Granite continues US push with Creative Media acquisition
Cork-headquartered digital agency Granite has signed an agreement to acquire Creative Media, a Northern Ireland-founded performance marketing specialist with a significant client base across the US and Canada.
The agreed acquisition will enable Granite to target revenues of $40 million by 2027. North America will account for $20 million of company revenues – half of the overall total. The deal anchors an ambitious US growth strategy, following a 400% year-on-year increase in organic North American revenue over the last 12 months. Granite’s strategy for continued expansion is backed by $10 million in growth capital from BGF, Ireland and the UK’s most active growth capital investor.
Creative Media has built an impressive client base across North America over the past 25 years. Its founder, Marcus Isherwood, will join Granite as Chief Revenue Officer, working alongside Rob Carpenter, Granite’s US-based Chief Commercial Officer. The move positions Granite as a strong independent alternative to holding company agencies for US enterprises seeking digital transformation, performance marketing and AI-powered solutions.
Marcus Isherwood founded Creative Media in Northern Ireland in May 2000 and grew it into a team of more than 40 specialists serving over 30 clients across the US and Canada.
The deal will grow Granite’s workforce to more than 200 specialists across strategy, engineering, design, data and marketing.
Conor Buckley, CEO of Granite and EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2025 finalist, added: “North America has always been central to our growth strategy. The Creative Media agreed acquisition, Marcus’s appointment, and the team we’re building in the US are all part of a deliberate plan to bring Granite’s model to the world’s largest digital market. We’ve proven this works in Europe and the Middle East, and we’re actively pursuing acquisitions in North America to deepen our capabilities and accelerate our growth.”
Marcus Isherwood, CEO of Creative Media, said: “I’ve spent 25 years building client relationships in North America with a simple philosophy: every dollar spent on marketing has to deliver a measurable return. That’s exactly how Granite operates, but at enterprise scale and with technical depth I haven’t seen in an independent agency. Joining forces with this team gives our clients something genuinely new in the market.”
This will be the ninth acquisition Granite has made since 2020, and its most significant step into North America. Granite’s ambitions are further strengthened by the recent appointment of Joy Marcus as non-executive chair, bringing more than two decades of leadership experience across digital media, technology and venture capital. She has held executive roles at major organisations including Condé Nast, Time Warner and MTV Networks.
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