GTCR, a US private equity firm founded in 1980, announced late last week it has made a strategic investment in Standard Media Index (SMI), the global advertising intelligence company, through GTCR’s portfolio company Dreamscape, Inc, a partnership with US marketing technology veterans Scott Knoll, David Hahn and Michael Iantosca.
Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. As part of the transaction, SMI’s chief executive officer James Fennessy will step down from his current position and will become a member of Dreamscape’s board and remain a consultant to the business.
Scott Knoll will assume the role of chief executive officer of SMI, effective immediately.
SMI has office locations in New York, London, Madrid, Sydney and Toronto, providing global data services and insights to markets in 34 countries around the world. In their major markets, SMI captures spend and pricing data that represents more than 95% of all US national brand expenditure.
“SMI’s leading data and ad intelligence products provide clients with real-time information to help drive better strategies around spend, placement and yield optimisation,” said Knoll. “With the proliferation of media channels and ad types, the insights that SMI can help provide are now an essential driver of media strategy. The company’s deep relationships with clients and agency partners are underpinned by its customer-centric approach and its commitment to innovation. The SMI team has built a truly unique offering and, together with our partners at GTCR, we believe there is an opportunity to further advance the platform and drive growth across the business.”
SMI AU/NZ managing director Jane Ractliffe
With a vision to bring transparency and efficiency to the media market globally, SMI was co-founded by Sue Fennessy and Jane Ractliffe in 2009 in Australia and moved headquarters to New York in 2011. Fennessy served as chief executive officer until 2016.
Ractliffe commented when announcing the deal: “We’re thrilled to see our vision for creating the leading advertising intelligence company has been valued by the Dreamscape team. It’s clear the values of our new investors are very much aligned with those of SMI given their success in growing IAS into the leading Digital campaign measurement business.
“We look forward to working with them to deliver even further benefits to our clients and agency partners.
“I’d also like to thank my wonderful AU/NZ team for all their work; the Australian media agency leads who facilitated introductions to their global counterparts and also the team at Bailador Investments who backed our vision and stood by us as we expanded internationally.”
It will be business as usual in Australia and New Zealand for SMI, with Ractliffe remaining with the business as MD, Australia and New Zealand.
Dreamscape founders Scott Knoll, David Hahn, and Michael Iantosca
SMI tracks over US$250 billion dollars of annual media spend globally, with exclusive agreements with the world’s largest media agencies, and oversees commercial deals with many of the world’s largest media companies.
“Today is an important milestone for the entire SMI team, our partners and our clients, as we look toward our next stage of growth,” said Sue Fennessy. “This investment is a culmination of Sue’s vision for SMI and a testament to the dedication and professionalism of the SMI team that has enabled us to transform how transparent ad cost and spend data is used by the industry. The goal of SMI has always been to form strategic relationships with the world’s leading data-driven companies by providing actionable advertising expenditure and pricing data to ultimately help improve decision making. It is through this core mission that we have grown to be a trusted global source of ad intelligence. This partnership with GTCR and Dreamscape is the next step in our journey and we are all very excited at the potential this new venture will deliver for our partners and customers.”