BlueFocus Communication Group
TypePublic company
IndustryAdvertising
FoundedJuly 1, 1996 (July 1, 1996)
Headquarters
Beijing
,
China
Website/www.bluefocusgroup.com/

BlueFocus Communication Group(Chinese: 蓝色光标) is an ad agency engaged in marketing.[1]

BlueFocus was founded by Oscar Zhao on July 1, 1996.[2] It was launched on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2010.[3]

BlueFocus acquired a minority stake in Huntsworth, a London-based PR group, for £36.5 million in April 2013,[2][4] and in December 2013, acquired a majority holding in social media marketing organisation We Are Social for £18.7m.[5]

Since 2014, BlueFocus has engaged in international expansion.[1] It acquired a majority holding in Fuseproject, a U.S. design agency, for $46.7 million in July 2014,[6] and a majority holding in the North American assets of Canadian advertising company Vision7 International, including Cossette, an ad agency, and Citizen Relation, a PR company, in December 2014 for $210 million.[7]

By 2014, it was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange with a market capitalisation of $3.8 billion,[2] and was ranked as the 17th largest ad agency in the world.[1] As of 2015, its clients included PepsiCo, Lenovo, Volkswagen, and BMW.[8]

In 2017, it attempted to merge its international efforts with US-based Fluent, but eventually discontinued the effort over political concerns.[9] In 2019, it advanced into an arrangement whereby its international subsidiaries were partially divested into a separate company Blue Impact, which was to be purchased by a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Legacy Acquisition led by ex-Procter & Gamble executives Edwin Rigaud and Darryl McCall to publicly list in the United States.[9][10]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Doland, Angela (2014-04-27). "What You Need to Know About China's Rapidly Growing BlueFocus". Ad Age. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  2. 1 2 3 Cookson, Robert (29 April 2014). "China's Blue Focus plans $300m overseas acquisitions". Financial Times. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  3. ↑ Barrett, Steve (11 April 2014). "A new agency star rises in the East | How BlueFocus aims to become the Chinese version of WPP". PRWeek. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  4. ↑ Mance, Henry (25 April 2013). "Huntsworth surges on Chinese partnership". Financial Times. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  5. ↑ McCabe, Maisie (18 December 2013). "Chinese marketing company buys We Are Social". Campaign. Haymarket Media Group. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  6. ↑ Bradshaw, Tim; Cookson, Robert (23 July 2014). "BlueFocus to enter US market with stake in Fuseproject". Financial Times. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  7. ↑ Krashinsky, Susan (15 December 2014). "Advertising firm Vision7 paves inroad to Asia with sale of Cossette, Citizen". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  8. ↑ Vanderklippe, Nathan (24 April 2015). "CEO of China's BlueFocus not your average Mad Man". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  9. 1 2 "BlueFocus advertising & marketing assignments at Adbrands.net". www.adbrands.net. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  10. ↑ Moore, Thomas (23 August 2019). "Ex-P&G execs to run agencies spun off from Blue Focus". PRWeek. Archived from the original on 2019-08-26. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
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