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Deal Accelerates Growth Trajectory and Capabilities of Agencies Specializing in Integrated Marketing and Retail Expertise

Investment adviser and portfolio management firm Innovatus Capital Partners, LLC (“Innovatus”) announced today that it has acquired Match Marketing Group’s Public Label and Match Retail – two North American agencies out of Boulder, CO and Toronto, ON – from Southfield Capital. The acquisition comes on the heels of Innovatus’ purchase of VSA Partners in January, a leading design and brand experience agency that represented the foundational entity in this newly created global marketing services platform.

The acquisition marks the next stage of evolution for Public Label and Match Retail following Match Marketing Group’s restructuring and official launch of the two agencies in December 2020. Public Label, a creative marketing agency, and Match Retail, a leading sales, merchandising and branded retail agency, are now positioned to further strengthen their respective capabilities in North America and beyond with the support of the new ownership.

“We are impressed with the unique positioning that Public Label and Match Retail bring to the North American clients they serve,” said Ravi Bhagavatula, Partner at Innovatus. “Both agencies are seeing positive momentum following the recent launch and are poised for strong growth in their sectors.”

The launch of Public Label and Match Retail was the result of an extensive overhaul and modernization of Match Marketing Group’s expertise and offerings. The decision to form two separate agencies provided clarity of purpose and allowed each agency to clearly articulate what makes them different in the marketplace. Public Label offers integrated, experiential, shopper and digital marketing for clients such as Progressive, adidas, Fujifilm, Mars Wrigley, Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, OZO and Ford Bronco. Match Retail, which helps brands get “retail ready” and drive conversion in traditional shopping environments, has been operating for over 12 years, primarily in Canada. Current clients include LG, Rogers Communications, TELUS, Nespresso, Danone and L’Oréal.

“We’re thrilled to begin a new chapter with Innovatus Capital Partners,” said Brian Cohen, CEO of Public Label and Match Retail. “We had a tremendous run with Southfield Capital, and they were instrumental in helping facilitate this transition. Given our new trajectory, Innovatus is the accelerant we need to take our agencies to the next level of growth. We have a shared vision for where the market is going, and are aligned on investment opportunities in data/analytics, technology and culture. We’re looking forward to a fantastic partnership.”

The leadership team for Public Label and Match Retail will remain unchanged under the new ownership.

“Meet our Team” introduces you to the people of Match Retail and shares what it means to be a part of such an incredible culture at Match.

This week we caught up with Vanessa Cioffi

What do you do at Match?
I am an Account Manager for social media, growth and outreach programs. I work alongside our internal client leads in planning, implementing and monitoring a company’s content & outreach strategy in order to increase brand awareness, drive brand value/proposition, improve marketing efforts, and support business development.

What do you like the most about Match?
Match Retail has allowed me to wear many hats within the organization and with this I have been given opportunities to lead programs and teams to great success for our clients, our company and myself.

Tips for anyone looking to get into your line of work?
Every opportunity can lead to something more if you set your mind and heart to it! Never feel like you’re starting too small because the next big opportunity is right around the corner, this was certainly the case for me, and I have welcomed and appreciated every opportunity that has come my way and they have all contributed to where I am today!

Last month we celebrated Black History Month at Match Retail with guest speaker, Carey Mason. Carey is the owner / CEO of The Alternative Board, which provides coaching to business owners and CEOs. He is also a social justice speaker and activist.

In his conversation with us, Carey shared personal incidents and experiences that highlighted how diversity, equity, and inclusion had impacted him from his birth to current day. Spanning six decades, Carey’s stories described his journey as a child growing up in the “de-segregated” south to working as a senior executive for a Fortune 250 global business before launching his own diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting practice assisting businesses to change their culture. The magnitude of research that Carey’s family had developed to understand their deep roots was incredibly impactful to our employee base and inspired many to get digging into their past as well.

Carey’s presentation, while humorous by design, allowed for reflection and insightful learnings intended to invoke contemplation of similar experiences and challenge our willingness to make changes that better ourselves and by extension our local community.

The Match Retail team regrouped the following day to reflect and share personal stories and histories of our own. Therefore continuing our education and focus on the people that make up this wonderful community of creative minds.

