Three experience agencies – High Output, L!VE and Sardis – have combined under a new brand, Ansera, to create a research-driven platform to help clients better understand and design impactful live experiences.
Backed by Houston-based private equity firm Willistown Capital, Ancera will employ approximately 150 people and operate studio facilities in Chicago and Boston. The company positions itself as a single partner capable of supporting live, hybrid and virtual experiences nationwide.
The deal comes amid a surge in private equity consolidation in the experiential sector. Just one week ago, Jack Morton and Impact XM announced plans to merge, creating a global experiential agency with more than 1,000 employees in 20 offices around the world.
Earlier this month, Strata, a London-based brand experience agency group backed by private equity firm Ethos Partners, acquired Wonderland Agency, an experiential event production company also based in the UK capital.
Comprehensive strength and national scale
Darren Fultz, CEO of Anthera, said the merger was driven by a perceived gap in the market between small local carriers and large global distributors: “Customers want scale and consistency without losing care, creativity and vision.” “This is not growth for growth’s sake. Anthera was created to fill that space in between.”
Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts, High Output is an entertainment technology company providing film, television, theater and live events.
Founded in 1974 as Sound Advocate and headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, L!VE has evolved through multiple mergers into a full-service event production agency. Its history includes the acquisition of Iacono Productions and manufacturing division 3dx in 2019. The company reports producing more than 50,000 events for more than 11,000 brands.
Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Gurnee, Illinois, Sardis operates as an experiential marketing and communications agency, providing event production, creative services, video and technology solutions.
fight distractions
Central to Ansela’s positioning is the idea of “creating moments of awe” that help brands attract attention. “Live experiences are no longer competing with each other, but with endless distractions,” said EJ Corporan, director of marketing and growth at Ansera. “Clients are asking deeper questions about attention, memory, and meaning. Ansera was built to answer these questions through research, insight, and a more rigorous understanding of how people actually experience moments together.”
To support this positioning, the new company has developed an internal research initiative focused on the psychological and physiological effects of live experiences, which the company calls “awe research.”
“For decades, our industry has relied heavily on intuition and anecdotal success,” said Darren Fultz, CEO of Anthera. “We are moving beyond our assumptions about what makes an experience work and toward understanding why certain moments resonate and how to design them intentionally.”
Anserra said this research will inform experience strategy, creative development and measurement, reflecting a broader shift towards evidence-based experience design as brands seek clearer ROI from direct engagement.
