NEW YORK—PC Dreamscape, Inc. has entered into an agreement to acquire Mediaocean’s global media planning tool, Lumina and has announced that it will be rebranding itself as Guideline.
Lumina helps improve media plan workflow and visibility between brands and agencies through an end-to-end platform. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
The newly branded Guideline operation is a portfolio company of the private equity firm GTCR. The proposed Lumina deal further expands the company’s suite of planning solutions and follows the previous strategic acquisitions of Standard Media Index and SQAD.
The company reported that rebranding Dreamscape to Guideline is intended to highlight “the company’s role as a trusted authority in guiding advertising decisions for a majority of the world’s largest brands, agencies, and media owners.”
“By combining SQAD and SMI a year ago, Guideline became a source of truth for advertising spend and pricing data that provides unprecedented accuracy and transparency across the global media ecosystem,” said Scott Knoll, CEO of Guideline. “Now with this acquisition, we are forging an important partnership with Mediaocean and bringing together two complementary solutions – SQAD MediaTools and Lumina – to strengthen media planning capabilities for agency and brand clients globally. Through accurate media data and collaborative planning tools, we’re focused on helping the industry improve how media is planned, bought, and sold.”
“Transitioning Lumina to Guideline and forming a long-term partnership allows both companies to play to their strengths and deliver value for customers,” added Bill Wise, co-founder and CEO of Mediaocean. “Mediaocean continues to serve as an open and neutral platform for omnichannel advertising connected with a vibrant partner ecosystem. This deal allows us to further invest in supporting advanced features for converged media, intelligence, automation, and optimization. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with Guideline and maintaining seamless workflow for marketers and agencies.”
Headquartered in New York City, with offices in Evanston, London, and Sydney, Guideline was founded in May 2020 as a partnership between marketing technology veterans Scott Knoll, David Hahn, Michael Iantosca, and GTCR, with a focus to acquire companies and assets as part of a strategy to build a leading marketing technology business.
