Category: News

Strategic acquisition further strengthens integrated creative and digital growth capabilities across brand strategy, performance marketing, and Amazon marketplace execution PALAZZO served as exclusive financial advisor to Socium Media, a performance marketing and digital growth agency, in its acquisition by Front Row Group, a full service e-commerce growth and Amazon marketplace agency. The transaction expands Front Row’s connected commerce platform by adding capabilities across paid media, search, social, and digital growth.

Founded by Sam Sherman and Owen Loft, Socium has built a reputation for delivering performance-driven growth across paid search and shopping, paid social, SEO, and GEO. The agency supports brands across travel, wellness, and lifestyle, including Auberge, VINCE, Canopy, Magic Spoon, and OSEA, and is recognized for aligning brand strategy with measurable digital performance.

“Joining Front Row is an exciting next chapter for Socium,” said Owen Loft, CoFounder of Socium. “We’ve always believed that the strongest results come from aligning performance marketing with brand strategy and creative execution. Front Row shares that belief, and together we’re able to offer clients a more powerful, connected approach to growth.”

The combined organization creates a powerhouse integrated agency that brings together Front Row’s marketplace leadership, retail media expertise, brand strategy, and creative campaign development with Socium’s performance marketing and digital growth capabilities across paid media, influencer, social, and retention. Together, the teams deliver a fully connected approach and cohesive execution across the full funnel — from awareness and demand generation to conversion on Amazon, D2C, and retail platforms, where off-platform media increasingly drives marketplace demand. Socium will initially operate as “Socium, Powered by Front Row,” with full brand integration planned for later in 2026.

Deal reflects shift toward creator-led paid social, expanding New Engen’s capabilities for scalable, measurable creator content and whitelisted distribution.
 
PALAZZO served as the exclusive financial advisor to GrapevineAI, a creator-powered performance content network that helps brands produce authentic creator content and activate it at scale through whitelisted paid social campaigns.

The acquisition reflects a broader shift in paid social, as brands increasingly move budgets toward creator-produced content and whitelisted distribution, blurring the lines between creative, influencer, and media execution. With GrapevineAI, New Engen expands its creator-focused offering and addresses a key constraint in paid social: scalable, authentic creator content at volume.

“As media buying becomes increasingly automated, creative and audience access are emerging as the primary growth levers in paid social,” said Justin Hayashi, Chief Executive Officer at New Engen. “Creator-led content isn’t just a format shift—it’s becoming growth infrastructure. GrapevineAI strengthens our ability to help brands scale that infrastructure with measurable impact.”

GrapevineAI works with a curated roster of more than 700 performance-minded creators, provides strategic briefing and guidance aligned to business objectives, manages pre- and post-production and optimization in-house, and distributes creator-produced, advertorial-style content through creator and publisher whitelisting on paid social channels. This model enables brands to move beyond brand-handle-only advertising while maintaining strong CPA and ROAS. In addition to paid social, GrapevineAI supports brands with high-performing editorial, blog, and long-form creator content.

“This partnership gives GrapevineAI the scale and infrastructure to expand what we can offer brands while continuing to focus on creator-led performance,” said Caroline Levere, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of GrapevineAI. “New Engen and GrapevineAI already share clients like Arrae, Prose, and Rugiet, and this is a natural next step that allows us to accelerate our vision and deliver more creative, media, and measurement capabilities to our clients.”

This acquisition expands New Engen’s existing creator-focused performance capabilities within its broader full-funnel digital marketing offering, complementing its creative, influencer, media, and measurement capabilities. Donut Studios delivers high-volume creative from brand handles, GrapevineAI scales creator-produced content through whitelisted creator accounts, and New Engen’s influencer capability drives brand and retail partnerships.

Nick Shah, CEO of Artisan Ventures, co-founded GrapevineAI and will support GrapevineAI’s transition into the New Engen creator ecosystem. GrapevineAI was represented by PALAZZO in the transaction.

Transaction unites one of the industry’s largest full-service independent agencies and one of its hottest emerging creative shops

PALAZZO served as exclusive financial advisor to The Opinionated Group, an award-winning advertising and creative agency in its acquisition by Tombras. This transaction will enable Tombras to establish a meaningful West Coast presence, and accelerate their mission to become the world’s leading independent agency.
 
