Ex-Chemistry duo expand start-up

Chemistry founders Joe Garton and Diane Charlton – who set up content marketing group Once Upon A Time in February last year – have snapped up music project management specialist Clear Sound & Vision for an undisclosed sum.
The deal is the third acquisition for the duo, following the purchases of sports marketing agency Red Baron Enterprises and B-Group from HIG Capital.
The idea behind the start-up is to give clients a new breed of agency that applies the rigor of data analysis to always-on content marketing and social media to engage consumers and to help clients grow their brands.
As a provider of bespoke packaging and premium products to the music industry, the deal will extend Once Upon A Time’s integrated offering. The start-up already has over 100 staff based in Soho and its services include strategy, advertising, shopper marketing, retail POS, AV, digital, social, PR, experiential and CRM. Clients include Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, Lindt, Russian Standard Vodka, Hasbro and Disney.
As part of the deal, Clear Sound & Vision owner and managing director Clive Robins will join the agency’s board in the role of managing partner.
Robin, who has worked in the music sector for over 20 years, said: “Once Upon A Time has demonstrated a strong ambition to grow its business within the entertainment sector. There is an obvious synergy between the agencies and with the added support of significant in-house design and digital resource at Once Upon A Time, the acquisition marks an exciting development for CSV.”
The duo first started working together in the late Nineties, when Garton merged his agency Momentum into Charlton’s digital shop, Fusion Interactive, to form The Interactive Agency; two years later it was rebranded Chemistry Communications.
They quit the agency in 2012, 16 months after it was bought and folded into Publicis. Garton said: “We are delighted to have CSV within our stable, as it brings a wealth of project management expertise and specialist knowledge of the music industry to the agency.”