Granite Digital buys creative agency Connector for €1m

Brand new: Seamus White, Co-Founder of Granite Digital and Ivan Adriel, Connector’s CEO

Shawn Pogatchnik

Granite Digital has acquired creative agency Connector for approximately €1m. The Cork-based firm now has completed nine acquisitions and says it has not finished expanding.

Granite says its purchase of Connector will add about €1m to its turnover within the first full year of the deal.

Connector CEO Ivan Adriel, a proponent for using social 'influencers' to drive brand awareness, will become Granite's creative strategy director as part of the merger.

Connector has produced online campaigns for many top brands in both Irish and overseas markets, including Volkswagen, Huawei, KBC Bank, RTÉ, Littlewoods Ireland, FreeNow taxis and Dr. Oetker pizzas.

While terms were not publicly disclosed, a market source said Granite paid about €1m to acquire Connector. It plans to retain the Connector brand and its seven-member creative team in Temple Bar.

Granite, founded in Cork in 2008, has aggressively bought into peers and firms offering complementary services as part of its goal of reaching €10m in annual revenues by 2023.

The firm says it's actively seeking more acquisitions.

Conor Lynch, the founder and former CEO of Connector, has left the firm to launch a new venture called Self Makers. It offers personalised career plans for employees, freelancers and entrepreneurs.

Mr Adriel said Connector would help Granite's clients to harness new ways of strengthening brand awareness in a pandemic-rattled marketplace.

"It is more important than ever for businesses to leverage creative and digital opportunities to remain competitive in a changing world," he said.

"With fewer 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," he said.

The Granite-Connector combination would allow clients "to enjoy a seamless integration of all digital and creative channels, activities and strategies - ensuring brand consistency and significant cost savings", he said.

Granite co-founder and partner Seamus White described the deal as "the perfect fit". He said Connector's client base would allow Granite to produce "highly coordinated messaging" for clients.

"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," he said.

Granite in November bought Galway firm Apps Made Easy. Before that it acquired Webtrade, MediaOne and Enhance Multimedia.