Dive Brief:

• Performance marketing agency Tinuiti will acquire Bliss Point Media, a digital streaming media ad buyer, and its Prospect Point Media subsidiary, per a press release. Bliss Point uses machine learning (ML) to measure and optimize performance for brands including Instacart, Square, Fabletics, Thumbtack and Tonal.
• As a result of the deal, Tinuiti will relaunch its over-the-top (OTT) division as Streaming+ to provide data-driven optimization across OTT, linear TV, streaming TV and digital audio for partners including Disney, NBCU and ViacomCBS.
• The agency's second acquisition of the year will help Tinuiti expand its full-service advertising capabilities across an increasingly fragmented landscape. Tinuiti also became the first independent U.S. agency to earn TikTok's Campaign Management badge as it seeks to help clients boost performance on the short-form video mobile platform.

Dive Insight:

Tinuiti's acquisition of Bliss Point will beef up its OTT and connected TV (CTV) capabilities as it seeks to provide clients with a full-service advertising offering that spans an increasingly fragmented ad landscape. Tinuiti bills itself as the largest independent performance marketing agency across the "triopoly" of Google, Facebook and Amazon, and this deal will make it a bigger player across streaming and linear TV as well.

"Bliss Point's and Tinuiti's combined capabilities and technologies will give brands a truly differentiated full-service offering rooted in proprietary and patented machine-learning technology, attribution and econometrics. Marketers will be able to scale this service from the small screens of Google, Facebook and Amazon to the big screens of TV — OTT, cTV and linear," Tinuiti CEO Zach Morrison said in the press release.

CTV is a key beneficiary of the shift to digital that accelerated during the pandemic, and the acquisition will allow Tinuiti to get a larger slice of ad sales that are moving to the channel. Bliss Point expects to generate about $50 million in revenue this year — up 200% over last year — with the combined companies generating about $250 million in revenue this year, Morrison told The Wall Street Journal.

The growth of CTV has led to a surge in M&A activity in the space. Ad software provider Mediaocean this month announced plans to acquire ad server Flashtalking; CTV is the fastest growing part of both businesses. Previously, Extreme Reach, a maker of web-based software to manage video advertising, agreed to acquire competitor Adstream, offering marketers an improved way to serve digital video ads on connected platforms.

The Bliss Point acquisition is Tinuiti's second deal of the year, following its March acquisition of Amazon specialist shop Ortega Group. That deal was expected to boost Tinuiti's e-commerce offering; the agency already claims to be one of Amazon's largest partners, managing more than $400 million in media on the platform. As with the Ortega Group deal, the Bliss Point acquisition is being facilitated by New Mountain Capital, which made an investment in Tinuiti late last year.

In line with its efforts to boost its full-service offering, Tinuiti last week became the first independent U.S. agency to earn TikTok's Campaign Management badge within the platform's Marketing Partner Program. The accreditation is expected to allow Tinuiti to better serve clients looking to accelerate performance and grow their business through the increasingly crucial social platform. Tinuiti helped beauty brand Revlon drive 10 million Amazon store visits and 224,000 likes through TikTok, per a press release.