Front Row Group is doubling down on connected commerce.

The e-commerce and Amazon-focused agency announced it has acquired Socium Media, a performance marketing and digital growth firm known for its work across paid search, social, SEO, and shopping. Socium will merge into Front Row’s integrated agency business under EVP and Managing Director Katie Martin, expanding the company’s Connected Commerce platform and its ambition to deliver end-to-end growth for modern consumer brands.

In a market where brands are under pressure to tie storytelling directly to revenue, this deal is less about scale and more about closing the loop between creative and measurable performance.

Why This Deal Signals a Broader Shift

Retail media is booming. Amazon continues to absorb brand ad dollars at a rapid pace. Meanwhile, off-platform media—from paid social to influencer and search—has increasingly become the engine that drives demand back into marketplaces.

The problem? Many brands still manage brand strategy, creative, marketplace operations, and performance media in silos. That fragmentation slows execution and muddies attribution.

Front Row’s acquisition of Socium is a direct response to that tension.

Front Row has built its reputation around Amazon marketplace management, retail media, and creative strategy for beauty, health & wellness, and CPG brands. It claims its partnership brands have exceeded Amazon category growth benchmarks across those verticals. With Socium in the fold, it adds deeper expertise in paid search, paid social, SEO, and broader digital growth strategy—connecting the discovery phase more tightly to marketplace conversion.

“Connected commerce is about ensuring strategy, creativity, and performance are not operating in silos,” said Katie Martin.

Translation: no more handing off campaigns between agencies and hoping the data lines up.

From Marketplace Mastery to Full-Funnel Control

Founded by Sam Sherman and Owen Loft, Socium brings a client portfolio that spans travel, wellness, and lifestyle brands, including Auberge, VINCE, Canopy, Magic Spoon, and OSEA. Its strengths lie in performance marketing disciplines that increasingly determine how and where consumers discover products before they ever land on Amazon or a D2C storefront.

That matters because Amazon is no longer just a shopping platform—it’s an outcome platform. The awareness and intent are often built elsewhere.

As off-platform media continues to influence marketplace performance, agencies that can control both the narrative and the performance mechanics gain a strategic edge. Front Row is clearly positioning itself as one of those agencies.

The combined organization integrates:

• Amazon marketplace management

• Retail media expertise

• Brand strategy and creative campaign development

• Paid search and shopping

• Paid social and influencer marketing

• SEO and GEO

• Retention and lifecycle marketing

In practical terms, that means a brand launching a new beauty SKU can ideate creative, run demand-gen campaigns on Meta and Google, activate influencers, optimize SEO, and drive conversion on Amazon—all within one operational framework.

For CMOs tired of reconciling dashboards across three or four partners, that unified model is appealing.

A Competitive Agency Landscape

The acquisition reflects broader consolidation trends in the commerce and performance marketing space.

Holding companies and independent networks alike are racing to assemble full-funnel capabilities as retail media networks multiply and commerce media blurs traditional lines between brand and performance. Agencies like Tinuiti, Wpromote, and Media.Monks have similarly invested in integrated commerce offerings that bridge retail platforms and off-platform media.

Front Row’s edge lies in its vertical specialization—particularly in beauty, wellness, and CPG—and its deep Amazon DNA. Adding Socium strengthens its ability to compete not just for marketplace management budgets but for total commerce growth mandates.

For brands operating in highly competitive Amazon categories, marginal gains in off-platform performance can translate into significant category share wins. Front Row is betting that tighter integration between creative and performance will unlock those gains more consistently.

What Changes for Clients

In the near term, Socium will operate as “Socium, Powered by Front Row,” with full brand integration planned for later in 2026.

For clients, the promise is continuity with expanded capabilities. Socium’s founders emphasized alignment around a shared belief: performance marketing works best when it’s integrated with brand strategy and creative execution.

That alignment is increasingly critical as platforms evolve. Amazon’s advertising suite continues to expand. Retail media networks are fragmenting attention across Walmart, Target, Instacart, and others. Meanwhile, privacy changes and signal loss have made attribution more complex across Google and Meta.

An agency model that unifies strategy, creative, marketplace operations, and paid media may help brands navigate that complexity with fewer handoffs and clearer accountability.

The Bigger Commerce Play

Front Row’s acquisition strategy reinforces a larger thesis: commerce is no longer a channel—it’s an ecosystem.

Discovery happens on social and search. Consideration is shaped by content and influencer ecosystems. Conversion often occurs on marketplaces. Retention plays out through CRM and owned media. Agencies that treat those stages as isolated tactics risk underperformance.

By integrating Socium’s performance marketing capabilities into its Connected Commerce platform, Front Row is signaling that the future of agency growth lies in orchestrating the entire journey—from first impression to marketplace transaction.

As brands demand measurable ROI without sacrificing brand equity, the agencies that can align storytelling with performance rigor will likely win a larger share of commerce budgets.

This acquisition positions Front Row to compete for exactly that mandate.

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