BlueFocus Communication Group
TypePublic company
IndustryAdvertising
FoundedJuly 1, 1996 (July 1, 1996)
Headquarters,
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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