中文Diversified marketing services business IVE, which is the country’s biggest print business, is making a strategic move with the acquisition of digital outdoor media owner Motio. The 20.7 million dollar acquisition gives IVE a targeted extension to its core capabilities and aligns with its 2030 plan of expanding into adjacent opportunities, marking a notable pivot for a company built on the creation and production of printed communication.
The deal means IVE moves beyond the creation and production of marketing communications and into the ownership, delivery and monetisation of media, opening new markets, new customer segments and new recurring revenue streams. In essence it gives IVE an end-to-end proposition to take to the market, creation, production and delivery, a vertical integration that few Australian marketing services groups can match.
The acquisition also complements IVE’s recent acquisition of creative agency Daily Press and its existing strengths across data, creative, production, technology, retail and one-to-one communications, all of which IVE says will create a more integrated proposition. For clients, the appeal is a single partner that can conceive a campaign, produce the assets and then place the media to reach the right audience, collapsing what has traditionally been a fragmented buying process.
Motio owns some 1,300 digital screens in around 1,000 locations across the country. Its screen assets tend to be located in high-volume, high-dwell-time environments such as medical centres, sports centres, cafes and pubs, providing a captive audience that is stationary and attentive, exactly the conditions that deliver engagement for advertisers. Place-based media has quietly become one of the more resilient corners of the outdoor sector because it reaches people in contexts where they are receptive rather than simply passing by.
Matt Aitken, managing director of IVE, said Motio is a profitable place-based media owner in environments where audiences are typically stationary and attentive. He noted that consistent with the acquisition initiatives communicated under the 2030 strategy, IVE is pleased to be entering the place-based media sector through the proposed acquisition of Motio, a profitable owner with a differentiated network in environments where audiences are typically stationary and attentive.
Motio gives IVE the ability to offer clients a channel they cannot currently access from IVE, and gives Motio’s network access to one of the largest advertiser bases in the country, a classic ecosystem play in which both sides gain reach. Motio’s revenue for the 2026 financial year was 9.2 million dollars, up eight percent on the previous year, a growth rate that suggests the business is reaching scale.
Motio began building its digital place-based media business in 2020. Its managing director Adam Cadwallader joined the previous year after seven years in sales at oOh Media, and he has shaped the company into a focused, profitable operator. The deal requires approval by Motio’s shareholders, but all directors have said they will vote in favour of the sale to IVE.
Cadwallader said the team has spent the past several years building Motio into a very different business, simplifying the company, improving its operating performance and establishing specialist media networks across a number of attractive environments, an achievement the team should feel incredibly proud of. He added that IVE is a highly regarded Australian business with significant scale, capability and complementary expertise, and that there is a strong strategic fit between the two businesses. For IVE, the move is less a departure from print than an expansion of the canvas on which it operates.
Source: This article is a reworking of reporting originally published by Print21 (print21.com.au) on 23 September 2026.
IVE’s move is part of a broader convergence between content creation, production and media placement that is reshaping marketing services. For years, printers and agencies operated in separate lanes, with media buying handled by specialists who controlled access to audiences. By acquiring a place-based network, IVE collapses that separation and offers clients a single relationship that spans strategy, production and delivery. The recurring-revenue logic is compelling; media assets generate ongoing income from advertisers rather than one-off project fees, smoothing the revenue profile of a business historically exposed to project cycles. Motio’s focus on high-dwell, high-attention environments such as medical and sports centres also insulates it from the commoditisation that afflicts roadside and transit inventory. Whether the 20.7 million dollar price proves judicious will depend on integration, but the strategic direction, print companies becoming media owners, is one of the clearer threads in the industry’s recent dealmaking.
The risk in any such acquisition is integration, and IVE will need to prove that a print-led culture can absorb a media-led one without friction. Media sales, with their emphasis on audience data and advertiser relationships, differ markedly from the production-led mindset of a printer. If IVE manages that integration well, the combination of creation, production and placement could become a durable competitive moat; if not, Motio risks being a well-priced but awkward fit. The shareholder vote, with all directors pledged in favour, suggests the market expects the former.
