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Brainlabs acquires Exverus Media in a bid to flesh out its full-funnel offerings
By Michael Bürgi • July 22, 2025 •
Ivy Liu
Consolidation among independent media agencies continues apace — a reaction to the holding companies getting bigger and bigger, which creates more opportunity for indies to pick away mid-market clients.
Digiday has learned that performance-oriented media agency Brainlabs has acquired L.A.-based fellow independent media agency Exverus Media. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed upon request, but it brings the total company to 1,060 employees. The thinking behind the acquisition, according to Dan Gilbert, Brainlabs’ founder and CEO, is to round out Brainlabs’ offering to be more full-funnel, given Exverus’ abilities on the upper- or brand-end of the funnel.
“There was an increasing demand from clients to have a full-funnel approach,” said Gilbert. “So we started looking around at the various agencies in the market, and when we came across Exverus, it was like a light went [on].”
“I think it’s a fantastic acquisition for both of them, because I think that there’s related, but very complementary skills,” said Steve Boehler, who runs consultancy Mercer Island Group. “But most importantly, the Exverus acquisition brings some really important top of the funnel thinking and capabilities to Brainlabs.”
Although small (only about 50 people work there), Exverus has expand its offerings to reflect more abilities than most smaller media agencies, including building out programmatic offerings at a time when that was almost exclusively the domain of holding companies.
For now, the two agencies will continue to operate under their brand names (although Exverus will henceforth be known as Exverus by Brainlabs). The principals of both Brainlabs and Exverus said they’re already working together on new pitches.
“From a cooperational standpoint, there are probably going to be opportunities for us to fold in with the Brainlabs team and tackle projects new client opportunities together and really be one team, one dream pretty quickly,” said Bill Durrant, who co-founded Exverus with Talia Arnold, the shop’s managing director. “There are strategic opportunities that have already happened and that are going to continue to happen where we can now fold in new services and new solutions for our clients.”
Arnold said clients just want to know they can be covered for all their needs in one place. “I can’t tell you the number of conversations that I’ve had with clients that are saying, ‘You know, I just want someone that’s able to look at everything’,” said Arnold, whose clients include Premier Protein, Dymatize, and New Belgium and Bell’s Brewing. “They want national brand building equity media, but also want to know how that fits in with increased investments in retail media and programmatic.”
“For Brainlabs, there aren’t very many acquisition targets that are as smart and with as good a track record [as Exverus] and yet would be as affordable,” said Boehler. ”For their brains and their reputation, [Durrant and Arnold] punch above their weight already.”
But Arnold and Durrant were also quick to point out what they gain from being bought by Brainlabs — the expertise goes both ways. “Things like SEO and organic content and creative and their bigger tech stack, and their planning software and data software,” said Arnold. “A lot of the resources that we’ve been hungry for for a long time now we’re going to be able to offer.”
The move also empowers Brainlabs and Exverus to compete for a larger type of client, as well as larger independent media agencies like PMG or Tinuiti — the latter of which also made a few acquisitions over the last few years to round out its ability to service clients from top to bottom of the funnel.
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