Dan Gbur, Partner & Chief Revenue Officer, Brunner
The recent Brunner acquisition of Rakuten Advertising’s Performance Solutions group has strategic importance for Brunner’s evolution, according to Dan Gbur, partner and chief revenue officer at the agency. “It has been a big growth driver for the company. When the year is all said and done, I think we’ll see a nice uptick in top-line revenue and hopefully some efficiency gains, too,” Gbur told Invest:.
What changes over the past year most impacted the agency and in what ways?
We’ve just completed the acquisition of the Performance Solutions division of Rakuten Advertising Group. It was official on April 1. Rakuten is a global company that offers affiliate marketing and consumer rewards services, and they had a business unit that planned and bought digital media. I joined Brunner 10 years ago to help build out the digital media, data engineering, and data science practice. When we came across the opportunity to join forces with Rakuten’s Performance Solutions Group, it seemed like a great fit because they had a very experienced team that has the same planning and buying practices that we do. We started conversations with them in November, worked through due diligence with them in the first quarter, and closed on April 1. What we acquired was 21 new employees and about 40 new clients. It’s been a very busy last six months working through that process.
What services are you now offering as a result of the acquisition?
They have a very strong presence in the retail, e-commerce, and direct-to-consumer segments. The team that we acquired has a lot of experience working with retailers. The clients that came over all fall into that category like Jansport and Kipling, which were part of VF Corporation.
What the acquisition has provided us as a company is an opportunity to sell these clients other services that we offer, such as creative services, brand strategy, website development, and search engine optimization. These are things that Rakuten wasn’t able to offer, but Brunner can. It has been a big growth driver for the company. When the year is all said and done, I think we’ll see a nice uptick in top-line revenue and hopefully some efficiency gains, too.
How is the acquisition changing your geographic reach?
It gives us a broader client base in the retail sector, which we hope to build upon and get more of. We had some West Coast clients, but now we have even more clients on the West Coast and in other parts of the country. The acquisition broadened us from that perspective and will help us grow overall as an agency.
What key factors have contributed most to your success?
We bought out Michael Brunner four years ago, and we were all already part of the organization and integrated into our various practice areas. It was a smooth transition. Coming through the pandemic, we were able to grow as an organization.
From 2020 to 2021, we grew 17%, and then almost 40% in 2022. In 2023, it was another 17% to 20%. And now with the acquisition, we’re expecting even more growth.
Overall, our success is really driven by the people we have and the team atmosphere that we have here. We all have our own skill sets and strengths, and we’re all able to leverage those to work toward a North Star of building and growing the agency.
We’re in a people business, so it’s all about the talent that we have. They’re the ones who make the agency grow. It’s up to us as a management team to provide the framework vision and direction, but it’s the talent we have who help the organization grow.
How is AI changing your business in particular?
AI is the topic of the day, no matter what industry you’re in. It’s top of mind. Our clients come to us for advice regarding how AI is changing how people work, and how they can be more efficient. We coach our employees to look at AI as a teammate and tutor. We need to learn about the technology and figure out how to work with it as a teammate to make us more efficient and smarter.
It’s a method for us to solve problems and foster ideation and creation. That’s one area where I think we’re seeing a lot of growth and evolution, as is everybody else in the world these days.
What are your key goals and priorities for the agency for the next two years?
Over the next 6-12 months, we’re looking to leverage this acquisition that we just completed to help grow our business even further. We’ve expanded our client base. We’ve grown from a headcount standpoint, and we see a lot of opportunity to continue to do that moving forward.
