The addition of Firewood to S4 Capital’s portfolio is part of Sorrell’s ongoing attempt to build a “better, faster, cheaper” advertising services company, something he spoke at length about with Adweek earlier this year.
Founded nine years ago by Juan and Lanya Zambrano, Firewood is headquartered in Silicon Valley and has six additional offices around the globe. The 300-person agency specializes in creative, strategy and planning, performance media and technology services. It has worked with brands including Airbnb, Google, LinkedIn, Mercari and Waze.
“This merger is a further step in creating a new era communications services leader,” Sorrell said in a statement. “Firewood has an enviable client list comprising many of Silicon Valley’s finest; and we are delighted to welcome Juan, Lanya and their colleagues to the S4 Capital family.”
According to S4 Capital, Firewood operates by deploying “teams of creative and strategic marketing professionals who work as extensions of their clients’ internal marketing team” to combat inefficiencies found in “traditional agencies.”
Last year, S4 Capital acquired programmatic solutions provider MightyHive, which has since accelerated its overseas expansion. Speaking recently on the European conference circuit, Sorrell outlined how he was positioning S4 to accommodate advertisers’ needs. In August, MediaMonks merged with Amsterdam-based influencer marketing agency IMA.
Per Sorrell, advertisers now demand expertise on platforms such as Amazon and Google, as this is where audiences spend the majority of their time—and where the richest pools of intelligible market data can be found.
“From the pitches we’ve been involved in during the last three months or so, clients are experimenting more than I’ve ever seen before in the four decades or so that I’ve been involved in the business,” he recently said.