News

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.

Taktical Digital expands MediaMint's growth marketing services throughout North America and accelerates its transformation into an agentic AI-powered firm

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.

Founded in 2014 by Ilan Nassimi and Derek Rubinstein in SoHo, New York, Taktical Digital comprises 100+ seasoned digital marketing professionals specializing in performance media buying, growth marketing, creative content, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Generative AI Engine Optimization (GEO), and full-funnel optimization. Taktical’s team, based largely in North America, will integrate with MediaMint’s global workforce of 3,000 professionals across the United States, India, Poland, Mexico, Spain, and Brazil.

The acquisition unites Taktical’s digital marketing expertise with MediaMint’s Agentic AI solutions, including the newly launched Mia by MediaMint, creating a team that delivers a fusion of human insight and AI-driven operations across media, marketing, sales, and customer success. This milestone propels MediaMint’s vision to redefine how global brands scale comprehensive digital execution amid rapid industry shifts fueled by AI, automation, and outcome-focused strategies. The combined entity can deliver full-funnel digital marketing execution at scale with clients across media, entertainment, technology, retail, ecommerce, and social media.

Rajeev Butani, Chairman and CEO, MediaMint said, “Taktical Digital has built a reputation as one of the most innovative and performance-driven digital marketing organizations in the industry. Their expertise in media buying, content, and optimization is a perfect complement to MediaMint’s Agentic Growth Services. Together, we can help global brands accelerate growth with world-class marketing execution. This acquisition is both strategically and culturally aligned, and we are excited to welcome team Taktical to the MediaMint family.”

Ilan Nassimi & Derek Rubinstein, Co-Founders, Taktical Digital said, “Joining MediaMint unlocks a new level of capability for our clients and our team. MediaMint’s Agentic AI framework and global operational scale allow us to deliver more efficient campaign execution, deeper insights, and higher-impact creative at speed. We see this as an opportunity to build a capable AI powered, scaled digital strategy firm. We’re excited to combine our expertise with MediaMint to shape the future of digital marketing and help clients achieve measurable outcomes.”

“MediaMint’s focus on building the next generation of AI-enabled marketing operations makes this acquisition especially timely. Taktical Digital deepens the company’s foothold in performance marketing while expanding its footprint in North America. This combination strengthens MediaMint’s position as a global innovator in operational excellence for marketing, media, and revenue growth.” said Charles Philips, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Recognize Partners and Sandeep Singh, MD, Everstone Capital.

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.”

Adweek's 2024 Breakthrough Media Agency brings proven cross-channel expertise and West Coast presence to Brainlabs

PALAZZO served as exclusive financial advisor to Exverus Media, a highly decorated Los Angeles-based media agency recognized as Adweek's 2024 Breakthrough Media Agency of the Year, in its strategic acquisition by Brainlabs, an independent, full-service, media agency. The move significantly enhances Brainlabs’ full-funnel media capabilities in the U.S. which, combined with its existing team and products, will allow it to operate as a single agency of record for all media channels. It also marks Brainlabs' expansion into the West Coast market complementing its existing strong East Coast and Midwest presence.

Exverus Media, which manages $100M+ annual media spend, has earned industry-wide recognition for pioneering data-driven media planning across traditional, programmatic advertising, retail media, e-commerce, paid search, paid social and analytics, with a client roster including Premier Protein, Dymatize and The Chosen. The acquisition adds deep expertise in full-funnel media planning to Brainlabs, along with creative strategy, and execution for ambitious brands.

“Exverus has built its reputation on transforming how brands approach media,” said Bill Durrant, Co-founder of Exverus Media. “The real magic happens when you can seamlessly orchestrate across media channels—TV, retail media, programmatic, and social—while measuring impact in real time. We chose to join Brainlabs because they’re a like-minded, founder-led, independent agency with a sharp focus on results. Their strong U.S. presence and global capabilities will give our clients access to new products, technology, and scale, while retaining the innovative spirit that drives our approach to cross-channel measurement. This is an exciting moment for our clients, who will continue to work with the same Exverus team, now backed by the scale and expertise of a larger independent agency. I’m excited to continue in my role, alongside the rest of the Exverus team, as part of Brainlabs.”

"What excites me most about this partnership is how it amplifies everything we've built at Exverus," said Talia Arnold, Managing Director at Exverus Media. "Our clients will continue to work with the same passionate team they know and trust, but now with access to capabilities that will take their media performance to the next level. This partnership represents the evolution of what modern media agencies can achieve when data, technology, and human insight work in perfect harmony."

"The future of media isn't about choosing between digital or traditional channels - it's about mastering both to create real results," said Daniel Gilbert, Founder and CEO of Brainlabs. “We're creating what I believe will be the new gold standard for independent modern media agencies, serving clients as their single agency of record across all media platforms with a focus on driving growth and results. Exverus has proven that their data-driven approach to cross-channel integration delivers exceptional outcomes for brands”.

Alliance brings together CTC’s creative and data-driven marketing engine with Acacia’s investment capital and deep expertise in scaling digital-first businesses

PALAZZO served as exclusive financial advisor to Common Thread Collective, a top growth agency for direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands, in securing an investment from The Acacia Group, investors in transformative technology and services companies. This alliance brings together CTC’s creative and data-driven marketing engine with Acacia’s investment capital and deep expertise in scaling digital-first businesses. CTC, founded in 2012 by CEO Taylor Holiday in Costa Mesa, California, has built a distinctive reputation for helping e-commerce brands to grow profitably. The company combines proprietary data tools, financial planning, creative strategy, and performance marketing to empower e-commerce brands generating $10 million to $100 million in revenue to scale their bottom line profit.

