• Company

    Abovo Media

  • SectorTMT
  • ActivityAdvertising & media
  • Date25 September 2019
  • CountryNetherlands

Abovo Media acquires Digital Marketing agency Maxlead

Profile

Abovo Media, founded in 1999 by Kees Verbeek and Marinus Zoutendijk, is the largest independent full-service media agency in the Netherlands. Abovo Media offers a complete package: media strategy, planning, purchasing and campaign management. Complemented by the disciplines of creation and data & tech. With more than 120 employees, Abovo Media works for large clients such as Action, Basic Fit, Primera, Corendon and ANWB, but it also serves smaller companies. Abovo Media has won many awards over the years, including Best Media Agency by Emerce 100.

Maxlead, founded in 2002, has grown into one of the largest digital marketing agencies in the Netherlands. As a strategic online marketing partner, Maxlead helps customers generate leads and sales, both in the Netherlands and internationally. Over 80 consultants work for clients such as Basic-Fit, Accell Group, Carglass, Vacansoleil, Scotch & Soda, TomTom, Seats & Sofas, Wolters Kluwer, Prominent, Q-Park, Shurgard and Marktplaats from the HQ in Oegstgeest. In 2018, Maxlead was named best Online Marketing agency in the National Talent Development Survey, it won the International Google Summit awards that same year and has been in the Emerce100 with the best Digital Marketing Agencies for years. In the Maxlead Academy, own talent is trained, and the agency is also part of the Everywhere Network, a collaboration of international online marketing agencies. At the end of 2016, Maxlead expanded its digital analytics activities with a support center in Slovakia: Digital Analytics Support Europe (DASE).

The new group creates a very powerful and effective agency group that can serve its existing and potential customers in the full media spectrum. The two agencies retain their existing identity and remain housed in Hoorn and Oegstgeest respectively. From now on, they work in joint customer teams on the best possible cases. The new, independent group has 200 employees.

Marinus Zoutendijk and Kees Verbeek are the founders/owners of Abovo Media. Since 1999, they have been building a high-quality agency for advertisers based in the Netherlands who need a broad integrated service. Zoutendijk and Verbeek are convinced that the conversation at the customer's table should be about the content and best possible conversion per euro. Zoutendijk: “A customer doesn’t benefit from engaging multiple parties and disciplines who compete with each other for the largest possible share of that customer's marketing budget. With the acquisition of Maxlead we are further implementing our ideas. They are the perfect addition to our digital team, which already counts 40 people, and provide a huge amount of digital knowledge.” Kees Verbeek adds: “Maxlead is a very driven and professional group of people and from the first meeting it felt very familiar, from the way we both approach the market to internal processes. We therefore strongly believe in this combination and we warmly welcome the colleagues of Maxlead!”

Rob Steenbrink, founder of Maxlead: “In the rapidly changing media landscape, our customers need a broader service throughout the customer journey. By joining Abovo Media, we can do this even better in the future. We not only fit together well in terms of service. From an entrepreneurial and no-nonsense background, with a committed and proactive mentality, we work together to optimally serve our customers." Ronald van Klooster, involved with Maxlead as a shareholder since 2006:" This shared DNA provides a good basis. We therefore have a lot of confidence in this new collaboration and the entire Maxlead management will remain involved in the new combination.”

Press information

Fore more information: Abovo Media and Maxlead