2017 has just drawn to a close, with no let-up in the global spending spree on agencies by Management Consultants.\u00a0 The latest acquisition (by Accenture) is Irish creative agency \u2013 Rothco.\u00a0 What can we expect to see in 2018?\u00a0 And what are the implications for Client:Agency relationships for Consultancy owned Agencies?<\/p>\n
The purchase of Rothco by Accenture is its 18th<\/sup> agency acquisition in 3 years – making good use of a reported $1.8bn \u2018war chest\u2019 with a stated objective to evolve into \u201ca major experience agency\u201d.\u00a0 Apart from the scale and scope of the acquisitions another characteristic is the geographical diversity.\u00a0 In the 12 months since the purchase of Karmarama Accenture\u2019s acquisitions include:<\/p>\n These add to a network of existing agencies in the Accenture portfolio on every continent.\u00a0 There\u2019s even been speculation in the press that WPP or Publicis Groupe could be a target for acquisition based on the size of Accenture\u2019s war chest.<\/p>\n Although Accenture may have been very prolific in its acquisitions it is not alone.\u00a0 Cognizant, for example, recently acquired the independent digital agency \u2013 Zone and also Netcentric in Zurich.\u00a0 IBM and Deloitte have also got \u2018deep pockets\u2019 making a number of strategic agency purchases.<\/p>\n The move on agencies has also been supplemented by attracting key talent – Deloitte Digital poached DigitasLBI\u2019s mobile advertising figurehead – Illico Elias, and Accenture hired Amir Malik, Programmatic Director of Trinity Mirror Group.<\/p>\n Whilst the focus of acquisitions has until recently been on digital agencies there is no doubt now that the large consultancy firms are moving into the advertising and creative business \u2013 enabling the integration of creative excellence with digital customer experience delivery.<\/p>\n Given the credentials of the Consultants you can expect that full financial due diligence has been undertaken before these acquisitions took place.\u00a0 But this is creative territory, a largely unfamiliar area to the consultancy firms.<\/p>\n A key challenge is to retain and build on the Agencies\u2019 business and capabilities.\u00a0 Clients often choose the Independent agencies for that very reason – their independence \u2013 they offer the agility, innovation and free thinking not always enjoyed in larger agency groups.<\/p>\n Perhaps more importantly, how do they ensure they get the best from their Agency portfolio?\u00a0 It\u2019s common knowledge that Holding Company conglomerations of agencies in a network don\u2019t always work in the integrated way they promise.<\/p>\n In 2018, we anticipate that more emphasis will be placed on understanding the quality of the Client:Agency relationships before acquisition takes place, as well as\u00a0 measures to maintain those relationships post acquisition.<\/p>\n Whilst integration is likely to be more vertical into the Consultants other services \u2013 we suspect that there is still some way to go before the Consultants look and operate like a joined up agency network.<\/p>\n Christine Downton<\/p>\n Senior Consultant<\/p>\n The Observatory International, London<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 2017 might be drawing to a close but there has been no let-up in the global spending spree on agencies by Management Consultants…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[158,155],"class_list":["post-2160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-en-us","tag-agency-capabilities-en-us","tag-marketing-trends-en-us"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n