🤝 The Family announces sale of Hype Collective
Agency to be acquired by Gen Z specialist Bulla Co
Scaling Service is a newsletter from The Family. We typically interview agency founders and ask them about how they run their businesses. But for this issue, we’re taking a break from our normal programming to bring you some exciting news.
Hype Collective, one of the agencies in The Family’s portfolio, has been acquired.
I’ve known Simon Lucey for, give or take a year, half my life. I first met him when we were both fresh-faced undergrads at Cardiff University.
He was the editor of our student magazine, Quench, and I was his trusty travel editor. I say trusty – on one occasion he let me edit the magazine while he was on holiday. He returned to an issue – already sent to print – with his name misspelled on the inside cover. He's reviewed my creative work with a close eye since.
When we graduated, our paths diverged. I got a job churning out copy for SEO purposes, and he found himself selling fish door-to-door.
Seven years later, after plenty of twists and turns in both of our careers, we decided to start an agency together.
We called it Hype Collective.
What we set out to build
At the time, the student marketing industry was filled with brands spending six figures on campaigns targeted at 18-year-olds, but none of this budget ever seemed to find its way to the cash-strapped target audience.
We saw an opportunity to do things better. We wanted to build an agency that, yes, would deliver best-in-class creative execution. But, more importantly, every campaign we’d run would give something back to students.
In the six years since we launched, we’ve written and rewritten our messaging countless times, but that’s still the heart of what Hype Collective does. Campaigns co-created with students. Because the best way to reach a community is to work with them.
“What attracted me to Hype Collective was their unique proposition of co-creating influencer and experiential campaigns and content alongside students,” said Joshua Roche, founder and CEO of Bulla Co.
“They possess a deep understanding that the most effective way to engage a community is by collaborating directly with its members. Moreover, their unwavering dedication to providing hundreds of opportunities for young people every year resonated with us at Bulla Co.
“This commitment will remain a priority as we venture into future projects together. Their status as experts in student marketing and their well-established brand within the industry are unparalleled.”
Bulla Co acquires Hype Collective
As announced today, Bulla Co has acquired Hype Collective.
Hype Collective will continue to operate as its own agency under the same name, with a renewed focus on its heartland of on-campus experiential. The agency team will move as part of the deal, including Simon who will now become Commercial Director across both companies.
He’ll depart The Family – the parent company that previously owned Hype Collective – as part of the deal.
Joshua is building something really special at Bulla Co. Launched in 2021, they’ve recently closed a six figure pre-seed round.
They’ve made significant investments in technology in the past year, most notably their powerful social-led influencer platform. Their proprietary tech merges social data and intelligence, offering brands unrivalled transparency around Gen Z influencing campaigns which in turn yields a far more cost-effective and highly efficient client offering.
Thanks to investing early and heavily in their technology, they’re growing at a rapid pace.
“Bulla Co have invested heavily in the technology that drives their influencer proposition,” said Simon Lucey, Hype Collective’s founder and managing director. “They’re able to brief, manage and run their campaigns at a scale, which has given them the edge over many of their competitors.
“We had offers from a number of potential acquirers, but Bulla Co stood out as the partner who could take Hype Collective’s proposition to the next level. “
A fond farewell to a brilliant team
Launching and running an agency comes with a very unique set of challenges. But one thing we always nailed was our hiring. The best piece of advice I can give to any agency founder is to hire people who are smarter than you are, and we did that time and time again.
Dan Partington, in particular, probably knows more about campus marketing than anyone in the country. Laura Sandberg’s dedication to client services has taken Hype Collective to a new level of professionalism and excellence.
“Hype Collective’s senior leadership members are exceptional and I am looking forward to working closely with all of them,” continued Roche. “Simon is a leading figure in the youth marketing industry, and will bring a huge amount of expertise, leadership which will undoubtedly contribute to the growth and success of Bulla Co. Dan and Laura, too, will bring a huge amount to the team.”
I’m incredibly proud of the agency Simon and I started six years ago.
We’ve worked with some phenomenal clients – from high street brands like Co-op, to some of the biggest tech brands in the world like Deliveroo and Microsoft, to brands like Lovehoney who were, unsurprisingly, a whole lot of fun to work with.
We’ve also stayed true to our original promise of giving something back to students, creating paid opportunities for over 4,000 students along the way.
Since launching Hard Numbers in June 2020, I haven’t been as hands-on at Hype Collective as I was in the early years, playing more of an advisory role than that of a day-to-day team member.
But that doesn’t stop this from being a bittersweet moment. Exits always are. This is an incredibly exciting deal that will allow Hype Collective to move to the next level, but there's no doubt I’ll miss sharing an office with such a wonderful and talented group of people.
I look forward to seeing them go from strength to strength.
This is great to read about, and what a fantastic story.