Founded in 2017, Opinionated has emerged as one of the industry’s most sought after agencies, winning business with clients including Panda Express and Shake Shack. The agency reported its strongest annual growth in 2024, and extended its growth trajectory amid an otherwise turbulent 2025. The acquisition provides Opinionated access to essential new capabilities across media, data, analytics and deeper social expertise— with Tombras being one of a few independents that offer both creative and media under one roof; handling nearly $1 billion in media business annually.
 
Mark Fitzloff the founder of Opinionated said, “The concept of independents merging was not on my radar. I hadn’t really heard of it happening, so I never considered it an option to pursue in the first place.” Reflecting on their shared values with Tombras, he added, “I think there’s an attitude of defiance and rebellion that comes with being in a quote, unquote Tier 2 or Tier 3 market, but creatively, it’s much more empowering, because you have perspectives from the fringes that are unique, true and authentic.” Opinionated’s 40-person team will continue to operate out of Portland, Oregon, as Opinionated, a Tombras Company, before transitioning to Tombras West. There are no leadership changes planned, with Mark Fitzloff and Partner and President Trish Adams remaining in their roles.
 
Tombras’ president Dooley Tombras categorized its latest deal as “the most significant move in [our] mission to become the world’s leading independent agency.” With the addition of Opinionated, Tombras’ headcount now totals nearly 600 employees worldwide. Outside the U.S., the agency has a growing presence in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with roughly 80 staffers in the area and a new office set to open in February.

Vaan Group establishes Verndale’s best-in-class D2C commerce practice and expands Shopify expertise

PALAZZO served as financial advisor to Vaan Group, a leading D2C agency and Shopify Platinum Design & Technology partner known for creating design-led, high-performing commerce experiences. The acquisition establishes a dedicated D2C offering within Verndale and significantly expands the company’s ability to build and optimize Shopify storefronts that unite brand expression with enterprise-grade technology.
 
Vaan has powered growth for DTC, luxury, and lifestyle brands through premium Shopify storefronts, platform migrations, and design-driven ecommerce ecosystems. Their Shopify-Platinum expertise strengthens Verndale’s end-to-end experience model, enabling faster paths from product concept to build, launch, and continuous optimization.

“Brands today expect digital experiences that elevate their brand and perform flawlessly at scale,” said Chris Pisapia, CEO of Verndale. “Vaan’s Shopify credentials and commerce-focused conversion design elevate our ability to deliver exactly that. With the acquisition of Vaan we can help brands move faster, convert better, and operate with more adaptability in the D2C space.”

While Shopify agencies have traditionally been acquired within the commerce specialist ecosystem, this marks a notable expansion of strategic capability for a broader digital experience partner like Verndale, reflecting the increasing importance of commerce as a core part of experience strategy.

“Joining Verndale allows us to bring our commerce-first approach to more brands and more complex digital challenges,” said Xavier Armand, CEO of Vaan Group. “Our shared focus on integrated design and technology thinking creates an incredible opportunity to deliver even more impactful commerce experiences.”

For clients, the acquisition means access to both best-in-class Shopify design and execution—including migrations, headless builds, and conversion optimization—alongside Verndale’s broader capabilities in UX, product engineering, experimentation, and ongoing optimization. This integrated model reduces friction between commerce and experience strategy while increasing the speed, quality, and business impact of digital initiatives.

The acquisition reinforces Verndale’s commitment to building a modern growth partner designed to meet the expectations of today’s digital landscape­­—where brands must meet constantly evolving customer behavior with experiences that perform and convert.

PALAZZO served as exclusive financial advisor to Taktical Digital, a high-growth provider of performance-driven digital marketing, media, and content services. This transaction will enable MediaMint to expand its growth marketing services throughout North America and accelerate its transformation into an Agentic AI-powered firm.

Infinite Global Sets the Stage for Its Next Era of Innovation and Impact with Investment Partner

PALAZZO served as exclusive financial advisor to Infinite Global Consulting, a leading international communications and reputation management firm, in securing an investment from ParkSouth Ventures, a Charlotte-based private investment firm. The investment will establish Infinite as a strategic communications platform and fuel the firm’s continued growth and expansion.

