Nick Bell’s Superist takes stake in user-generated content specialist your social

The deal will see your social founder and former AFL player Sam Murray stay on to lead the business he started in 2021 when he was just 23, while Bell has plans to scale the company rapidly.

Murray will also continue running parent company LAB GROUP and its subsidiaries including talent agency Our People and creative agency CRAFTD CREATIVE.

Speaking to Business News Australia, Superist founder Bell said he was excited about being able to offer his clients a dedicated UGC service - something the business was missing until now, involving digital marketing on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram that prioritise videos.

Beyond your social, Superist runs a growing portfolio of agency brands including online reputation management firm Removify, Panama-based South American marketing & SEO specialist Chili, NFT and Web 3 agency Mooning, multinational performance marketing and SEO company First Page and more.

“Murray offered services that we don’t currently have in the group - which was UCG,” said Bell, who sold his digital marketing company WME Group for $39 million in 2017 and who appeared on the sixth season of The Celebrity Apprentice Australia as a boardroom advisor.

“When we’re buying agencies, we’re looking for agencies that offer services that we don’t have.

“Most people these days, no matter the age, they’re on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or Snapchat. So for us, it makes sense. Google is still a massive player in the market, but you want eyeballs and at the moment that’s on TikTok and that’s on Insta.”

Prior to the acquisition, Bell said Superist had to send some jobs away to other agencies because it was unable to offer UGC services to clients.

“Now we can offer great UGC services, and your brand can be seen by anyone from a 16-year-old to a 70-year-old. We’re trying to capture the entire market,” Bell said.

“Every social media campaign or paid social ad campaign we do, they generally want UGC - they want videos. I can’t see that trend going away anytime soon.

“The younger generation is probably more on TikTok now but as soon as TikTok dies I’m sure there will be something after so it’s best to create a strong presence now so when the next social media platform comes we can then jump on it quickly.”

According to Bell, the part-purchase of your social is just the start of an acquisition blitz that he’s got in the works for 2023.

The entrepreneur told Business News Australia that he’s been speaking to about 20 agency owners per day at the moment, who are pitching their businesses to the founder in hopes he might help take their company to new heights.

Bell said his parameters were pretty simple: targets have to be making between $1 million to $5 million in revenue and must offer something that Superist doesn’t have already.

From there, Bell’s Superist will take a half stake in the entity and help scale the business. His aim is to have at least 20 international offices by December this year, driven by the planned acquisition of another four or five agencies. Funds are coming directly from Bell and his various ventures.

Though he remained tight-lipped on the name of the next acquisition, Bell said it was an AI marketing business and the goal was to close the deal within the next three weeks.

“We’re launching a couple of new agencies at the moment - we just launched an office in Vienna, Austria. We’re launching in Ireland in June and then Germany in September,” Bell said.

“We’re going to keep buying stakes in other agencies that offer services we don’t currently offer or in regions we don’t have a base in.”

As for the impetus behind this spending spree, Bell said it was simply a desire to keep moving and to continue growing his existing business.

“I think I was just getting complacent and a little bit lazy. I felt like I wasn’t progressing fast enough,” Bell said.

“I need to be busy all the time, otherwise I feel like I’m just going backwards.”