Last month, we had the absolute honor in being able to have Carey Mason as a guest speaker, in celebration of Black History Month.  Carey shared with us his personal experiences which were important in molding his desire to be an activist and social justice speaker for diversity, equity and inclusion. Carey’s stories took us on his journey from growing up in a “de-segregated south,” to being the first in his family to obtain a college education, to becoming a senior executive of a Fortune 250 global business to finally launching The Alternative Board – a diversity, equity and inclusion consulting practice focused on educating and assisting businesses to implement change.  The discussion proved to be thought provoking and engaging, with the final 45 minutes being open to discussion. Employees were given the opportunity to openly and safely discuss the way in which diversity, equity and inclusion played a role in their lives, together with any questions, comments or concerns which they wanted to share.

We were humbled and grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from Carey, and we hope to bring him back again in the future so that we continue to learn, grow, and continue this conversation outside of one month per year.

Match Retails stands in solidarity with our client @Telus in their TELUS Wise campaign to #endbullying. On February 24th we took the pledge along with over 2 Million Canadians to being kind and respectful, to not engage in bullying and to help if we see it happening. Please join us and take the pledge here http://www.telus.com/endbullying

#EndBullying

To kick off 2021 and EDGE’s Q1 theme of CHANGE, the January session took a deep dive into Glennon Doyle’s bestselling memoir Untamed with a focus on the chapter “Let It Burn”.  Difficult and thought-provoking discussion questions were posed to the group that sparked insightful and open dialogue around the concept of the world’s memos and how Doyle encourages her readers to let those memos burn in pursuit of constantly developing your own truth.  Doyle writes, “Destruction is essential to construction.  If we want to build the new, we must be willing to let the old burn.”

Digging deeper into the chapter, the topic of social justice and the memos that are created around its perception kept the group’s focus for the majority of the session.  Doyle writes, “I let burn my cherished, comfortable idea of America as a place of liberty and justice for all.  I let a truer, wider perspective be born in its place, one that included the American experience of people who don’t look like me.”  Discussing our own experiences since the June’s re-sparking of the BLM Movement brought a variety of viewpoints and perspective in accepting a new way to view privilege and justice not only in America, but all over the world.

You may be familiar with the saying, “you can’t step in the same river twice.” Originally said by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus who is known for his doctrine that change is central to how the universe works. The exact quote actually goes:

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” (source: https://iep.utm.edu/heraclit/)

Whether this statement resonates with you or not, change is an unavoidable part of human existence. And even so, we often find ourselves resisting it. Perhaps most often in the face of fear, the longing for nostalgia, or simply in seeking comfort, we cling to the familiar.

Here at Match Retail, we’ve been thinking about (and experiencing) a lot of change lately. A new agency identity, a new government administration, pandemic uncertainty, and rapidly evolving social justice conversations – to name a few. Which is why EDGE, our diversity leadership initiative, has chosen our Q1 theme as change.

We started the year with a book discussion on a chapter from Glennon Doyle’s bestselling memoir, Untamed. In the chapter, titled “Let It Burn,” Doyle inspires readers to let burn the memos that the world has issued in pursuit of our own truth. One of these memos brought us to the topic of social justice and kept us there. Doyle writes,

“I let burn my cherished, comfortable idea of America as a place of liberty and justice for all. I let a truer, wider perspective be born in its black, one that includes the American experience of people who don’t look like me.” (76)

The theme of change will propel us through February’s recognition of Black History Month and Women’s Month in March. Individually and as a collective, Match Retail is eager to continue to address these topics and the change that is needed to create a world that we want to live in.

Heraclitus’ theory describes “Becoming” as a constant state of flux in our universe, meaning we must always be willing to let go of the past in order to embrace the future. And with that, we will leave you with a final quote from Doyle that will hopefully inspire you to burn your memos and greet the flux of our world with open arms, “We are only alive only to the degree to which we are willing to be annihilated. Our next life will always cost us this one.” (74)

See you in our next life,

The EDGE Team

Last month our teams attended a Mental Fitness virtual training with Howatt HR Consulting to help gain a deeper understanding of what mental fitness is, what impacts our mental fitness and insights for managing our mental health both in the workplace and at home.

