McKinsey acquires Indian marketing and analytics agency ET Medialabs
McKinsey & Company has acquired ET Medialabs (ETML), a performance marketing and analytics agency from India.
The bolt-on strengthens McKinsey’s Digital Marketing Operations and Technology (DMOT) practice, adding 60 marketing and analytics professionals from ETML to its workforce. With ETML on board, McKinsey now has over 200 experts across two global hubs in Latin America and Asia.
The acquisition follows a strategic partnership between McKinsey & Company and ETML, during which the two companies conducted 20 pilot tests with over 15 clients across India, Thailand, Indonesia, and Japan. According to McKinsey senior partner Eunjo Chon, “Typically, it takes at least six to 12 months to see impact from digital marketing. We’re seeing it immediately.”
For example, at one client, a diagnostic-to-insight approach helped cut digital ad spend optimization time by 66% and boost campaign impact time by 62%. Other projects helped clients rapidly reduce ad waste and optimize budgets for marketing and campaigns.
“The deep domain expertise of ETLM along with McKinsey’s breadth of knowledge brings a unique end-to-end offering to clients – enabling both short- and long-term impact,” said Lisa Harkness, a McKinsey partner. “From analytics to personalization to driving impact across markets, customer bases, and companies – this integration globalizes our ability to support the nonstop nature of digital in a truly 24/7 way.”
From Latin America to Asia
The acquisition of ETML expands McKinsey’s Digital Marketing Operations and Technology practice into Asia, having been established in Latin America following the purchase of LOBO.
“Since our acquisition of LOBO, we’ve seen many growth transformations across the firm leverage digital marketing capabilities across North and Latin America,” said Chon. “We saw an exciting opportunity to replicate and scale this success in Asia and set out to find the right strategic partner.”
After scanning hundreds of companies over the course of six months, ETML was selected. “What sets ETML apart is the speed and consistency of messaging across channels,” noted Stephan Zimmermann, a McKinsey senior partner and leader of the Digital Marketing Operations and Technology practice.
“Automation alone isn’t enough. Using customer insights to effectively personalize and enable clients to connect with their audience is where we’re most excited to see rapid impact.”
Tectonic opportunity for ETML
Commenting on the deal, Raghav Kansal, founder of ETML, said: “Customer first is core to our DNA. It’s a value we immediately felt was shared by McKinsey and deeply embedded in their culture.”
“This partnership with McKinsey also represents a tectonic shift in the trajectory of career growth for our people with infinite learning opportunities and exposure to high-impact projects across some of the biggest companies in the world.”
