MSQ Partners Buys CX Agency United Digital

Marcoms group MSQ Partners, the parent of insights firm Freemavens, has acquired digital CX agency UDG (United Digital Group), with the aim of creating a major force in digital customer experience and tech - initially across Europe and then rolling out across North America.

Established in 2011 and headquartered in London, MSQ comprises eleven agencies and in addition to research via its Freemavens subsidiary offers services including advertising, PR, design, brand strategy and direct digital marketing. The group has more than 60 specialists with data, insight and tech capabilities, offering social media listening, qual and quant research, third-party audience profiling and research analysis, brand tracking, and attitudinal market segmentation.

UDG is led by Co-Managing Partners Mathias Reinhardt and Florian Frey, employs 350 people across Germany and Spain, and boasts annual revenue of around EUR 40m from its offer combining customer-centric design and creativity with in-depth expertise in engineering and technical delivery. The company was founded in 2011 and has been part of PIA Group, itself owned by private equity firm Equistone, since 2019. Major clients include Porsche, Fendt, Bosch, Deutsche Telekom and Vaillant.

The combined company, backed by private equity groups One Equity Partners and LDC, will employ around 1,500 people across Europe, North America and Asia.

Peter Reid (pictured), Global CEO of MSQ, comments: 'The creation of an international digital customer experience and tech powerhouse, initially in Europe and then rolled out into North America, creates rich opportunities for cross-pollination across our agencies, building momentum, strength and depth in what we can deliver for clients'. Reinhardt and Frey said in a statement that MSQ's 'capabilities, investment and entrepreneurial ethos' make it 'the ideal platform' for UDG to scale its work for German-based clients up to an international level.

MSQ acquired New York-based creative agency SPCSHP earlier in November, more than doubling its presence in the States as it looks to grow rapidly there. The firm is online at www.msqpartners.com .