NEW YORK, June 12, 2023 – PC Dreamscape, Inc. (“Dreamscape”), a portfolio company of the private equity firm GTCR, announced today it has entered into an agreement to acquire Mediaocean’s global media planning tool, Lumina. Lumina helps improve media plan workflow and visibility between brands and agencies through an end-to-end system. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
In tandem with this, and following the previous strategic acquisitions of Standard Media Index and SQAD, PC Dreamscape has rebranded to Guideline, highlighting the company’s role as a trusted authority in guiding advertising decisions for a majority of the world’s largest brands, agencies, and media owners. The Guideline brand is designed to emphasize the provision of an accurate, real-world view into industry spend and media cost that enables advertisers to make better planning and buying decisions and media owners to more effectively price their inventory and maximize growth.
The acquisition of Lumina further enhances Guideline’s suite of planning solutions, which offers a centralized media planning platform that delivers collaboration, efficiency and analysis across multiple global media teams and agencies in one interface. By combining three complementary media data and planning platforms, Guideline can better serve the top global brands, media owners, and media agencies.
“By combining SQAD and SMI a year ago, Guideline became a source of truth for advertising spend and pricing data that provides unprecedented accuracy and transparency across the global media ecosystem,” said Scott Knoll, CEO of Guideline. “Now with this acquisition, we are forging an important partnership with Mediaocean and bringing together two complementary solutions – SQAD MediaTools and Lumina – to strengthen media planning capabilities for agency and brand clients globally. Through accurate media data and collaborative planning tools, we’re focused on helping the industry improve how media is planned, bought, and sold.”
“Transitioning Lumina to Guideline and forming a long-term partnership allows both companies to play to their strengths and deliver value for customers,” said Bill Wise, Co-Founder and CEO of Mediaocean. “Mediaocean continues to serve as an open and neutral platform for omnichannel advertising connected with a vibrant partner ecosystem. This deal allows us to further invest in supporting advanced features for converged media, intelligence, automation, and optimization. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with Guideline and maintaining seamless workflow for marketers and agencies.”
Headquartered in New York City, with offices in Evanston, London, and Sydney, Guideline was founded in May 2020 as a partnership between marketing technology veterans Scott Knoll, David Hahn, Michael Iantosca and GTCR, with a focus to acquire companies and assets as part of a strategy to build a leading marketing technology business.
To learn more about Guideline, visit https://www.guideline.ai/.
About Guideline
Formed in 2020 as a partnership between Scott Knoll, David Hahn, Michael Iantosca, and GTCR, Guideline is the world’s most trusted authority for accurate media data and collaborative planning tools to guide your advertising decisions. With the 2022 acquisitions of Standard Media Index and SQAD, the company offers a single source of truth for advertising spend and pricing data that provides unprecedented accuracy and transparency across the media industry as well as a powerful centralized media planning platform that delivers collaboration, efficiency and analysis across multiple global media teams and agencies in one interface. To learn more about Guideline visit https://www.guideline.ai/.
About GTCR
Founded in 1980, GTCR is a leading private equity firm that pioneered The Leaders Strategy™ – finding and partnering with management leaders in core domains to identify, acquire and build market-leading companies through organic growth and strategic acquisitions. GTCR is focused on investing in transformative growth in companies in the Business & Consumer Services, Financial Services & Technology, Healthcare and Technology, Media & Telecommunications sectors. Since its inception, GTCR has invested more than $24 billion in over 270 companies, and the firm currently manages more than $35 billion in equity capital. GTCR is based in Chicago with offices in New York and West Palm Beach. For more information, please visit www.gtcr.com. Follow us on LinkedIn.
About Mediaocean
Mediaocean is powering the future of the advertising ecosystem with technology solutions that empower brands and agencies to deliver impactful omnichannel marketing experiences. With over $200 billion in annualized media spend managed through its software, Mediaocean uses AI and machine learning to control media investments and optimize business outcomes. The company’s advertising infrastructure and ad tech tools are used by more than 100,000 people to power campaigns from planning, buying, ad serving, and creative personalization to analysis, optimization, invoices, and payments. Visit www.mediaocean.com for more information.
