Brand activation, creative and production agency Ride Shotgun has bought Leeds-based CGI studio Set Visions.
The addition of 18 highly skilled CGI specialists expands Ride Shotgun’s in-house capabilities and grows the team to over 80 employees, putting the agency well on track to achieve their initial target of £10m turnover.
Ride Shotgun CEO Mark Mallinder said the acquisition bolsters its existing expertise in brand strategy, creative content, video production, photography and digital services: “Our model is to have in-house specialists at every step of our clients’ marketing journey,” he said. “We had a gap in our ability to deliver against this for CGI, which our acquisition of Set Visions enables us to fulfil. They also have some exciting tech capabilities, which we are looking to develop further.”
Set Visions transitioned from a traditional photographic studio to photorealistic CG image creation 15 years ago.
Set Visions co-founder and MD, Chris Heeley, will continue with Ride Shotgun as digital production director and says joining Ride Shotgun will allow it to continue to push boundaries and challenge creative production methods.
Heely said: “The fast pace and blurring lines of multi-channel marketing requires a collective approach and Ride Shotgun’s in-house strategy keeps us fluid and reactive to developing technologies.
Heeley added that his business partner of over 30 years, Graham Nelson, is taking the acquisition as an opportunity to slow things down and retire.
The acquisition reinforces Ride Shotgun’s position as one of the UK’s fastest-growing content production agencies. The company was created in 2022 following a merger of Leeds-based Cry Havoc and Sheffield’s Born + Raised.
