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Tamsin James

Introducing Forge, a new impact-driven growth consultancy created through the integration of two of our established insight and strategy businesses, Freemavens and The Forge.

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Today, we launch Forge, a new impact-driven growth consultancy created through the integration of two of our established insight and strategy businesses, Freemavens and The Forge. 
 
In an era of disruption and transformation, Forge’s mission is to help global organisations create tomorrow’s value today through next generation advisory expertise. It will offer clients five core consulting capabilities; Foresight &amp; Trends, Dynamic Demand, Growth Strategy, Go-to-market innovation, Business Capability &amp; Implementation, taking clients from identifying future pools of growth through to execution and impact.&nbsp;
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Working with global businesses including PepsiCo, CFA Institute, Danone, Diageo, Unilever, Kraft Heinz, Forge will be headquartered in London, with additional offices in Amsterdam and New York. It will be led by Chief Executive, Steven Melford, and Chief Growth Officer and Managing Director, Eleanor Lloyd Malcolm. They will report to Bart Michels, Executive Director at MSQ. 
 
Clients will benefit from a single partner that can move seamlessly from diagnosis to delivery, working with best-in-class specialists at every step of the journey. Forge’s unique peloton team model, supported by data, tech &amp; creativity, enables it to deliver robust critical intelligence at pace without compromising on the partnership and engagement required to drive transformational impact through organisations. 
 
Michels says: "The strategic consultancy market is ripe for disruption. There is a big gap between brilliant strategic thinking and genuine business impact. &nbsp;By combining our senior consulting expertise with intelligent data, integrated technology and applied creativity, we believe Forge is perfectly placed to close that gap, giving clients both the thinking and the means to act on it.” 
 
Melford says: "We measure ourselves by outcomes rather than outputs. That’s only possible when you have our unique combination of exceptional “deep thinking” talent in the same room as best-in-class data, AI technology and creative firepower. Transformative tools allow our team to go deeper, move faster, and deliver with a level of precision that simply wasn't possible before. I believe that combination makes Forge a hugely exciting proposition." 
 
Eleanor Lloyd Malcolm, Chief Growth Officer and Managing Director, adds: "Forge is a consultancy for the next generation of growth leaders. Our position within the MSQ network gives us a unique perspective as advisors not just on where growth lies but how to realise it. We have the ability to deliver strategic advisory at the highest level with the tangible toolkits needed to drive engagement and implementation throughout an organisation. Only then is impact achieved at the pace required to win. 
 
Founded in 2012, Freemavens was a pioneer in using digital data to fuel consumer led strategy at the pace of culture. It has been part of the MSQ group since 2020, after MSQ acquired its previous parent company, Be Heard. &nbsp; 
 
The Forge was acquired by MSQ in May last year. The business was initially founded in 2013 and operated a successful director-only colleague model, working with global clients across healthcare, consumer products, retail, fashion, entertainment and finance.&nbsp;
For more information, visit: <a href="https://forgemsq.com/">forgemsq.com</a>

MSQ brings together Freemavens and The Forge to launch new global growth consultancy 

Matt Williams

The acquisition accelerates international digital experience and tech powerhouse – MSQ DX – in America, building further scale and capability to support MSQ’s market-leading multi-disciplinary offer.

