We Are Social ventures into Middle East and Africa with Socialize acquisition

Socially-led creative agency, We Are Social has made its first acquisition by partnering with Socialize, Middle East's largest social media agency in a bid to expand its global reach. This sees the agency taking a majority stake in Socialize, and extending its network to the Middle East and Africa. Currently, We Are Social has 10 offices in markets such as Singapore, Shanghai, New York, London and Paris, among others.According to Robin Grant, global managing director and co-founder of We Are Social, both agencies share a similar creative and cultural passion for social, as well as entrepreneurial spirit and future-focused offerings.Following the acquisition, the agency aims to provide its global clients "exceptional insight "and "unrivalled access" to one of the world’s fast-growing and most dynamic geographic regions, a blog post by Grant read. This includes brands such as clients adidas, Netflix, Samsung and Google, among others.The blog post added that Middle East and North Africa market is a fast-growing market characterised by a population that is the youngest and most digitally connected in the world. It also said that the annual digital spend is predicted to rise by 73% between 2017-2020."Our acquisition of a majority stake in Socialize is, we hope, the first of many as we move We Are Social into the next phase of its development. I look forward to the new campaigns we will create, clients we will partner and alliances we will forge as we embark on our second decade in business," Grant said.