Publicis Sapient consolidates in Australia
Publicis Sapient has shuttered SapientNitro, Razorfish and 2Datafish as separate businesses, consolidating them into the wider business.
Publicis
The company announced today (10 April) that it was retiring the legacy brands to “position the company for significant growth as it serves its clients’ transformation needs during a time of unprecedented digital disruption.”
“The launch of the new brand represents the manifestation of the full integration of our business here in Australia,” explained Publicis Sapient Australia managing director Sarah Adam-Gedge.
“This move strengthens and underpins our commitment to serve as a guide to clients facing an unprecedented environment of rapidly changing consumer preferences, largely driven by technology. This requires a constant re-examination of their business models through the eyes of that audience. To help our clients transform and thrive in this marketplace, we also need to continually transform ourselves so we are able to deliver holistic advice based on our understanding of people, bold creativity and business strategy across industry verticals, and technology.”
It comes following the appointment of Nigel Vaz as global chief executive in February. At the time, he told The Drum he would focus on unifying its 20,000 people and 53 offices behind the Publicis Sapient brand.
The data and technology side of the business, in which Publicis Sapient sits, has been experiencing growth against a number of headwinds. Last year, it grew 28% compared to organic growth across the entire business of just 0.8%.
Chief executive Arthur Sadoun's response has been continued consolidation of some Publicis’ global agencies in an effort to cement the "streamlined ‘country model’" it has in place. Last month, Publicis Media merged Blue 449 and Spark Foundry under the latter’s brand.