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Today we are further expanding our presence in North America and building out our international digital experience and tech powerhouse – MSQ DX – with the acquisition of Atlanta-based digital experience company, Arke.
MSQ officially launched MSQ DX last month, uniting our existing digital experience agencies – 26 DX, MMT, and UDG – under a single, scalable global framework with integrated leadership and a unified brand. The world’s first digital impact company, MSQ DX, delivers AI-powered, data-driven customer experiences across digital product design, martech, ecommerce and operational modernization. It measures success by translating digital experiences into client outcomes – revenue growth, operational efficiency and competitive advantage.
The addition of Arke significantly strengthens MSQ DX’s North American footprint, adding an 80-person team headquartered in Atlanta and an advanced delivery hub in Florianópolis, Brazil. This aligns with MSQ DX’s deep capabilities across the UK and Europe, creating a connected network of 600 digital experts generating $80M+ in revenue and serving leading global brands including Porsche, Bosch, Vodafone, Caesars Entertainment and the CFA Institute.
Arke’s integration not only expands MSQ DX’s scale and reach, it also unlocks broader opportunities for multi-disciplinary services to MSQ clients in North America (such as Chase, Mars, Booking.com, and Coca-Cola), while providing Arke’s own clients with access to MSQ’s world-class creative and performance expertise through its New York hub and beyond.
The move builds on our ongoing growth in the U.S., following last year’s acquisition of New York-based creative agency SPCSHP which doubled our U.S. presence and increased revenues to $100m. The addition of a base in Brazil now allows MSQ to explore opportunities to expand our capabilities into South America.
Founded in 2005, Arke has built a respected reputation in the digital consulting ecosystem, blending bold UX vision, engineering precision and scalable martech, tripling its revenues in the past three years to $15m. Its work has fuelled exponential growth and operational efficiency for businesses in the restaurant, travel and hospitality, retail and financial services industries such as Chick-fil-A, Inspire Brands, Hersheypark and Equifax. Arke has earned a spot on the #Inc5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America.
Eric Stoll, Arke’s founder and CEO will join MSQ DX’s global leadership that includes Florian Frey, Mathias Reinhardt and Rebecca Crook and, together with his management team, will lead the digital experience business in America. The rebrand of Arke to MSQ DX will be phased over the coming months.
Arke’s team will join MSQ’s 1,850 worldwide colleagues working across thriving multi-disciplinary hubs of scale in North America, Europe and Asia where entrepreneurial agencies can collaborate, fusing together data, tech and creativity to bring joined-up thinking and deliver brand momentum for clients by harnessing broader skills in MSQ’s New York hub and beyond.
Arke deepens MSQ’s strong relationships with leading technology platforms – building on our 20+ year relationship with Optimizely in the U.S. and bringing added strength through its partnership with Contentstack, where Arke is one of just four Elite Partners globally and was recently named 2025 Agency Partner of the Year.
Peter Reid, Group CEO of MSQ, commented: “Arke is a brilliant addition to the growing MSQ family and further accelerates a number of strategically important points in our growth plans – building out our presence in North America, further delivering on our vision to create a global digital experience and tech powerhouse and bringing the interesting dynamic of a near-shoring facility in Brazil where we will look at expanding out our capabilities.
“By harnessing the combined skills of Eric and the wider Arke team with those in our New York hub, we bring greater depth and breadth in the scope of services we can offer in North America – a compelling and beneficial integrated offering to existing clients and to the wider market.”
Eric Stoll, founder and CEO of Arke, said: “We’ve always believed in building for what’s next. MSQ’s multi-disciplinary structure, cultural alignment and global reach make this the right inflection point for our next chapter – accelerating our ability to deliver next generation AI-powered digital experiences at scale.
“Arke is now positioned to lead digital transformation initiatives across the full customer lifecycle, from strategy through loyalty, harnessing MSQ’s broader integrated capabilities across MSQ’s data, media, creative and production network.”
Eric Stoll will work closely with MSQ’s Executive Director Ben Rudman and MSQ’s North America President Aaron Lang.
MSQ’s Executive Director Ben Rudman, added: “We are already seeing the strong cultural fit between our businesses through the many opportunities we are jointly exploring.
“With Arke following hot on the heels of the UDG acquisition and with around 600 people now working across digital experience and tech, we are building out our global powerhouse vision.”
Acquiring Arke marks the latest move in MSQ’s U.S. expansion plans. In the last two years SPCSHP (creative), MSQ Sport + Entertainment (sport and entertainment marketing), Smarts (PR and creative), M3 Labs (creative production agency) and Walk-In Media (full service media) have joined established sister agencies The Gate (creative and CRM), Stein (B2B media) and Elmwood (branding and design) in the U.S. under the MSQ portfolio.
Earlier this year MSQ acquired London-based insights-led strategy and innovation consultancy The Forge, connected commerce agency PRECIOUS Media and AI-led global production agency Wooshii.
Find out more about <a href="https://www.msqdx.com/en">MSQ DX here &gt;</a>

MSQ Expands Further into Americas with Acquisition of Atlanta-based Arke

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Introducing MSQ Procurefest

Introducing MSQ Procurefest - a platform to help marketing procurement professionals, marketing directors and agencies discuss the key issues facing them now and in the future.