What’s Next For Digital Agency Front Row Group

Digital agency Front Row Group has been acquired by private equity firm Charlesbank Capital Partners, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Charlesbank typically backs companies valued at between $200 million to $700 million and writes checks in the $200 million to $300 million range.

“There’s a giant global industry that is making a tectonic shift in terms of the way it operates, going from offline to online, and we think Front Row is a key enablement player in that shift,” Michael Choe, managing director and CEO of Charlesbank, told The Wall Street Journal. He continues, “We really like Front Row as a way to play this global trend of premium beauty brands getting much more comfortable with an online presence and really understanding that it’s an inevitable part of growing their brands.”

The company Charlesbank acquires is far bigger than it was just a few years ago. Formerly known as Fortress Brand, which was established by brothers Alex and Matt Beer in 2012 to build brands’ Amazon presence, Front Row has subsumed School House, Taylor & Pond, Bizmut and Finc3. The consolidation contributed to its revenues increasing 45% over the past four years and its team growing to 400 employees in the United States and Europe. Today, Front Row has more than 400 clients, including La Mer, Ouai, Summer Fridays, Amika and Wyn Beauty.

“We have been very strategic over the last three years in terms of our vision and goals and that really has led to us becoming the leading e-commerce agency and accelerator in beauty, health, wellness and consumer brands,” says Christoper Skinner, chief brand officer at Front Row and founder of School House. “We’re continuously looking ahead, and we’re just thrilled to have Charlesbank as a partner to help fuel our ability to provide our core capabilities, but also innovate in this space.”

Ahead, Skinner dishes on what’s next for Front Row, social commerce and the right time for a brand to launch on Amazon.

What made Charlesbank a good partner for Front Row?

They see a lot of opportunity within the e-commerce space. They recognize the incredible amount of growing trends across social influencer marketing spend, shoppable livestream, and they’re poised to support us as we double down on our core vision of being that leading accelerator in e-commerce for beauty, health, wellness and consumer brands.

What does that next chapter look like for Front Row?

We have a strong presence in North America with our agency and marketplace offering. In Europe, we have a very strong marketplace offering, and we want to continue to really take our capabilities and provide access to those wherever we are geographically or regionally. It’s very, very important that everything we do is available to our customer.

Then, it’s about continuing to provide that best-in-class talent for the capabilities that we’re focused on, but also going across themes and trends we’re seeing in alternative or growing spaces. On one hand, attention spans are getting shorter. We have TikTok Shop and the Amazon-Instagram partnership, which means you spend more time in-app. On the other, there’s a move toward mindfulness, including consumption on the brand side. It’s interesting to have this contradiction on brand building versus distribution and e-commerce building.

We want to continue to tap into where we see shoppers looking as brands are evolving and the cultural zeitgeist evolves. With this strategic investment, we’re able to experiment.

You mentioned TikTok Shop and shoppable livestreaming. Are there platforms you see rising or falling in the future?

Social media platforms have evolved from this brand awareness tool to direct sales channels and that has ushered in this era of social commerce. As we talk about e-commerce, we’re not just talking about supporting brands through management or full distribution on Amazon or ensuring they’re properly optimized for direct-to-consumer, it’s also about ushering in of the era of social commerce.

Shoppable livestream is an example of an area that’s redefining retail. The fusion of entertainment and commerce is starting to reach new heights. It’s nothing new to the industry. We have our HSNs and QVCs, but, with this ushering in of new consumers and the platforms they feel most confident in, it allows our brands to leverage live interaction to showcase product in real time and make purchases seamlessly. We’re going to continue to see innovative approaches in terms of how online retail is shaped for the future.

Is there a point when you know a brand is ready for Amazon?

A brand is ready for Amazon when there is a certain level of awareness in the market, there is proven growth within the direct-to-consumer channel, there is a strong strategic retail partner that is building awareness off their own direct-to-consumer channel. That is generally when a brand is ready for Amazon, either from an awareness discoverability or from an ongoing replenishment perspective.

Sometimes our strategy with supporting a brand on Amazon is purely in service of other retailers. It doesn’t necessarily always need to be a growth driver. Sometimes it’s a brand protection strategy where it’s purely about maintaining a sense of competitive price in other retail partnerships and ensuring that brand testimonials are cared for. Consumers are checking in-store or they’re on social and they pull up Amazon or they’re on Amazon and they pull up social.

The direct-to-consumer channel has become more challenging for brands. How have you helped clients with it? 

It’s through a lot of CRM and maintaining a sense of loyalty. That can run the gamut of paid media, direct mail, SMS strategies. I feel like there’s sexiness that comes with new client acquisition that we tend to be distracted by, but CRM is ever more important in terms of maintaining and growing both wallet share and heart share with existing customers.

So, there’s a lot of focus on customer retention that naturally can support direct-to-consumer business and other areas—awareness campaigns, media buy placement, affiliate partnerships, creator partnerships, influencer partnerships, etc. These strategies throughout a year maintain a top of mindedness for brands. Also, a lot of it is distribution strategy, ensuring that you’re not asking or providing so many lanes to the customer too early on that you’re just watering down or trading one channel for another.

As soon as one area becomes tougher, another area drops in. Direct mail is making a comeback because paid search is becoming more challenging. There’s a lot of tools in the toolbox, and it’s our job to ensure that we’re set up to service against all of the tools.

What do you think about the current state of the beauty industry?

It’s a really exciting time to be in beauty, and the excitement comes from the challenges of being in beauty. There’s a stronger democratization of who can play and win within beauty versus 20 years ago or even 10 years ago. There’s opportunity for more voices at the table.

Because of that competitive nature, we’re starting to see brands not just broadly targeting very large segments, but we’re seeing brands target or speak to subcultures and build around these micro-communities that allow people to feel represented. As a brand is successful in that space, there’s a halo effect that starts to happen and there’s a draw that brands begin to have with other customers.

You can’t really rest on the laurels of scale and notoriety anymore or the largest retail distribution footprint. You need to always be on and always be going back to your core roots, executing from those in an efficient manner.

What are goals for Front Row? 

We want to continue to bring in other organizations that can strengthen our offering and expand our ability to help brands scale and maintain a sense of competitiveness in the space. Just as we did a year ago when we brought five agencies together under Front Row, we want to ensure that our existing clients feel taken care of.

Are there areas or departments that you’re hoping to strengthen?

Social commerce is a big area of opportunity. It’s a new place for brands to win. I don’t think there’s necessarily a playbook yet in terms of how to do that, so we are excited to invest in time, talent and energy in pilot programs with brands to understand how you bridge entertainment and commerce in these channels.