New York Times Co (NYSE:NYT) will acquire fake Love and its ten full-time employees. However, it is not known how much Times which specializes in creating branded content for clients will spend on the buyout of the marketing agency. Nonetheless, the move will help in boosting the provision of its creative services to the likes of Emirates, Ford, GE, and Mini among others.
Times are tapping into the fast-growing worlds of VR and AR according to Sebastian Tomich, senior vice president, advertising, and innovation. The acquisition would help in reinforcing its virtual reality and augmented reality capabilities. In any case, a lot of media entities are slowly embracing the VR technology to develop their journalism skills. Nevertheless, New York Times is also aiming at making money from branded VR content hence the emphasis on the marriage between Fake Love’s expertise and its native advertising unit, T Brand Studio.
Creative possibilities within the media industry
Creativity within the media industry is on the rise. The use of live experiences, virtual and mixed reality has worked well for many companies that are seeking to provide rounded support to its consumers. In a span of fewer than three years, T Brand Studio has evolved from being a content studio into being a full-fledged marketing and creative services agency. According to Times’ executive vice president and chief revenue officer Meredith Kopit Levien, it is one of the fastest growing parts of the advertising business.
Times and Fake Love have previously worked together on various projects that tested and endorsed each other’s experiential and creativity skills. Some of Fake Love’s clients’ include American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), Heineken N.V.(AMS:HEIA), The Coca-Cola Co (NYSE:KO), Bacardi, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (KRX:005930), and Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS).
In its thirst for growth and expansion, Times has also acquired social media marketing agency HelloSociety, a deal that was brokered in March. All these acquisitions and those that are yet to be revealed are adding up to Time’s ability to deliver incredibly complex creative productions given the many daily turnarounds of the media industry. The question now is will this and other acquisitions enhance the weakness in the legacy digital ad business?
