LONDON — MikeWorldWide – the independent agency recently rebranded from MWWPR – has acquired UK technology PR specialist agency Chameleon, to create MWW London.

The expanded organisation – with a combined team of almost 30 PR, content and digital professionals, including 11 existing MikeWorldWide employees in London – will be led by Chameleon CEO Tom Buttle, who becomes president and managing director.

Buttle acquired Chameleon along with Tom Berry in 2017 through a management buy-out and built it to an award-winning agency. The merging of the MikeWorldWide and Chameleon teams will create one of the top five B2B and top 15 technology PR firms in the UK.

Buttle (pictured, left) told PRovoke Media: “Tom and I are have always thought about the next thing we can do to make this agency even more stellar. I’m still loving the momentum, we have wind in our sails, and we’re doing better and bolder work.

"To fulfil the scale of ambitions we have, it was a two-to-four journey to bring in incremental revenue and build teams, and the moment we started speaking to Michael [Kempner, MikeWorldWide founder and CEO] we felt it was a company we could be part of. To go bigger, bolder and quicker, it felt like the right home. I’m genuinely excited – we didn’t believe we’d find such a natural fit.”

As part of the deal, Berry, who became chair in 2019, will step away from the business after a six-month transition to continue his career as a teacher, as well as supporting social enterprises as a board advisor and non-executive director.

Berry told PRovoke Media: “My overarching emotion is pride, in taking Chameleon from a tech shop with potential to an agency that has not only won awards for its work but hired some brilliant people. We’ve always been people first and MWW impressed us because of that commitment to culture and because they share a lot of the same values. I’m leaving the agency in such a great state and I have no doubt that it has so much more ability now to fulfil that potential.”

There will be no redundancies and the new agency is currently hiring. There are also no client conflicts, said Buttle: “The client base is really complementary – the legacy MWWPR clients are broader than Chameleon across fintech, media, consumer tech, plus we bring more pure B2B technology.

“What I’ve got in mind is keeping us as a technology powerhouse, but there’s a hugely exciting opportunity for more B2B brands – from law to management consultancy to accountancy – all needing a technology narrative to showcase what their business is about and their role in digital transformation. Technology is no long a silo.”

Kempner (pictured, right) added: “Chameleon is not only one of the best tech PR shops in Europe--they’ve built an impressive reputation on insights, measurement and creating sophisticated solutions to challenging assignments.

“We love the fact that they take on global clients with an attitude that’s confident, smart and when needed, scrappy. That hunger to keep pushing forward and doing new things will be the perfect complement to our talented and exceptional team currently in the UK.”