PowerPost, an automated marketing software company headquartered out of St. Louis, announced last week that it had acquired Social Media Beast, one of Chicago, Illinois’ premier content marketing agencies.

The acquisition is the third large transaction for PowerPost within the last 18 months and will add nearly 100 new clients to PowerPost, in addition to increasing their pool of brand journalists and content writers.

“We’re continuing to grow very strong organically, but view 2017 and 2018 as opportunities to acquire some very well established companies,” said Dan Curran, President of PowerPost. “[Social Media Beast] had a similar ethos to PowerPost. They primarily employ writers and content producers with heavy journalism backgrounds. They had very high standards when it came to journalistic expectations and talent.”

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The acquisition now brings the number of PowerPost’s managed customer relationships to nearly 5 million, including leading brands like Marriott, Ty, United Auto and Germ-X. PowerPost believes that their marriage of brand journalists and innovative software provides a complete solution to modern brands.

“We are leveraging that talent in a big way,” said Curran. “We believe it’s a far superior methodology solution versus traditional advertising and digital agencies, […and] that current methodologies deployed by agencies and traditional brands are not accelerating brand awareness fast enough.”

Curran said that journalists are ideal for PowerPost’s style of messaging because they know how to craft a story, are disciplined as it relates to writing styles and grammar, have high standards and are used to deadlines.

“With social, blogging and all the tools out there now for brands to express themselves, the velocity of storytelling has increased tenfold,” said Curran. “It’s a win-win for journalism students coming out of college. I think there are more alternatives as far as a career choice and I think the brands win because they adopt a journalistic ethos that allows them to keep pace with technology and keep pace with consumers.”

PowerPost is also transitioning members of Social Media Beast’s management team including Trent Turpin, Vice President of Chicago Operations and Scott Fenstermaker who is being promoted to Vice President of Marketing.

“Those two gentlemen in particular are significant additions to our staff as they understand the back end of marketing, the connectivity and the integration,” said Curran. “Consumers out there demand a intuitive, frictionless experience so not only do we have to be great storytellers, but we have to be amazing at marketing tech.”

Curran expects PowerPost’s number of managed brand relationships to double every 3 months. Curran said the company also has plans to hire 5 to 10 more content producers this year to meet their client demand.

“We have a lot of relationships we’re managing across social, across blogs, and we needed a team that could help these brands tell their stories, but also interconnect all the various avenues where consumers journey in order to intersect with the brand,” said Curran. “We are accelerating our mission to be the leading voice in brand journalism. This acquisition takes us one step closer to this goal.”

Curran said his company is very fortunate to be based out of Chicago and St. Louis because of  the proximity to Northwestern University and the University of Missouri, two of the top journalism schools in the country.

“Our focus is certainly on the Midwest. We feel the brain trust that lives here, obviously the universities, the cost of living, the quality of life, makes the Silicon Prairie the ideal home for PowerPost.”

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Christine McGuigan is the Managing Editor of Silicon Prairie News.

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