offerings to its growing base of Irish and US -based customers.

Granite Digital will also add many of LCM247’s diverse clients to its customer base. In Ireland, it continues to deliver a wide range of services – including design, technology, strategy, digital marketing, advertising, and secure managed hosting – to industry leaders like IDA Ireland, Pfizer, Lidl, Dalata Hotel Group PLC, Bord Bia, American Chamber of Commerce, Cork Chamber of Commerce, Shannon Airport, Uniphar, Bon Secours Health System, Travelopia and Webhelp.

This latest acquisition marks another milestone in Granite Digital’s journey to becoming a global digital agency leader. It is the latest in a series of strategic expansions by the company, following 13 successful acquisitions -four of which have been in the last two years – including Continuum, Willows, Armour and Connector.

Granite Digital offers intelligent solutions to global companies by leveraging AI, Machine Learning, and next generation platforms like Blockchain. It delivers cutting-edge technologies – such as Microsoft Azure, AWS and WPEngine – and innovative architectures – including Headless. Its expertise spans content management systems (CMS), customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise systems and secure payment integration.

Speaking about the LCM247 acquisition, Robert Carpenter, Chief Commercial Officer of Granite Digital, said: “This strategic acquisition is an exciting step forward in our global expansion. We are harnessing the creative prowess of LCM247 to propel our growth and deliver a broader range of digital solutions to our clients worldwide. We now have a team on the ground in New York and aim to accelerate our expansion across the East coast over the next 24 months. We love the US and the US loves Ireland too, so we are very excited to get out and meet as many businesses as we can. This is a big move for Granite Digital but we have big ambitions for both ourselves and our customers. To ensure a seamless transition as our teams unite, I plan to relocate to New York this summer, dedicating my efforts to facilitate a smooth and successful integration.”

Patrick Heaphy, Founder and President of LCM247, added: “Joining forces with a dynamic and growth-focused digital agency like Granite Digital offers us the resources and shared expertise to continue pushing the boundaries in the digital and creative world. This is a thrilling next chapter for LCM247 and Granite, and I look forward to working with Robert and Conor to bring our creative skills and vision to this fast-growing team and contribute to its global success.”

Conor Buckley, CEO of Granite Digital, commented: “This acquisition of LCM247’s digital division is a transformative milestone for Granite Digital. It’s not merely about global scaling; it’s about enriching our portfolio with global experts. We’re bolstering our agility in a digital landscape that changes by the nanosecond. As we integrate LCM247 clients into our fold, we look forward to serving our growing clientele with an even broader range of innovative solutions, transcending boundaries from Ireland to the international stage.”

Irish Agency Opens An Office in the Metaverse

Connector by Granite is the first Irish agency to join the Metaverse. The agency’s Metaverse office joins its other locations in Dublin, Cork, Galway.

The virtual facilities include a reception, 12 meeting rooms and an auditorium for events for up to 200 concurrent users.

Commenting on the launch, Strategy Director, Ivan Adriel, said: “Metaverse is a term first coined in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash, but in recent years it has taken the world by storm and is now used to describe a world in which the ‘digital and physical’ are blurred. Our new office is a space for experimentation and collaboration and invites our clients to discover what’s next.”

According to Global Web Index Europe, the knowledge of the Metaverse is split almost equally into three groups: 33% who understand the concept, 37% who have heard of it but aren’t sure what it means, and 30% who aren’t sure at all.

Over half of consumers say they are interested in participating in the Metaverse, with 1 in 3 of those who hadn’t heard of it before still saying they wanted to be involved.

Luciano Jacob, Creative Director, celebrates the possibilities the new space brings “The Metaverse allows us to push creativity to limitless frontiers, break the limits of geography to bring people together. We are delighted to launch our office in the metaverse and experiment with new possibilities.”

Irish Agency Creates AI Christmas Cards Painted by Van Gogh & Written by William Butler Yeats. #AI #Christmas2020

Irish creative agency, Connector by Granite, has used AI to bring back Van Gogh and William Butler Yeats to create their Christmas cards this year. The company trained neural networks to recognise patterns in the source data from Van Gogh’s starry night and transpose it to iconic Dublin Christmas scenes. The project also tasked the AI with learning all poems by Irish poet, William Butler Yeats, to produce a special new poem to lift spirits in celebration of Christmas.

Goodbye 2020,

Long live the Future.

The air grew still, and then

A murmurous laugh arose;

A starlight glimmered through,

A misty and hazy fire.

Together with kindred spirits

Every soul should seek,

For music that can burn

And love is all around

But no, farewell;

A starlight glimmering through, a misty and hazy fire.

– William Butler Yeats

 

According to Ivan Adriel, Creative Strategy Director: “Connector has always been an agency with creativity in our DNA and this year we were acquired by Granite Digital – Ireland’s biggest digital agency.  We wanted to merge the power of technology and creativity to show that AI can open new realms of creative possibility, in contrast to dystopic headlines heralding technology as the death of creativity.”

In an effort to avoid waste, the company is not posting cards this year but is sending them to clients by email.