Two Acquisitions, One Year Later: What We’ve Learned

When we acquired Primer and Uplift Content in 2025, the obvious benefit was expanded capability. Primer brought deep paid media and performance creative expertise while Uplift brought content writing experience in the B2B SaaS space. 

Together, we could offer a broader range of services to our existing B2B clients, while also extending our reach into a more consumer-focused market.

Separate brands, shared direction

Both acquired brands have real legacy and strength, so we didn’t want to force everything under one umbrella. So Primer would stay Primer, Uplift would stay Uplift, and Klimt would stay Klimt.

But since the services complement each other, the teams would need to work together rather than operate in isolation. That meant getting a close look at how each organization actually runs day to day.

Any acquisition brings differences in process and team culture. But the differences were never a problem to solve so much as a chance to see our own habits more clearly. 

Seeing our own systems through new eyes

It’s easy to assume your systems make sense when they’re simply how you work day to day. That gets harder when another strong team is doing similar work in a meaningfully different way. 

Getting to know and work closely with Primer and Uplift over the last year, I found myself asking questions like:

• Why are our processes the way they are?
• What new systems can we adopt from our new team members?
• What have we been treating as “normal” that could be reconsidered?

The differences between the orgs showed up in both big and subtle ways. Some of it was structural: different project management systems, delivery tools, and norms around where communication happens and how much gets documented. Some of it was cultural: how people contribute in meetings and how they share progress.

Some differences turned out to matter more than I expected.

How team discussions changed

One example came through the weekly presentation and training sessions we run at Klimt. These are designed to help team members practice articulating their ideas clearly, responding in real time, and getting more comfortable speaking about their work. 

When the Primer team joined those sessions, they brought a different kind of energy. They readily jumped into discussion and sent Google Meet emojis to show agreement without interrupting the speaker, something the Klimt team had never done.

That may sound small, but it changed the meeting dynamic. Our training sessions felt more interactive. Speakers got more feedback than before and our own team began to participate more actively.

I also started to notice our team members seemed to take greater ownership of their work when presenting it to a wider internal audience, not just to the same manager or immediate teammates who already knew the project. Explaining what you’re doing, why it matters, and how you approached it to a larger group is a different exercise from routine review. It asks for more confidence and pride in the work itself.

That kind of cross-pollination is hard to manufacture. It happens more naturally when strong teams with different defaults start working in proximity and paying attention to each other.

The larger lesson

A year in, here’s my biggest takeaway: Acquisitions are about more than adding services. They’re also a chance to revisit your own assumptions and borrow better ways of working, especially for practices that may have gone unquestioned for too long. 

Another team’s workflow can reveal your blind spots, and your own systems can do the same for them. Ideally, both sides come away stronger. That has certainly been true for us. 

We still do the work Klimt has always done in brand and marketing design. But now we also have greater perspective across paid media and performance creative through Primer, and content through Uplift. More importantly, we have a better understanding of how those disciplines work together, and how systems can improve when different teams learn from one another instead of trying to become identical.

Would I do it again? 

Absolutely. Because now, between Klimt's brand and marketing design, Uplift's content capabilities, and Primer's paid media and performance creative, we can take a brand from idea to identity to in-market, all under one roof. Primer and Uplift made that possible, and our clients are feeling the difference.

Given this experience, we don’t intend to stop here. If you know of any marketing agencies that could be a natural fit under our umbrella, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re proud of what Primer and Uplift have made possible already, and even more interested in continued growth from here.

A version of this post originally appeared in the Klimt & Design newsletter. Sign up to get similar insights delivered to your inbox.