North American Marketing and Media Industry Insights - Summer 2023

Our North American Marketing and Media Industry report aims to identify trends and provide insights across the marketing and media sectors, focusing on key themes, issues and opportunities. We hope you continue to find this report and its future editions to be a useful source of information.

Market Overview:

• M&A activity in the North American marketing and media services sectors rebounded strongly in 2021 and continued at elevated levels through Q1 2023, with 247 deals completed over the last 12 months (LTM).
• 2023 is off to a strong start, with 71 deals completed in Q1 2023, the second-highest quarterly volume since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Despite disruption and consolidation among the larger media platforms, buyer interest in the sector has remained remarkably strong among both strategic and financial buyers.
• Given the inherent value of acquiring complementary skillsets and channels, strategic buyers have historically dominated the sector, representing 70%+ of the transaction volume since the start of 2020.
• However, Q1 2023 saw heightened interest from financial buyers, representing 35% of all transactions, as private equity’s understanding and interest has accelerated within embedded vertically focused B2B platforms as well as B2C performance marketing models.