Content marketing agency LVB joins iO
Utrecht, 16 June — Amersfoort-based LVB is joining the fast-growing, end-to-end agency iO at their campus in Utrecht. The content marketing agency LVB, which was awarded a SAN Accent earlier this month, and iO see massive opportunities to help clients to excel in the areas of strategy, content and creation, marketing, and technology.
Aart Lensink, founder of LVB:
"Our agency has been established since 1996 so we clearly think long term. Looking at the long term is key to achieving great, sustainable successes. This is reflected in our vision of building brands. Sustainable brands with a strong competitive advantage are built step by step. Based on a clear strategy, you can develop creative ideas year after year. For us, as an agency, we have always kept the long term in mind. In iO ,we have found a partner that is committed to developing digital ecosystems for companies and brands to grow sustainably. We believe this is essential to build brands that retain their value."
The acquisition of LVB is part of the iO mission to deliver a stronger, end-to-end proposition, according to CEO Pieter Janssens.
"iO wants clients to excel in the areas of strategy, content and creation, marketing, and technology. Not only does LVB bring a unique vision on brand building, but also brings a lot of talent, knowledge, and experience in the field of video, brand publishing and integrated brand campaigns. Another benefit is that LVB has strong representation in the fields of finance and the public sector, among other things. When you put this all together, we see so many opportunities for joint growth that will benefit all our clients. This joint commitment gives us confidence to look to the future."
LVB will become part of iO Campus Utrecht
Aart Lensink and his three co-entrepreneurs at LVB will continue their work at iO full-time. LVB will become part of iO Campus Utrecht, which is moving to a brand-new location in the old V&D department store at Hoog Catharijne at the end of this year. The new campus will be home to around 200 specialists including the sixty LVB marketing professionals. In the Netherlands, iO has campuses in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Eindhoven, and Den Bosch and beyond in Gothenburg, Stockholm, Sofia, Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent and Herentals.
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Brian Hirman, Director M&A, iO:
"We have been in regular contact over recent years. Our agencies have similar DNA when it comes to how we want to serve clients and what kind of employer we want to be. We have looked at each other with mutual admiration for a long time, and increasingly observed that in the current changing marketplace, we can be even more successful for our clients and a more attractive employer for talents if we work together."
Aart Lensink:
"The latter is very important to us. With this step, we can not only grow faster and become more relevant for our clients, it also offers a lot of opportunities for the unique talents in our agency."
Pieter Janssens:
"We see a new kind of balance emerging between digital and brand stories. At iO, we have been at the forefront of the radical digital transformation of recent years. Now it's time to put more emphasis on the distinctiveness of your brand story. LVB has built up an exemplary reputation in this area, not only as brand builders but also as intelligent contact specialists. The agency has been a leader in innovative content marketing for many years. They can attract and retain top talent, and their campaigns and strategies win awards year after year. We would like to make their experience and know-how accessible to our clients."
Aart Lensink:
"The load on a strong brand increases over a longer period of time. To do this, the basis must be right, and you have to be able, as an agency and as a brand, to reload your brand again and again in a fresh way, with stories that fit the zeitgeist and the target group. It is our conviction that it does not matter how you tell those stories: with advertising techniques or with content. In practice, these disciplines have long been intertwined. The strength of joining iO is that we can make brand stories work well at all touchpoints."
“We see great opportunities at many levels in this collaboration”, Aart Lensink continues. For example, with podcasts, videos, and brand publishing platforms; resources in which we as LVB have built up a large position and which are now immediately easily accessible to iO clients. We also foresee a large, joint growth in the public sector where the government digitises and at the same time wants more personal contact. This is a big transformation. Public organisations are increasingly working from digital propositions and use jargon (customer journeys) that is familiar to us. For this to succeed, they need both good systems and the right content. With the concept of Public Brands, we want to inspire the public communication professionals to enter dialogues with our colleagues.”