Since 2001, Infinite has supported the communications and reputation management needs of many of the world’s largest and most successful professional services firms. Led by a team of seasoned professionals across its New York City (headquarters), San Francisco, and London offices, Infinite works closely with its clients to provide strategic communications strategy, public and media relations, crisis and litigation communications, and thought leadership and content development.

The executive leadership team that includes Founder & CEO Jamie Diaferia, President Zach Olsen, and Chief Operating Officer Isabel Podda will continue to lead the Company in this next phase of growth.

“We have been singularly focused on building an agency that attracts and retains the best clients and talent in the industry, and that mission requires vigilance to keep pace with their needs. We decided several years ago that to further fulfill our potential we would need the right investment partner. In ParkSouth, we found an aligned partner that can add strategic value, as well as investment capital,” said Jamie Diaferia.

ParkSouth was founded and is led by Steven Ruoff and Richard Veal. The thesis-driven investment firm focuses on talent-centric businesses in the marketing and tech-enabled services categories.

“This investment reflects our focused effort to back a strategic communications firm that delivers the senior-level counsel organizations need to navigate complexity, reputational risk, and a constantly evolving media landscape,” said Steven Ruoff and Richard Veal, partners at ParkSouth Ventures. “The team, led by Jamie, Zach, and Issy, has built a truly exceptional business, and we’re looking forward to supporting their continued growth.”

ParkSouth has partnered with Michael Koziol, an experienced agency operator who will advise the company on operations, growth strategy, M&A, and integration.

“Jamie and the team at Infinite have built an incredibly special and valuable company that combines world-class strategic communications capabilities and a world-class company culture,” said Michael Koziol. “I am excited about the partnership and opportunity to support them in the realization of their ambition and potential.”

September 26,2024

PALAZZO Advises Donut Digital on its Sale to New Engen, a Portfolio Company of Insignia Capital Group
Full-service content studio delivers high-impact, social-first content across the customer journey, strengthening New Engen’s creative foundation
 
PALAZZO served as the exclusive financial advisor to Donut Digital, a creative-led performance marketing agency based in Manhattan Beach, California.
 
Founded in 2021, Donut Digital has established a reputation as one of the most innovative and fastest growing performance agencies through a highly differentiated creative-centric approach and efficient in-house production capabilities. Donut Digital’s acquisition will allow New Engen to create a full-service content studio, meeting client needs across all stages of the customer journey, from short form video and user generated content, to premium CTV/OTT content.
 
“We’re beyond thrilled to bring Donut Digital’s capabilities to New Engen as creative has always been one of the most important levers to drive brand growth,” said New Engen founder and CEO, Justin Hayashi. “Donut Digital’s unique ability to produce native, social-first content at high capacity for clients across numerous verticals will support New Engen in expanding our creative foundation. Together, we share a vision and are positioned to unlock even greater opportunities for our clients.”
 
Co-founders of Donut Digital, Alice Woo, Ari Jessel, and Brian Kim, who led Honey’s marketing before its $4B acquisition by PayPal, started their agency to address the challenges they faced as brand leaders. Their path mirrors that of New Engen CEO Justin Hayashi, who helped e-commerce company Zulily reach $1B in revenue before founding his own agency.
 
Donut Digital’s Alice Woo said, “We’re excited to join forces with New Engen. Our teams share a commitment to innovation and a deep understanding of what brands need today to succeed across digital platforms. This partnership allows us to continue delivering for our clients while expanding our capabilities with the media expertise and measurement talent that New Engen brings to the table.”
 
Following recent acquisitions of Acorn Influence and LT Partners, the addition of Donut Digital to New Engen’s portfolio is another step in the company’s vision of building a premier digital marketing agency.

“Working with PALAZZO throughout our acquisition process was an absolute pleasure. Their subject matter expertise and strategic insights were invaluable, but what truly set them apart was their shared ‘do whatever it takes’ mindset, which mirrored our own agency’s approach. More than just advisors, they were true thought partners, providing valuable insights at every stage and ensuring we made informed decisions. Their professionalism and commitment to excellence were evident in every interaction, and they worked with remarkable speed to keep the process on track. Thanks to their unwavering dedication and strategic guidance, we successfully closed the deal, and I couldn’t be more grateful for their partnership.” – Brian Kim, Co-Founder, Donut Digital

Additional Resources
Donut Digital New Engen Insignia Capital Group Press Release