Howatt HR Consulting is a human resource firm focused on psychological health and safety in the workplace. Their vision is to see thriving organizations where health and productivity are connected and an intentional part of the day-to-day culture.

In this training session we learned important and valuable ways that employers can support employees’ mental health. This can be particularly beneficial during difficult times like the uncertainties surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. One way we learned to do this is to provide employees an opportunity to develop a mental fitness plan, a proactive approach to reducing the risk of mental health issues and addictive disorders. This plan is a great way to help to support employees in developing and strengthening their mental health.

With our people at the forefront of our organization, the Mental Fitness training made it clear to understand and appreciate the value in training our minds. The more we train and prepare our mental health for strain, the better our minds will be able to manage demands put upon it, and more quickly we can recover when we do experience difficult times. The environment plays a big role, which is why employers who are committed to developing psychologically safe workplaces and leaders are in a much better position to support employees’ mental health.

So how do we create this plan and better yet, stick to it? Well, it has been said that we have two brains, the conscious brain, and the unconscious brain, but we cannot control how they communicate with each other. If our mind is wandering, our conscious brain can benefit from calming. If we are restless and feel tense and anxious, our unconscious brain can benefit from calming. We cannot just tell it to calm down; we need to engage it in activities that create calm. When we can calm that part of the brain, we feel it in our body.

It is important to stick to your plan but often time like any fitness routine or plan it can be easy to “fall off the wagon” when other things tend to take priority over even ourselves. Stick to your mental fitness plan by regularly tracking and monitoring progress. Journaling is a powerful way to record what you are doing so you can go back and review your progress. When you are feeling down, an objective record can remind you that there are good and bad days. Making time for yourself and your mental health will allow for a clear mind and open heart both in the workplace and at home.

EDGE, “Empowering Diversity Growth & Equality in Leadership.” Edge is a group focused on engaging staff in conversations around leadership, inclusive work practices and diverse perspectives. By meeting every month and consciously focusing attention on broader issues in the industry and the world, EDGE helps identify gaps in perspective and leadership to identify shortcomings and solves for them.

For the month of December, EDGE built off of October’s theme of “Leading with Empathy” and focused specifically on “Gratitude in the Workplace”. Since it was the holiday season, a time where expressing gratitude comes more naturally, we felt it was a good theme to discuss for the end of 2020.

We explored the importance of gratitude in the workplace, highlighting benefits such as the cultivation of a better working environment, the building of trust, a higher degree of job satisfaction, and an overall boost of good feelings.

We noted, however, that many managers actually avoid giving praise. The possible reasons for this reluctance may include that for many managers, giving feedback is hard, so they tend to avoid it altogether. Some may view it as a sign of weakness; some may consider positive feedback more optional than mandatory; and sometimes the moment simply passes.

We poised the question to the group, “Can’t I just say thanks?”. Many agreed that, while saying “thank you” is a great start, if you’re looking to make a meaningful impact, consider a personalized approach that is viewed as valuable to the recipient. We discussed a few ways that we can extend gratitude with our peers but then noted that not everyone is the same.

We dove deeper into the concept of gratitude by reviewing the contents of the book “The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organization by Encouraging People” by Gary Chapman & Paul White (2018). The book applies the “love language” concept to the workplace, recognizing that at work, people express and receive appreciation in different ways. As a result, if individuals try to express gratitude in ways that aren’t meaningful to their coworkers, the coworkers may not feel valued at all.

As part of this session, we focused on four of the Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Tangible Gifts, Quality Time, Words of Affirmation, and Acts of Service.  While some people may thrive by receiving praise in front of others, it may make others uncomfortable. Similarly, some people, whose language of appreciation is Acts of Service, would prefer the approach of “Don’t tell me you care; show me”. Upon diving into each of these Languages of Appreciation, we encouraged participants to take a minute and answer two questions:

1. How do you usually express appreciation in the workplace?

2. What is your language of appreciation?

To no surprise, participants had a wide variety of answers. Armed with this new perspective of gratitude, we concluded the session by discussing a few points on immediate, actionable items that each employee can do to actively share gratitude. These included things like starting at the top (hearing “thank you” from your boss goes a long way), thanking the unsung heroes, providing many opportunities for gratitude, and, in the wake of crisis (or a pandemic), taking the time for Thanksgiving.