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Createthe Group acquires Morpheus Media to provide comprehensive digital strategies

June 21, 2011

Donna Karan's blog, brainchild of both companies

With the acquisition by Createthe Group of Morpheus Media, shared luxury clients such as Marc Jacobs, Alexander Wang and Donna Karan now have the benefit of answering to one comprehensive authority.

The new acquisition will allow Createthe Group to offer its clients stronger strategies in display media, paid search and natural search engine optimization. The two companies have worked together in the past on campaigns for Bergdorf Goodman, David Yurman and Louis Vuitton.

“We were both approaching the challenges of digital from different angles and different points,” said James Gardner, founder and chief executive officer for Createthe Group.

“We were building from the ground up which is difficult at this time, so from our perspective it made complete logical sense to formalize the partnership,” he said.

Createthe Group provides premium and luxury brands with digital campaign strategies that aim to create emotional connections with consumers. The marketing group also provides commerce solutions with its CTS platform.

Morpheus Media is a digital marketing strategy company that specializes in display media, paid search, natural search optimization and social media management.

Morpheus Media will now operate under the name Morpheus Media, a Createthe Group company.

The three founders of Morpheus Media will now be a part of Createthe Group’s management team.

Shenan Reed is now the chief media officer, Alex Golimbu is now senior vice president of media operations and Jamie Driver is now senior vice president of business development at Morpheus Media, a Createthe Group company.

Acquiring assets
The acquisition will allow Createthe Group to provide a 360-degree digital marketing and commerce strategy for its brands.

By combining its creative digital strategy, emphasis on user experience and unique commerce platform with Morpheus Media’s search engine and social media expertise, Createthe Group will now be able to provide the broadest digital strategy to its clients, according to Createthe Group.

“We had approached the digital world from the media capability side and the question for us was, ‘Do we build a creative department?’” Ms. Reed said.

“We often found ourselves partnering with Createthe Group to cater to our clients so we figured we’d take the best of both sides and bring them together,” she said.

The merger has already been celebrated in the luxury world by brands such as Donna Karan, whom has worked with both companies in the past.

The Donna Karan’s DKNY Twitter, @DKNYPRgirl, tweeted early this morning “Congratulations Createthe Group and Morpheus Media on your marriage! We’re clients of both so it’s a match made in heaven for us.”

Bergdorf Goodman, who has also worked with both groups, also Tweeted its congratulations this morning.

Bergdorf's A.M. tweet

The two companies have been working with each other for a number of years on digital campaigns for a number of luxury brands such as Dior, Moet & Chandon, Alexander Wang and La Perla.

Recently, Createthe Group redesigned the entire De Beers Web site, visually rebranding the jeweler and providing a new, global ecommerce platform with its CTS technology.

The De Beer’s site now caters to six different countries in seven different languages and contains a culture-based editorial content page.

De Beers' Web site

Morpheus Media manages the digital media strategy and execution for DeBeers.

The two companies also worked together for beauty company Jurlique. Createthe Group provided the digital strategy and Morphus Media controlled the brand’s social media strategies.

Both companies worked together for Marc Jacob's digital strategy, including FourSquare app

Looking ahead
Createthe Group bought Morpheus Media in a step to further the company’s goal to provide the most robust digital capabilities to global and forward-thinking luxury brands.

Createthe Group claims to be the most full-circle digital strategy company for leading brands.

“I think it allows us to offer one cohesive story, strategy and plan for our client both coming from the same angle,” Mr. Gardner said.

For example, while nothing externally will change for Marc Jacobs’ digital campaigns, a client of both companies, internally, the company will now have one cohesive approach.

The partnership also allows Createthe Group to use Morpheus Media’s detailed information about site traffic patterns to further optimize the digital strategy.

Ms. Reed said that among the many things that Morpheus Media will bring to the table is an understanding of how to reach the consumers in the right places.

Luxury brands need to focus more on paid search optimization, so that a consumer can find the brand when they need it, and social media, per Ms. Reed.

“The key thing is Morpheus is already doing this, so now we can partner together to do it even better for these brands,” Mr. Gardner said.

Both companies agree that the biggest thing to understand about luxury consumers is that they are always pressed for time.

Providing consumers with convenience while still maintaining the luxury brand’s heritage and worth is a unified goal for Createthe Group and Morphus Media.

As for the future of digital, the two companies are looking collectively towards social and mobile strategies, espescially social commerce.

“[Social commerce] and how it relates to mobile [will be huge] because there is nothing more personal than mobile, than your cellphone,” Ms. Reed said.

“No matter where you are, on your computer on your phone or in the store, that 360 degree experience is the horizon for these brands,” she said.

Kayla Hutzler is an editorial assistant on Luxury Daily. Her beats are automotive, consumer electronics, consumer packaged goods, financial services, media/publishing, software and technology, telecommunications, travel and hospitality, real estate, retail and sports. Reach her at kayla@napean.com.