IMA has acquired a majority stake in South African shopper marketing agency VF!, expanding its international retail marketing capability and strengthening its Activation and Experience vertical within The Smollan Group.
The deal brings VF! into IMA as part of a wider growth strategy focused on shopper experience, retail activation, and connected brand experiences across physical and digital commerce. Financial terms were not disclosed.
VF! specialises in analysing shopper behaviour and market trends to develop data-led campaign briefs, creative retail marketing, branded displays, retail systems, products, and immersive shopper experiences. The agency’s team will join IMA in new offices in Cape Town, while founder and chief executive Scott Adcock will continue to lead the business.
Adcock said: “Joining IMA marks an exciting new chapter for VF!. Over the past 20 years, we have built a business centred on understanding shoppers and creating meaningful retail experiences that deliver commercial value. Becoming part of IMA gives us the opportunity to scale our expertise, collaborate across a broader global network, and continue delivering exceptional value to our clients.”
Mike Smollan, chief brand experience officer at Smollan Group, said: “VF! brings an outstanding track record in shopper marketing, deep strategic expertise, and an exceptional client portfolio. This acquisition furthers IMA’s ability globally to create world-class experiences in physical and digital retail for the consumer, enhancing its ability to create connected brand experiences from awareness through to purchase.”
Founded in Leeds in 1988, IMA now operates across nine offices worldwide, including three locations in the UK as well as New York, South Africa, Dubai, Gibraltar, and Amsterdam. The agency works with brands including Adidas, Jet2, Autotrader, and Decathlon.
The acquisition strengthens IMA’s position in a part of marketing that has become more commercially important as retail media, loyalty data, in-store experience, and commerce strategy converge. Shopper marketing is no longer limited to point-of-sale displays or tactical promotion. It now sits between brand, customer experience, category management, retail operations, and data-led activation.
Grocery and retail media activity has already shown how closely marketing spend is becoming tied to customer data and purchase outcomes. The expansion of Sainsbury’s retail media activity illustrated how retailers are using loyalty data, campaign activation, optimisation, and measurement to help brands understand the route from attention to purchase.
Retailers and consumer goods companies are under pressure to make marketing spend work harder. Inflation, cautious discretionary spending, and higher operating costs have increased demand for activity that can be linked to sales outcomes. At the same time, the decline of third-party cookies and the growth of first-party data have pushed brands closer to retailers, loyalty platforms, and commerce environments where customer behaviour can be measured more directly.
Stores still play a strategic role in that system. Research into Gen Z store behaviour showed how younger consumers continue to use physical retail for discovery, social connection, and memory-making. Shopper marketing agencies that understand those behaviours can help brands make physical spaces commercially productive rather than simply operational.
IMA’s acquisition of VF! also reflects the internationalisation of shopper capability. Global brands want consistency across markets, but shopper behaviour, store formats, category dynamics, retail infrastructure, and consumer expectations vary by country. Agencies with both international reach and local market knowledge can adapt campaigns without losing strategic coherence.
For Smollan, the deal reinforces a retail solutions model built around sales, merchandising, activations, experiences, data, and technology. The group operates across 61 countries, works with more than 500 global and local brands, and employs more than 90,000 people. Bringing VF!’s specialist capability into IMA gives the group deeper creative and strategic retail marketing capacity within that footprint.
The agency market has been consolidating around integrated commerce offers as clients seek fewer gaps between brand, creative, media, shopper, and measurement. Acquisitions remain one route to building that capability quickly, particularly where specialist teams bring established client relationships and local expertise.
The integration work will determine the value of the deal. Shopper marketing depends heavily on local knowledge, retailer relationships, creative culture, and execution discipline. IMA will need to preserve VF!’s specialist strengths while making them available across a broader network. If that balance is achieved, the Leeds-founded agency will have a stronger platform in a market where retail marketing is becoming more data-led, more measurable, and more closely tied to commercial performance.
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