Brainlabs acquires Social Ad Creative Studio Consumer Acquisition

Digital marketing agency Brainlabs has acquired global social advertising agency and creative studio, Consumer Acquisition.

The transaction is Brainlabs’ fourth acquisition this year and its second in North America as the agency continues to expand its capabilities for both existing and future clients.

Brainlabs and Consumer Acquisition have a shared culture of driving measurable client success through testing, tech and talent. The introduction of Consumer Acquisition’s services expands Brainlabs’ social advertising capabilities to include a creative studio, fully-managed paid social services, and SaaS tool, AdRules. This move will enable Brainlabs to offer clients multiple creative executions within app download campaigns, closing the gap between creative and digital performance.

Reporting to Jeremy Cornfeldt (Brainlabs’ CEO, North America), Brian Bowman (CEO & Founder, Consumer Acquisition) will deliver Consumer Acquisition’s products to new and existing clients globally in his new role as SVP-Global App Marketing. Leveraging the experience of senior executives Brian Kanaga, Mike Merrell, BJ Zeltner, and Lian Amaris, Consumer Acquisition will become Brainlabs’ in-house creative studio for app marketing campaigns and managed mobile user acquisition services. Consumer Acquisition have deep knowledge of mobile-first sectors, such as gaming and direct-to-consumer, and in partnership with Brainlabs, will expand their expertise to support clients across all sectors.

Founded in 2013, Consumer Acquisition is headquartered in California and operates via a globally distributed remote workforce. For three consecutive years, the company has been included in the Inc. 5000 and San Francisco Business Times Fast 100 for fastest-growing private companies. They have managed $3.5 billion in creative and social ads spend for top charting mobile apps and web-based performance advertisers, including Roblox, Wooga, Zynga, Glu, Rovio, and Jam City. Their proprietary advertising analytics platform AdRules provides workflow automation, real-time business intelligence and creative research from 3.5 million video ads across social channels. With expertise across Facebook, Instagram, Google, TikTok, Snap, and Apple Search Ads, Consumer Acquisition is known for their unparalleled commitment to profitable advertising, rigorous A/B testing, optimization processes, and blockbuster storytelling for mobile app advertisers.

Brainlabs was founded in 2012 with a mission to become the best and biggest digital marketing agency in the world. The Brainlabs approach is built around testing, tech & talent – a model that has helped the business grow from 1 to 750 people, placing 1st in Deloitte’s Tech Track Fast 50 and 4th in the Financial Times fastest-growing companies. Brainlabs is backed by private equity firm Livingbridge as part of an accelerated growth strategy and as of today, the agency’s footprint spans Europe, North America, APAC and LATAM.

Daniel Gilbert, CEO of Brainlabs, commented:

“I am so delighted to welcome Consumer Acquisition into Brainlabs. Their best-in-class approach to social creative is built around testing, technology & talent – much like Brainlabs! Creative prowess is a vital new string to Brainlabs’ bow and their expertise in mobile advertising makes me a very ‘appy’ guy”.

Brian Bowman, Founder of Consumer Acquisition, added:

“In this next stage of growth for Consumer Acquisition, we are thrilled to bring Brainlabs strengths in paid search, strategy, branding, programmatic advertising, and data science to our clients. We look forward to contributing to the success of Brainlabs clients through our world class creative strategy, mobile media buying expertise, and Hollywood storytelling.”