Beauty product giant Coty has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire digital marketing firm Beamly, with the view to helping its brands, which include Marc Jacobs, Chloe and Rimmel, reach millennials through social media.

Beamlys primary focus is driving audience growth and engagement for consumer brands in digital media, and it is best known for its plugin for BBC iPlayer, ITV Player and other online video platforms that enable viewers to monitor social media while they watch.

While Beamly will continue to expand campaigns across external clients, the acquisition will provide a significant step change for Cotys own digital engagement capabilities, with Coty and its licensors benefiting from Beamlys suite of social data benchmarking, content creation and consumer engagement tools.

The Beamly team, which is based in New York and London, will work closely with Cotys in-house marketing organisation to provide enhanced digital marketing campaigns across a variety of consumer segments, but with a particular focus on digitally-engaged millennials.

“The acquisition of Beamly will address the accelerating consumer shift in time spent from traditional media to real time digital and social media channels,” said Camillo Pane, executive vice president of category development for Coty. “Jason (Forbes, CEO of Beamly) and his team have proven capabilities and a proprietary platform that successfully targets and engages millennial consumers.

“Further, Beamly will help us to accelerate the growth of our cCommerce business, and be a positive contributor as Coty advances toward becoming a highly focused, pure-play leader and challenger in beauty.”