Junkee Media has acquired short video platform TheVine, known best for its out there Bachelor recaps.
TheVine owner Tom Pitney will now head up the new venture focusing on social mobile video for Junkee, set to be announced in 2017.
Pitney bought the company in September 2015 and without any marketing spend managed to double its following to 104,000 in six months through social videos targeted at milennials.
The move follows OohMedia's recent acquisition of Junkee Media.
In the last three months, TheVine has had 11 million organic video views on Facebook, with over half of the people engaging with TheVine’s content aged 13 to 24 years old.
Speaking to AdNews, publisher and co-founder of Junkee Media, Tim Duggan, says: “We've been keeping an eye on Tom and his great work for a while, especially since they started doing their great TV recaps that spread really far on social media.
“We're constantly evolving and looking at ways to stay ahead of the curve. Tom has shown a lot of skill in getting TheVine to where it is, and adding him to the Junkee Media family is a great fit for both parties.”
He added that Pitney is a unique talent who has been able to build a large and engaged audience primarily using social video.
“He has the rare combination of natural editorial talent mixed with entrepreneurial skills and he’s going to be a great asset for Junkee Media as we grow our social mobile video reach even further," Duggan says.
TheVine will continue to operate as part of Junkee Media’s suite of channels.
“2017 is promising to be our biggest year yet and we are very excited to ‘acqui-hire’ talent like Pitney," Junkee Media CEO Neil Ackland says.
“What Pitney was able to do with The Vine is astonishing and we can’t wait to add his talent, energy and creativity to our video team which is now the fastest growing part of our business”.
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