Horizon Media said it is investing despite the current uncertainty in business and markets. “Some companies have chosen to reactively cut back in this time, but Horizon is focused on the long game,” Koenigsberg said in a statement. "We are making strategic investments in technology and creativity platforms that meet and exceed our clients’ desire to better connect their brands with consumers in more meaningful ways now and in the future.”
“We’re a 30-plus-year-old company," said Williams. "We’ve seen challenges around economic headwind historically. More recently, we’ve seen challenges no one else has seen before [during the pandemic] ... We’re a long-term player. We’re always looking to realize opportunities to strengthen our business. We’re not going away. We have a tendency to double down on areas where we feel the value far outweighs the risk.”
Horizon described First Tube as a pioneer company in the “‘experiential transformation" space, combining performance media with experiential. First Tube’s past clients include Google, YouTube, Chase, Taco Bell, Grubhub, New Balance, American Airlines and Creative Artists Agency.
Merging in the middle
Following the acquisition, the business functions of both companies will co-develop, while the personnel across both companies will remain largely independent. “Merging in the middle is a good way to think about it. I’ll be First Tube’s executive sponsor and a board director,” Williams said.
Williams added that First Tube will join Horizon Media in the agency’s Tribeca office to work in close proximity as a team. “Beyond that,” he said, “we’ll start integrating First Tube’s capabilities within the infrastructure of our organizations,” referring to the companies’ different production capabilities, which will benefit both companies’ clients. “But there’s no Horizon employee going over there, and no First Tube employee coming to us.”
“We’ll be operating as truly independent organizations. I’ll be the bridge. We’ll be on-site together, and we’ll make sure that all of their best capabilities will be incorporated into our existing offerings in Horizon, and we’ll go from there,” said Williams.