Announcing our Acquisition of Idealizer and the Launch of BlueGlass in Switzerland

We are excited to announce that BlueGlass is again expanding our international presence with the acquisition of Swiss agency Idealizer, the launch of BlueGlass EMEA, and the hiring of Michael Bonfils as Vice President, Global Markets.

Agencies that manage campaigns across multiple countries have been struggling to provide the right value to advertisers, and that’s both a disservice to the clients, and an opportunity for BlueGlass in our global growth strategy.  Content simply translated from one language to another, and distributed across various countries PR networks, simply doesn’t provide the value brands deserve. Content gets adopted in entirely different forms from one country to the next, and strategies need to support these variations by providing the content in the right context.

BlueGlass’ international expansion strategy is designed to combine an incredible system of outreach with an online marketing and content creation strategy tailored for local markets by experienced native speakers to provide clients with globally aligned high-return services. Today marks both the next step in our international growth strategy, and the hiring of one of the world’s premier international search marketers to help steer this growth.

BlueGlass EMEA & True International Capabilities

BlueGlass was formed with a simple but lofty goal: improve the way companies market themselves online with extraordinary strategies, service and software powered by the best minds in digital marketing.

We are on a mission to reshape and redefine the global marketplace by bringing together the best digital marketers from around the world into a premium agency that exists not only to provide remarkable services to our clients, but also to be a resource for marketers to come to for help when faced with difficult digital marketing problems, decisions, or opportunities.

Acquisitions like this bring scalability. Our proprietary IP systems and internal teams provide services and growth potential for our clients that would be difficult — or maybe even impossible — to build on a country-by-country basis. By adding the Swiss based Idealizer team and launching BlueGlass EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), we are bringing additional thought leadership into both markets, as well as expanding our local market knowledge in Europe.

Located in the center of Europe, Switzerland is an ideal starting point for increased BlueGlass activity throughout the EMEA region.  Switzerland has a multi-lingual, culturally diverse, and high-qualified workforce. Additionally, Switzerland houses the headquarters of many international companies in major global industries such as pharmaceuticals, nutrition, and of course finance.

Helping to drive further international growth, Michael Bonfils is a true pioneer in the international digital marketing industry. Since 1996, he’s been at the forefront of helping pioneer best practices and thought-leadership in global search engine marketing and furthering innovations in advertising technology. His addition as Vice President, Global Markets brings with it experience and leadership in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

About Idealizer

Idealizer is a digital marketing agency founded in 2007 by industry veteran, Patrick C. Price, based in Zurich, Switzerland. In many ways, the Idealizer team’s offerings mirror what we do in the U.S. but they also bring deep expertise in localization, internationalization and a European network of connections.

My partners and I have known Patrick for many years from speaking at many of the same conferences.  I have always been amazed at his insights and how he always seemed to be ahead of the curve in predicting the evolution of the European search marketplace. Once we had the chance to meet the rest of the team and see the work they were doing, we knew they were the right company to build around. We firmly believe that our capabilities combined with Idealizer’s expertise in the European marketplace will result in unprecedented innovation for clients.

Idealizer has doubled over the past year and was already on pace to double again this year, prior to the acquisition. With this acquisition and our existing growth forecasts, we expect even greater accelerated growth for BlueGlass EMEA within the months ahead.

About Michael Bonfils – Vice President, Global Markets

For international marketing to be done properly, you need a clear plan and a truly integrated approach. Simply growing for the sake of growing has never been a part of our vision. As I talked about when we acquired Quaturo and launched BlueGlass UK, we firmly believe that our long-term success will depend on centers of excellence in different geographical locations. In order to succeed, we needed a proven leader in this space. Enter Michael Bonfils, our new Vice President, Global Markets and the person who will be responsible for tying it all together.

Prior to joining BlueGlass, Michael was the President of International Media Management Corporation known, for its global online advertising and search engine consulting and service division of SEM International.  Since 1996, Michael has been at the forefront of helping pioneer best practices in global search engine marketing and innovations in technology advertising.  Michael has deep expertise in international and multilingual search engine marketing management services and has worked with global advertising agencies and Fortune 1000 firms.

Michael is a true thought leader in the international marketing space. He contributes to Internet marketing technology and trends, spending time writing for national publications and speaking at events around the world such as Search Engine Watch, SES, ISS/SMX, and Pubcon to name a few.

Our company ideology is based on this simple principle, “We are stronger as a whole than as individual parts.” The addition of Michael to lead our international efforts makes us infinitely stronger as a company. With offices now in Los Angeles, Tampa, London, Zurich, South America, and Australia, we have a true and growing global presence.