Case Study: CIC has been acquired by Kantar Media

CIC created the Chinese Social media research and analysis industry. Founded in 2004 and with offices in Shanghai and Beijing, CIC coined the now standard Chinese industry term Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) and pioneered the concept of social-business in China. With a team of over 60 social media consultants, dashboards and patent pending in technologies, CIC has led the industry in developing and applying social media intelligence, and is at the forefront of monetizing the social-business industry in China.

Opportunity

CIC had been refining their strategic intent to anticipate increasing consumer mobility and client ROI concerns. Finding the right partner was crucial; and a number of different types of players characterized a diverse buyer landscape, who recognized the premium value of a scalable, market leader, with proprietary IP and a blue-chip client base, in China.

Outcome

CIC were acquired by Kantar Media. Kantar Media is a unit of Kantar, the consumer insight arm of WPP. Such an alignment will enhance the consultative positioning of CIC, as they seek to deepen their leadership scope in the burgeoning area of social business.

Within a traditional communications holding group perhaps the more obvious home would have been aligned to an agency or media planning group. As part of Kantar Media, they will have the opportunity for unconstrained expansion as the boundaries of social blur, as well as leverage ‘best in class’ insights and analytics from the broader WPP parent.