Gazprom Media, Russia’s largest media holding and a subsidiary of Gazprom, has invested an undisclosed amount of money in St Petersburg-based Happy Monday Family group of companies (HPMD) that deals in online advertising and influencer marketing, business daily Kommersant reported.
This is the first deal of the media holding in the influencer marketing segment in Russia. Gazprom Media acquired “a significant share” in the HPMD group, with the management being retained by its founders Nikolay Bunkin and Yevgeniy Safonov.
The HPMD group includes the Happy Monday agency that works with bloggers, the HPMD Network that provides mobile advertising services, the Booster video distribution platform, the Influencer micro bloggers platform, and a content creation center. By the year’s close, HPMD’s revenues are expected to reach 500 million rubles (almost $8 million at the current exchange rate.)
According to the official company register, the HPMD group is run by Happy Monday LTD. It revenues in 2017 were about 219 million rubles (about $3.8 million) and its profit exceeded 3 million rubles ($51,500.)
The deal will allow the two companies to work in synergy in producing cross advertising projects that will involve bloggers. The HPMD group will not be producing any content for Gazprom Media’s television network, said Bunkin.
In 2018, the influencer marketing market in Russia accounted for 9 billion rubles, most of which involved advertising on Youtube. This year, according to HPMD forecasts, it may increase up to 12-14 billion rubles, which makes it the fastest-growing segment of the online advertising market in Russia.
Earlier this year, Gazprom Media led a $2 million funding round for a catering startup in Moscow.
