Big Red Group (BRG), the parent company of RedBalloon, has acquired experiences aggregator Adrenaline.com.au as part of their push to scale domestically and drive the business into international markets.
Now considered the third largest pure-play experience marketplace, Adrenaline is the first brand acquisition for the Big Red Group. It joins subsidiaries RedBalloon, Redii and Marketics (previously Albert AI).
Adrenaline, founded in 2008, has served over one million customers while fellow BRG subsidiary RedBalloon has served almost five million since 2001.
“With a multi-brand strategy we can expand our range to appeal to different audiences with different experience needs,” Big Red Group CEO and cofounder Naomi Simson says.
Co-founded in 2017 by Naomi Simson and David Anderson, the Big Red Group canopies a handful of brands spanning experience, adventure and gifting sectors.
“The acquisition of the Adrenaline business in Australia complements our existing assets; RedBalloon, known for experience gifting and Redii.com, delivering experiences in the B2B reward and recognition space. This deal brings a new adventure-focused audience to the BRG,” Simson says.
The addition of Adrenaline to BRG’s wheelhouse will diversify the Groups offerings, aiding in their vision of serving an experience every second, somewhere on earth, by 2025.
“We see momentum and demand building for experiences that serve different purposes for our customers - from gifting to team events, bucket lists, travel and the ‘things to do’ market,” Simson adds.
Over the next financial year BRG is set to deliver an experience every minute across Australia and New Zealand through its assembly of subsidiary brands, serving more than 500,000 experiences during FY19.
“We work with approximately 3000, mostly small business, experience supply partners across Australia and New Zealand. As experience aggregators, the BRG offers its partners another distribution channel, delivering repeat customers, brand reach and world-class technology as part of our shared service portfolio,” Simson says.
BRG’s acquisition of Adrenaline comes with logistical changes. Adrenaline offices have moved into BRG’s Sydney head office under the guidance of Marketics GM Julia Wilson, while total BRG staff count will now surpass 100 employees.
While the brands will remain separate, Adrenaline will utilise the BRG service, marketing and technology stacks to support operations.
“We’re committed to staying at the leading edge of technology and have invested greatly in infrastructure to build a globally scalable platform. An investment justified by the economies of scale achieved in serving different audiences from the one system,” Simson concludes.
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