Taiwan's AdGeek launches JV with The Studio by CtrlShift

Taiwan-based digital marketing agency AdGeek has acquired a majority stake in The Studio, one of three units founded by the audience engagement firm CtrlShift.

The Studio, which has four offices around Southeast Asia, focuses on audience solutions, digital outreach and programmatic media buying, with a client list that includes Oppo, Nespresso and Boh Plantations, the largest black tea maker in Malaysia. It was established as a standalone business separate from CtrlShift in July 2018. 

The JV expands AdGeek’s footprint into Southeast Asia, while The Studio will be able to add consumer-engagement solutions such as chatbots to its roster of products, capitalising on AdGeek’s team of 120 digital specialists and marketing technologists.

In the new partnership, The Studio MD Syahar Khalid, who remains based in Malaysia, will report to AdGeek founder and CEO Frank Chen. The two groups “share a vision of what next-generation digital marketing can and should be”, according to Chen.

Without The Studio, CtrlShift will now concentrate its attention on its software-as-a-service business and its programmatic platform, The Hub.