BlueFocus Communication Group

BlueFocus Communication Group(Chinese: 蓝色光标 ) is an ad

BlueFocus
agency engaged in marketing.[1]
Communication Group
BlueFocus was founded by Oscar Zhao on July 1, 1996.[2] It was Type Public company
launched on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2010.[3]
Traded as SZSE: 300058 (htt
BlueFocus acquired a minority stake in Huntsworth, a London- p://www.szse.cn/En
based PR group, for £36.5 million in April 2013,[2][4] and in glish/siteMarketDat
December 2013, acquired a majority holding in social media a/siteMarketDatas/l
ookup/index.html?c
marketing organisation We Are Social for £18.7m.[5]
ode=300058)
Since 2014, BlueFocus has engaged in international expansion.[1] Industry Advertising
It acquired a majority holding in Fuseproject, a U.S. design July 1, 1996
Founded
agency, for $46.7 million in July 2014,[6] and a majority holding in
the North American assets of Canadian advertising company Headquarters Beijing, China
Vision7 International, including Cossette, an ad agency, and Website /www
Citizen Relation, a PR company, in December 2014 for $210 .bluefocusgroup
million.[7] .com/ (http:///www.
bluefocusgroup.co
By 2014, it was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange with a m/)
market capitalisation of $3.8 billion,[2] and was ranked as the 17th
largest ad agency in the world.[1] As of 2015, its clients included PepsiCo, Lenovo, Volkswagen, and
BMW.[8]

In 2017, it attempted to merge its international efforts with US-based Fluent, but eventually discontinued
the effort over political concerns.[9] In 2019, it advanced into an arrangement whereby its international
subsidiaries were partially divested into a separate company Blue Impact, which was to be purchased by a
special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Legacy Acquisition led by ex-Procter & Gamble executives
Edwin Rigaud and Darryl McCall to publicly list in the United States.[9][10]

References
1. Doland, Angela (2014-04-27). "What You Need to Know About China's Rapidly Growing
BlueFocus" (https://adage.com/article/agency-news/china-s-bluefocus/292840). Ad Age.
Retrieved 2020-04-26.
2. Cookson, Robert (29 April 2014). "China's Blue Focus plans $300m overseas acquisitions"
(https://www.ft.com/content/3c8a5502-cec4-11e3-ac8d-00144feabdc0). Financial Times.
Retrieved 20 August 2020.
3. Barrett, Steve (11 April 2014). "A new agency star rises in the East | How BlueFocus aims to
become the Chinese version of WPP" (https://www.prweek.com/article/1289971/new-agenc
y-star-rises-east). PRWeek. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
4. Mance, Henry (25 April 2013). "Huntsworth surges on Chinese partnership" (https://www.ft.c
om/content/35cffa46-adaa-11e2-82b8-00144feabdc0). Financial Times. Retrieved
20 August 2020.
 5. McCabe, Maisie (18 December 2013). "Chinese marketing company buys We Are Social" (h
ttps://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/chinese-marketing-company-buys-social/1225165).
Campaign. Haymarket Media Group. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
6. Bradshaw, Tim; Cookson, Robert (23 July 2014). "BlueFocus to enter US market with stake
in Fuseproject" (https://www.ft.com/content/4a6396d8-125e-11e4-93a5-00144feabdc0).
Financial Times. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
7. Krashinsky, Susan (15 December 2014). "Advertising firm Vision7 paves inroad to Asia with
sale of Cossette, Citizen" (https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/internationa
l-business/ad-agency-cossette-sold-to-chinese-firm/article22083312/). The Globe and Mail.
Retrieved 20 August 2020.
8. Vanderklippe, Nathan (24 April 2015). "CEO of China's BlueFocus not your average Mad
Man" (https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/careers-leadership/ceo-
of-bluefocus-communication-group-is-breaking-the-pr-mould/article24116318/). The Globe
and Mail. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
9. "BlueFocus advertising & marketing assignments at Adbrands.net" (https://www.adbrands.n
et/cn/bluefocus-cn.htm). www.adbrands.net. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
10. Moore, Thomas (23 August 2019). "Ex-P&G execs to run agencies spun off from Blue
Focus" (https://www.prweek.com/article/1594794/ex-p-g-execs-run-agencies-spun-off-blue-f
ocus). PRWeek. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20190826214735/https://www.prwee
k.com/article/1594794/ex-p-g-execs-run-agencies-spun-off-blue-focus) from the original on
2019-08-26. Retrieved 20 August 2020.

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