From our latest agency leadership podcast episode: Digital marketing agencies RocketMill and PMG reveal how their merger strengthened organisational culture and team retention, moving beyond traditional ESG principles and riding the Gartner Hype Cycle of acquisition excitement.

When RocketMill transitioned from an employee-owned trust to joining global agency PMG, they achieved something remarkable, improved employee retention, even after team members received their acquisition payouts.

"We didn't need to do a deal we wanted to, so it wasn't a deal born out of necessity," says Tom. "We were clear with the team that it was about opportunity creation and career enabling, but the notion of career headroom drove the decision."

"For the first six months, I'm not sure we lost anyone." Tom explains. "I think that curiosity played a large part in it. I think an understanding of the shared vision played a large part in it. And I think the fact that genuinely people could see that if you look at the portfolio of clients that PMG have, they represent some of the most iconic brands in the world."

PMG demonstrated their company culture commitment through strategic change management: "The head of people within PMG moved to London for four or five months with her family to be here on the ground with our team, to be with our people so that they understood. To ensure that they were heard, to ensure cultural sensitivity - it was just a very human thing to do."

Discover more insights about successful agency acquisitions on the Happy Teams podcast.