Member Article

Social Chain Raises $2 Million German Investment

The Manchester-based influencer marketing agency Social Chain, has raised investment of $2 million from German talent management firm NVC.

Now looking to expand their business, Social Chain have secured an investment of $2 million in a Series A round of funding from Georg Kofler, former CEO of German TV broadcasters ProSieben and Premiere (now Sky Deutschland) who has built a media empire in Berlin with his companies Def Media and NVC.

The Investment will entitle Christian Grobel, Managing Director at NVC a position on the board at Social Chain and giving Social Chain access to NVC’s talent portfolio.

Social Chain plan to use the $2 million investment to break into new markets overseas and grow their team beginning with the expansion into Germany, opening the doors to their office in Berlin this spring, looking to expand their entire team from 35 to 80 within the year.

Georg Kofler said: “We’re incredibly excited to be working with Social Chain and assisting their expansion into the German market. I believe they are at the edge of new media and marketing strategy, continuing to craft the way millennials engage with brands”.

Steve Bartlett, CEO of Social Chain said: “Germany is an emerging powerhouse, currently having the strongest economy in Europe and the second largest from an ad spend point of view. Syncing with NVC in Berlin will enable us to gain access to their high profile influencers and drive the business forward overseas”.

“Berlin offers a new challenge outside of the UK; an opportunity for us to learn about how different cultures use social platforms differently. We’re in the final stages of hiring business development managers in our central Berlin office who will start their Social Chain journey spending their first month in the Manchester office. The team will soon after look to develop strong European connections, taking Social Chain international”.

Social Chain plan to invest the surplus funding into acquiring new media, expanding their Manchester office to accommodate their growing team and investing into new technology developing their own software for influencer discovery and social community management.

Established in November 2014, Social Chain has been profitable since the start seeing a seven figure turnover in the first year with their average employee age just 22. This highly creative young team has grown the business to offer what no other marketing agency can offer; the ability to make 200 million millennials see a certain message, image, video, event or trend at once, communicating to their audience through influencers across social media platforms. Social Chain work with huge global brands including Hungry House, Spotify and Comedy Central.

Matt Bundy, head of marketing at Comedy Central said: “Social Chain created and executed a creative campaign for our comedy show Impractical Jokers. All six episodes of the new series consolidated above 300k of 16-34-year-olds, which is more than double previous seasons. After the campaign, Impractical Jokers became the highest rating show on the channel overall, and our highest rating individual show in four years since Two and a Half Men in 2011”.

Social Chain is now Europe’s largest influencer marketing agency, gaining recognition for their contribution to the industry in being awarded the marketing agency of the year at The Drum Awards in December 2015.

For more information about Social Chain please visit www.socialchain.com

For more information about NVC please visit http://www.nvc.berlin

For more information about/interviews with Steve Bartlett please contact Grace Hilsley grace@socialchain.co / 07714162510

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Grace Hitchen Hilsley .