Acquired by the current owner in 2014, Primary is a branding and property marketing agency serving B2C real estate companies throughout the country with creative/design, social media, digital marketing, 3D marketing, and web development solutions, bringing places to life and people to places. They help savvy owners, operators and managers in real estate, hospitality, and beyond conquer their business goals through brilliant brand building, 3D rendering, digital strategy, lead generation, and more. With clients from Woodmont Way to 201 Canal to The Haywood, the Primary team is experienced and positioned for growth. 

Exiting to Renovate a New Orleans Property and Spend Time with Family

After years of running and growing Primary, the owner John was ready to spend more time with family and friends, travel, and go golfing more regularly. The founder planned to move onto his next big project and was looking for a quick exit. After the exit, he was open to being available should the new owners need help or have questions.

He reached out to us at Barney because he didn’t just want to get the payout he deserved (although, he wanted that too!). He wanted to find a buyer who would keep Primary thriving and growing, who would ensure opportunities for his team, and who would fit their world-class culture. He made the right call reaching out to us – our unique approach to M&A is about finding you the perfect fit financially, culturally, and strategically. 

Hyper-Specialization, Smart Strategies, and a Strong Team

We love a business that serves a niche clientele and meets a critical need, and Primary definitely fits that bill. Their hyper-focused specialization in multi-family real estate affords them deep industry knowledge, broad experience, and authority over their competitors. With their smarter strategies creating consistent results, Primary has helped thousands of properties reach lease-up goals through effective campaign strategy. Their capabilities are suited to transform places in any way needed, using a wide range of services to position brands and achieve client goals.

Top clients love the results Primary gets them, and most have relationships with the agency for over five years. Their hard-working, virtual team is hyper-focused on fulfilling client work and the experienced leadership team was already doing a fantastic job running the business with minimal day-to-day involvement from John. With clearly defined roles and shared responsibility over client relationships, management has a long history of taking small engagements and transforming them into large, multi-year partnerships with notable clients in the property management industry. 

Long story short: Primary was thriving and poised for growth, and we were more than up to the task of finding them a perfect-fit buyer to capitalize and build on the agency’s success.

Looking for an Agency Buyer

John wasn’t looking for a buyer who would simply view Primary as a hands-off investment. He wanted an agency buyer with synergies including depth of talent and expertise in digital who could help take Primary to the next level. He knew Primary had a ton of talent, expertise, creative firepower, and awesome clients – and he wanted to find a buyer who could appreciate and expand on all of it. 

Crunching the Numbers and Telling Primary’s Story

For us, John’s needs were crystal clear. Mission received – our team of hardworking, visionary creative thinkers put their heads down and got to work. We started by getting to know Primary inside and out, from their culture to their clients to their numbers. Once we had a strong handle on what made Primary amazing, we crunched the numbers and figured out the agency’s worth to buyers in today’s market. From there, we crafted marketing materials to tell Primary’s story and share why it could make an incredible acquisition for the right buyer. We shopped those materials around to high potential buyer targets in our vast pool of entrepreneurial and strategic buyers to land on Primary’s ideal buyer: Cloudmellow.

A Tech-Driven, Full-Scale Digital Marketing Agency with 100+ Employees

A tech-driven, full-scale digital marketing agency based in Florida, Dallas, and India, Cloudmellow has a proven track record of transforming businesses around the globe with thoughtful and innovative marketing strategies. Their teams offer SEO, search engine advertising, social media strategy and advertising, and content marketing to help clients build and sustain a pipeline of quality leads. Goal-focused and planning-driven with a passionate belief in the convergence of data, creative, UI/UX, lead generation, and digital marketing to produce results, Cloudmellow found a perfect synergy across culture, goals, and services with Primary.

Cloudmellow was looking to expand their industry service in real estate and offered great terms, making the partnership a perfect fit for both organization’s goals. Both companies were excited to combine experience, results-oriented teams, and strategy to integrate the best in data and analytics, SEO, reputation management, creative, and content, creating campaigns that provide the best of ‘what’s next’ in the digital era.

“It was my absolute pleasure to work with John, the founder at Primary 360. Hyper-focused specialization in multi-family real estate, Primary 360 offered deep industry knowledge, broad experience, and competitive advantage for its clients. While the COVID-19 pandemic was hitting multi-family real estate industry hard, selling Primary was all about finding a match that had compatible culture, strategy and synergies. I am so happy that John is now able to exit to focus on the next phase of his life, knowing that his clients and employees are in good hands. I am super excited for Shreyans to expand CloudMellow’s services and to create wonderful results for clients.”

Esther Townell, Senior Acquisition Manager at Barney

Peace of Mind and a Perfect Partnership

When all was said and done, John got to walk away with cash in the bank to fund his retirement and next venture in hospitality, and the peace of mind knowing Primary was in great hands. Cloudmellow and Primary made the perfect partnership to bring ideas, strategy, resources, creative firepower, talent, and expertise to current and future clients. And we made it all happen with our new breed of M&A at Barney.