Northern agency expands with acquisition of CGI agency

Brand activation, creative and production agency Ride Shotgun has bought Leeds-based CGI studio Set Visions. The addition of 18 highly skilled CGI specialists expands Ride Shotgun’s in-house capabilities and grows the team to 80+ employees, putting the agency well on track to achieve their initial target of £10m turnover.

Ride Shotgun CEO Mark Mallinder said the acquisition bolsters their existing expertise in brand strategy, creative content, video production, photography and digital services.

Mark said: “Our model is to have in-house specialists at every step of our clients’ marketing journey. We had a gap in our ability to deliver against this for CGI, which our acquisition of Set Visions enables us to fulfil. They also have some exciting tech capabilities, which we are looking to develop further.”

He continued: “Chris and the team are a great bunch of people; they perfectly fit our culture and we’ve loved working together so far. Together, we enable brands and retailers to achieve more through joined-up brand strategy, creative and content production.”

Set Visions transitioned from a traditional photographic studio to photorealistic CG image creation 15 years ago. Set Visions co-founder and Managing Director Chris Heeley will continue with Ride Shotgun as Digital Production Director and says joining Ride Shotgun will allow them to continue to push boundaries and challenge creative production methods.

Chris said: “The fast pace and blurring lines of multi-channel marketing requires a collective approach and Ride Shotgun’s in-house strategy keeps us fluid and reactive to developing technologies. My business partner of over 30 years, Graham Nelson, is taking the acquisition as an opportunity to slow things down and retire. I’d like to thank him for all our years of friendship and partnership.”

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily

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