LOS ANGELES, CA — LRW Group, an analytics-powered marketing services company and a portfolio company of Tailwind Capital, today announced the acquisition of T3, a digital marketing agency that builds the world’s most useful brands and the experiences that power them. The Austin-based company and its 200-plus employees joins LRW Group immediately, and will operate under the company’s Action Division, which helps businesses apply insights toward essential brand and marketing activations.
Founded in 1989, T3 brings to LRW Group 30 years of experience working with leading companies to make their brands more useful to consumers. T3 helps clients develop human-centered digital experiences through brand design, product design, Modern Loyalty experiences and innovation. A top-ranked digital innovation agency, T3 clients include UPS, 7-Eleven, Pizza Hut, Hallmark, FOCUS Brands and other brands.
“In a highly competitive world of digital marketing and customer experience, T3 truly stands out for its relentless focus on innovation and for its proven success to help brands reach their full potential,” said Tom Bernthal, president of LRW Group’s Action Division. “T3’s sustained growth and achievement over the last three decades is a testament to its ability to adapt and thrive through the breakneck pace of change in the digital space. We see the same resilience in them that we see in our group’s DNA, which makes them a natural fit for our company’s culture and goals.”
With the move to LRW Group, T3 will continue to work with its current clients, independently pursue new clients, and provide valuable brand innovation and activation opportunities to new and existing LRW Group clients. T3 President Ben Gaddis will continue to oversee the agency’s day-to-day operations, and will assume the CEO role from the agency’s founder, Gay Gaddis.
“The partnership with LRW Group gives us the ability to scale and take T3 to the next level, while maintaining our unique culture,” said Ben Gaddis. “At our core, we’re a family business that has always valued an independent mindset. It’s an honor to build upon Gay’s legacy and lead the company in this next phase of our journey. Now as a member of LRW Group, we can continue working with the same independent spirit while gaining access to a vast network of resources and new client opportunities.”
The acquisition of T3 caps a monumental year of growth for LRW Group. T3 is the group’s fifth acquisition of 2019 and its 10th acquisition all-time. Just last month, it added branding agency Salt, as well as communications firm Karma Agency, Earlier this year, LRW Group added strategic consultancy LRWGreenberg (formerly Greenberg Strategies) and award-winning visual communication agency Killer Visual Strategies (previously known as Killer Infographics).
“T3 is the latest example of our commitment to developing a comprehensive marketing services company that builds and expands the world’s most iconic brands,” said LRW Group Chairman and CEO Dave Sackman. “One day we’ll look back at 2019 as the year that truly launched LRW Group into the next stratosphere of capabilities that translate sophisticated analytics and insights into unparalleled brand impact.”
T3 was advised throughout the transaction process by JEGI, a leading independent investment bank focused on media, marketing, information and technology. Businesses and marketers interested in learning more about T3’s innovation and activation capabilities can visit LRWGroup.com or send an email to info(at)LRWGroup(dot)com.
About LRW Group
LRW Group is an integrated marketing services company offering clients a wide variety of capabilities to solve complex problems for the world’s most remarkable businesses. Operating two core divisions – Perspective and Action – LRW Group provides a wide range of solutions with an emphasis on strategy, branding, communications, innovation, product development, and customer experience. Our proprietary approach goes beyond data analysis to build businesses from the insight out. LRW Group companies include LRW, Kelton Global, ISA, LRWTonic, LRWMotiveQuest, LRWGreenberg, Strativity, Killer Visual Strategies, Karma Agency, Salt Branding, T3, and icanmakeitbetter. The group is headquartered in Los Angeles with offices or facilities in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, London, Seattle, Orange County, Philadelphia, Austin, Las Vegas, Charlotte, and Atlanta.
About T3
T3 is a digital marketing agency that creates the world’s most useful brands and the experiences that power them. We focus on brand design, product design and modern loyalty by creating connected experiences, purposeful content, meaningful data, brand defining utility and CRM. Ranked alongside the world’s top innovation and loyalty agencies, T3 works with UPS, 7-Eleven, Pizza Hut, Hallmark, Capital One, Waste Management and FOCUS Brands and other clients. Founded in 1989, T3 is headquartered in Austin with presences in New York, San Francisco and Atlanta.
About Tailwind Capital
Tailwind Capital is a middle market private equity firm focused on growth-oriented investments in targeted sectors within healthcare, business services and industrial services. Tailwind partners with experienced management teams and entrepreneurs to transform businesses through organic growth initiatives, acquisitions, and operational and strategic investments. Since inception, Tailwind has managed $3.6 billion of committed equity capital, and has invested in 41 portfolio companies and over 100 add-on acquisitions.
For more information, contact Aaron Lewis at alewis(at)LRWonline.com.
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