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Score 67 - On the Brink: The Atlantic acquires digital firm to fuel growth

Faire in order to bolster its team. Faire was founded by Huge's former US president, Kate Watts; as part of this deal, she has become president of Atlantic 57. Along with Watts, four Faire staff members are joining Atlantic 57, including Chris Stempky, who will be a managing director. The addition of Faire's design team will give Atlantic 57 the new chance to "leverage the expertise of the agency community."

Atlantic 57 has also historically focused on outside hires to pursue growth. In August, it hired associate strategy and growth director Janeen Williamson, formerly a station relations and support director for NPR. This acquisition will give the agency the chance to broaden its client base. More in-house personnel will also likely result in more spending dollars for sellers.

In August, The Atlantic also hired global marketing head Alisa Leonard, previously a head of strategy at SocialDeviant.

AdWeek reports that Atlantic 57 is The Atlantic's fastest-growing division, having averaged 25% revenue growth in each of the past four years. It works with brands such as Allstate, PBS, MIT, Chick-fil-A and Ford. 

During the past 12 months, according to Adbeat, The Atlantic has spent $259,200 on digital display ads placed primarily programmatically via Google ($109,400) and site direct ($52,900). Google has placed ads on sites such as thoughtcatalog.com ($19,500), cafedelites.com, theatlantic.com, backyardchickens.com and citylab.com. Most site direct placements were on thoughtcatalog.com ($8,000), theatlantic.com, cafedelites.com, spendwithpennies.com and lifeloveandsugar.com. This marks a serious decline from the $1.3 million spent in the prior 12-month period (Sept 2017-2018).

Along with digital, The Atlantic uses experiential and social media. Since it hasn't established a top spending period, sellers should reach out throughout the year to secure ad revenue. Its consumer target demographic primarily consists of millennials, and it also targets B2B audiences such as potential advertising partners.

Agency & martech readers - we are unsure who handles media, but Wieden + Kennedy has helped with project-based campaigns in the past. Focus on supporting The Atlantic's robust growth plans, as well as on differentiating it from publication competitors like The NY Times, the Wall Street Journal and BBC.