“In a time when every marketing dollar needs to work harder, CTC has built a smart, disciplined model for tying marketing to measurable financial results,” said Frederic Cassis, managing partner at The Acacia Group. “We believe CTC has all the ingredients for rapid expansion—a brilliant leadership team, proprietary tools, and an unwavering focus on customer success. With our support, they’ll accelerate growth through product innovation, talent development, and targeted acquisitions, keeping customer impact front and center.”

“This is a defining moment for our team and our clients,” said Taylor Holiday, founder and CEO of CTC. “Acacia shares our mission to build CTC as the go-to agency for profit-oriented consumer brands and a place where top talent wants to work. Their investment and expertise give us new opportunities to scale, evolve our proprietary tech, deliver stronger results for our clients, and create new growth for our people. This partnership unlocks the next era of CTC.”

CTC is renowned for bridging the gap between marketing and finance, empowering brand leaders with the necessary tools, strategy, and execution to drive more profit. With marketing teams expected to own the full customer journey, back every decision with data, master creative storytelling, and move with speed and agility, the demands have never been higher. The agency's systemized approach to data analysis, financial planning, growth strategy, and performance marketing is helping many of the top direct-to-consumer brands thrive in today's demanding environment with clarity and profitability at scale.

PALAZZO served as the exclusive financial advisor to Lockard & Wechsler Direct (LWD), a performance video agency on its sale to McKinney, a full-service marketing agency and part of the publicly-traded communications network, Cheil Worldwide. Founded in 1991, LWD has a decades-long reputation as a leader in performance video tactics, blending science, art, and culture to drive ROI for video marketing across the linear and connected TV (CTV) landscapes. LWD’s acquisition will allow McKinney to extend its competencies in the fast-growing CTV and video space, increasing client’s reach and ability to meet end-customers across all stages of the media mix, from digital and social to linear and CTV content, all supported by best-in-class direct and programmatic execution.

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, on its sale to New Engen, a leading digital marketing agency.

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.  

Full-service media agency group will play a key role in expanding the capabilities offered by fast-growing MTP

PALAZZO served as exclusive financial advisor to True Independent Holdings, parent company of True Media, True Media Canada, Coegi, and RADaR, on its sale to Meet The People, the innovative alternative to the big advertising holding company model and a portfolio company of Innovatus Capital Partners. With more than 200 employees and offices in both the US and Canada, along with capabilities that include media planning and buying, a programmatic trading desk, and a data and analytics unit, TIH represents a significant addition to the growing MTP roster. With the completion of the deal, the agency and its subsidiaries will join VSA Partners, Public Label, Match Retail, Saltwater Collective and Swell Media as a full partner in the MTP agency group.

“Joining forces with TIH and its agencies is an important step in the evolution of Meet The People,” says MTP Founder and Group CEO, Tim Ringel. “It adds substantial scale, skill and technology access to our media offering representing our ambition of excellence for our clients, which will help all of our agency brands better serve our clients.”

Founded in 2005, True Media quickly built a reputation for strong strategically-based planning and aggressive client advocacy in media negotiations. Their forward thinking also helped them to stay ahead of the curve in performance media, leading to their launch of Coegi, a digital media and programmatic advertising agency, and RADaR, an ad performance data and analytics firm.

Now, as part of MTP, the TIH family of companies will anchor a robust offering of media services to MTP agencies while continuing to work with other independent agencies and clients across North America. MTP’s existing media agency Swell Media, will maintain their specialty in ecommerce and B2B under this new structure.

Founder and CEO of True Independent Holdings, Jack Miller, says, “This is an exciting time for all of us. Tim and the entire team at MTP have crafted an agency group that is both grounded in valuing the individual and focused on innovating the industry through independent agencies. It’s an approach that perfectly aligns with the ways we’ve always conducted business, and I’m eager to see what this new relationship will enable us to achieve.”

Under MTP’s innovative new organizational approach, all of the roster agencies can work closely together as a community in a single ownership structure, while retaining independence as a core strength to establish their own identity and culture. By combining entrepreneurially minded firms into one fully integrated platform, MTP is able to bring specialized services to clients, while providing fully integrated agency-of-record solutions to these brands at the same time.

“It’s an operating model that exceeds the expectations of clients in every way,” says Ringel. “It allows us to offer integrated thinking, better services, faster solutions, less friction and deep expertise, all in a collaborative and transparent manner. These are the things that make a real difference in the relationships between brands and their agencies.”

With the addition of TIH’s 200 plus employees, the combined operations will boast headcount of over 750 employees in both the U.S. and Canada. It continues MTP’s steep growth trajectory over the past few years, achieved with strategic and financial support from Innovatus Capital Partners LLC, the New York-based portfolio management firm.

“We’re thrilled to have TIH join the Meet The People agency group,” says Innovatus CEO and founding partner David Schiff. “Jack and his team have built some extraordinary companies, and we look forward to building something even more amazing out of these combined operations.”

“MTP has the kind of scale, focus and drive we were looking for,” adds Miller. “We’ve always been aggressive about business growth. Now we have an equally ambitious partner who can help us realize even greater potential.”