YAAP, a content and influencer marketing company with operations in the UAE, India and Singapore, has fully acquired Crayons Communications, an advertising agency with offices in Dubai, Riyadh and Manama. The 100% acquisition will see Crayons Communications merge with YAAP.
YAAP has recently expanded its market footprint and offerings. Its client portfolio includes Coca-Cola, Visit Dubai, Lufthansa, RuPay, American Express, Disney, Amazon, and Square Enix.
“YAAP has been actively looking to expand its presence in the UAE in particular and the GCC region as a whole. The Crayons Communications acquisition comes at the right time and gives us a great platform to bring our award-winning services in influencer marketing (IM) & performance media to this part of the world. Crayons has a good foundation of established clients that will help us quickly ramp up our service offerings here. We want to be a dominant player in IM, Web 3.0 (with a focus on building for the Metaverse), and media services. Going forward, as the markets correct globally, it presents us a great opportunity for more such acquisitions in this region,” said Atul Hegde, founder of YAAP.
Crayons Communications has 14 years of market presence in the Middle East, with clients including Apparel Group, Kaya and Fitbit.
Commenting on how the deal transpired, Kunal Lalani, founder & chairman of Crayons Communications Group, said, “While we have been working together on projects before, this acquisition seals our relationship formally with YAAP in this part of the world. I’m confident with YAAP coming in will create more opportunities for our people in terms of their own career growth and all our clients will benefit from a wide array of new services that will get launched here. I wish the entire team all the very best at the start of this exciting new phase.”
YAAP has been actively scouting strategic acquisitions in the digital content and media landscape across GCC. Crayons Communications adds the Middle Eastern market to YAAP’s existing footprint across three countries and seven cities. Several factors combined with YAAP’s previous joint projects with Crayons Communications has led to the acquisition. YAAP is currently developing solutions suites on Web 3.0 and the metaverse.
“I’m super excited to be part of the YAAP group now. With an added network of 7 cities and 100+ digital experts at YAAP, it opens up a whole new world of offerings for us in this region. We are known for always punching above our weight in the past with mega projects like the Chris Hemsworth film for Bayut, the Dubai super sixes property or The Bayut: your home, your choice awards, now our ambitions and goals will be much larger,” added Arshad Zaheer, CEO of Crayons Communications.
Campaign Middle East spoke to Atul Hegde, founder of YAAP on account of the acquisition:
What is the deal worth?
It’s undisclosed.
How will YAAP and Crayons work together now? Will YAAP wholly integrate Crayons? And will there be any of Crayon’s brand identity left?
Crayons Communications will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of YAAP so that clients can continue the working relationships with both organizations while also benefitting from the synergistic value that the merger will unlock. So, Crayons Communications will continue to retain the brand identity developed through years of operational excellence.
Who was running Crayons?
Crayons Communications is the brainchild of founder and chairman Kunal Lalani, who has poured a wealth of experience, resources, and expertise into building the brand. His legacy with Crayons lives on with CEO Arshad Zaheer at the helm.
What will happen to Crayons’ management?
They will continue to operate in their respective roles.
Will there be job losses? Will there be new hires?
There is workforce expansion on the cards. We will be recruiting across sales, influencer marketing, and media planning roles in the first leg of it.
What differences will clients of YAAP and Crayons See?
Brands are increasingly seeking end-to-end service providers that are in sync with innovations such as the metaverse and Web 3.0. Crayon Communications’ advertising competency adds to YAAP’s core strengths in influencer, performance, programmatic and affiliate marketing, Web 3.0, and the metaverse, culminating in a synergistic value proposition that is unmatched in the region.
