HERC joins Ace
As of today HERC joins Ace, family of leading agencies. With the acquisition of this hotshop Ace adds Advertising & Brand culture to its portfolio. HERC included, Ace now holds over 180 employees with creative hubs in both Utrecht and Amsterdam.
Rogier IJzermans, CEO, Ace: “I have always considered HERC as one of the pearls within the Dutch advertising branch and am delighted their talented team becomes part of Ace. By delivering high quality and innovative work, founders Emilio and Rogier have established an amazing agency with ditto reputation. They build brands with the cultural and lifestyle principles of their target audience in the back of their mind. And we truly believe in that approach. Combined with the strength of the other agencies within Ace - such as Born05, Blauw Gras, Glasnost and Fitzgerald – a new sound will arise on the Dutch market. Get ready for fireworks!”
Rogier de Bruin, co-founder, HERC: “When we founded HERC our main goal was to apply our vision on brands and communication in the purest way possible. Sooner than we had ever envisioned we were working for brands like G-Star, YoungCapital and Tony Chocolonely. Now we see a much broader audience is ready for our approach and a new generation of marketeers and consumers is in charge. Which means we want to upshift to make sure we can build our vision and stay innovative.”
Emilio de Haan, co-founder, HERC: “You can grow by yourself in small steps. Or you can become part of a movement that you believe in. We found that movement in Ace. A partner that allows us to build on and is both in content as in culture complementary to our agency. It is our dream that together with Ace we can reduce the gap between the corporate world and modern society. We want to make our business sexier, more inclusive and modern and full of bravado.”
Ace takes over all shares of HERC with the two founders buying themselves back into the group.
IJzermans: “This unique model has been developed from the vision that you should stimulate creative entrepreneurship instead of buying it. We don’t believe in earn-outs or lock-ups. Our goal is to grow together and learn from each other. Therefore, letting entrepreneurship exist within the group is crucial.” For 2021 the focus will be on integration and working together with the existing agencies and further grow in the areas of technology, data, growth, media and AI.
