EXCLUSIVE: Accenture Song Will Buy Whalar

Accenture Song, the consulting giant's marketing services arm, confirmed it intends to acquire marketing agency Whalar, which connects brands with creators, from its holding company parent Whalar Group. Whalar's co-CEOs Emma Harman and Jo Cronk will continue leading the agency, and the other companies within Whalar Group will remain independent. Accenture Song declined to reveal the terms, but Whalar Group cofounder Neil Waller described the acquisition as the industry's "largest creator economy transaction." For context, Publicis Groupe bought influencer agency Influential in 2024 for a reported $500 million. Accenture Song hopes that combining Whalar's influencer expertise with its own data, commerce, and AI tools will help its clients evolve from one-off influencer marketing campaigns to broader, ongoing work with creators. For example, that work may include integrating creators into bigger marketing campaigns or developing a product with a creator. "The role of the creator is not just through a social conversation, it's the role of understanding your consumer today," Accenture Song CEO Ndidi Oteh told ADWEEK. "Accenture Song is a company that is always focused on how to help other brands and companies drive growth—the only way you're going to do that is also relying on the insights from the creator community." Whalar, which has helped big brands like Nike, Ikea, and Activision run creator campaigns, manages around $600 million in campaigns annually and employs around 170 staffers globally. The creator economy is surging, making it a top priority for investment. WPP Media forecasts that revenue generated from creators will hit $376.6 billion by 2030, double the $184.9 billion expected in 2025. The ad spend alone associated with creators is expected to hit $43.9 billion in 2026, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. A Whalar of a tale Whalar was founded in London by Waller and James Street in 2016 as a small agency, and soon grew into a sprawling, multi-unit group called Whalar Group that includes Sixteenth (a talent agency); The Lighthouse (a studio and networking campus); Moby Ventures (an investment arm); and Business of Creativity (a creator education firm acquired for $20 million in 2025), among others. Whalar Group employs 450 people, with Whalar representing the portfolio's largest company, Waller told ADWEEK. Waller and Street changed roles last year from running Whalar to Whalar Group. The leadership change came shortly after Whalar Group secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Salesforce founder Marc Benioff, Shopify, and Hollywood producer Neal H. Moritz that valued the company at $400 million. Accenture Song's deal to acquire the Whalar agency includes a three-year partnership with Whalar Group's other companies, where they will work closely together. Oteh declined to share specific examples of what this might look like. Oteh said that the Whalar agency will use Accenture's broader digital transformation services to pitch influencer marketing work to brands. That work spans data, commerce, supply chain and delivery models, payment models, and talent. "What I actually find is most of our clients need to work with a company that is able to do more than just advertising—we are able to do that, and there's not anyone else in the market who operates like that," Oteh said. "I see it less as how we're competing in the market, but more how are we going to be able to serve clients in the way they need to be served to actually drive growth." Accenture Song’s creator business goes global The Whalar deal is one of Accenture Song’s largest acquisitions over the past decade. Accenture Song has previously bought agencies with global presences, most notably Droga5 in 2019 for $475 million. It also bought social and influencer firm Superdigital in 2025—a lean, U.S.-based specialist. But Whalar has global scale—which will help Accenture Song compete for creator marketing budgets with holdco titans like Publicis, WPP, and Omnicom. Creator-focused offerings have been major acquisition targets in recent years. Publicis snapped up influencer tech platform Captiv8 last year for a reported $150 million, one year after buying Influential. WPP bought global scale in the influencer space when it purchased the Goat Agency in 2023, for an undisclosed sum. And in 2025, Omnicom consolidated its influencer agencies into the global unit Creo. With Whalar, Accenture Song is now among those powerhouses. "It's a pinch-me moment that shows you that the creator economy isn't this thing on the sidelines anymore," Whalar Group's Waller said. "It is completely integrated into brands' marketing strategy, but also their product strategy and everything."

Influencers & Creators

EXCLUSIVE: Accenture Song Will Buy Whalar, Gaining Global Scale in Influencer Marketing

The deal ranks among its biggest purchases, making it a major player in the creator economy alongside holdco giants

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Lauren Johnson

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