Publicis Groupe today announces the acquisition of Lighthouse Digital, a preeminent digital media agency to be aligned with Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) in South Africa.
Lighthouse is an established leader in the use of advanced social analytics
tools and was the first agency in Africa to provide clients with a proprietary real-time reporting dashboard. The agency also specializes in the use of automated bid management tools for paid search and programmatic media buying in South Africa.
Lighthouse Digital was founded in 2009 by Aaron van Schaik and Steven
Waidelich, with a focus on digital media. Since then, the agency has grown to
become the largest digital media agency in Africa with a team of 30 digital
media experts across its offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Lighthouse
Digital works with both local and international clients such as Microsoft,
SABMiller, Mastercard, General Motors, South African Tourism, Cathay Pacific, Investec, HTC, First National Bank and Vodacom.
To date, Lighthouse has run campaigns in over 14 countries throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. The agency has garnered a number of awards including
Bookmarks Award for Best Media Campaign 2013 and Assegai Best Mobile
Media Campaign 2012.
The agency will be rebranded as SMG Lighthouse. Aaron van Schaik, CEO of
Lighthouse Digital, will become CEO of the new entity and will report to Iain
Jacob, President of Dynamic Markets for SMG, with Steven Waidelich taking
on the role of Digital Operations Director of SMG.
For the full press release click Publicis