Accenture has acquired Karmarama, one of the UK’s largest independent agencies renowned for blending creativity, digital and data to develop campaigns that help brands better engage with consumers. The acquisition strengthens the ability of Accenture Interactive, part of Accenture Digital, to create and deliver integrated customer experiences to brands in the UK and beyond. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Based in London, Karmarama develops advertising campaigns, data-driven content and mobile platforms to build immersive consumer experiences, ensuring that creativity is embedded across all aspects of a brand. Notable clients include the BBC, Confused.com, Honda, Just Eat and Unilever. Karmarama has a team of 250 employees spanning creatives, digital strategists and data practitioners.
The acquisition bolsters the full suite of customer transformation services Accenture Interactive provides to brands, from customer insights to creative conception and omni-channel delivery of meaningful human experiences. It also contributes to the growth of Accenture Interactive’s UK team of marketing professionals and creatives. Karmarama’s Jon Wilkins (Executive Chairman), Ben Bilboul (Chief Executive Officer), Sid McGrath (Chief Strategy Officer) and Nik Studzinski (Chief Creative Officer) will continue in their current roles and take on additional Accenture Interactive leadership positions to drive brand strategy and creativity in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America (EALA).
Brian Whipple, Head of Accenture Interactive
Brian Whipple, Head of Accenture Interactive, said: “Acquiring a creative agency in London, where some of the world’s most iconic creative work is produced, will help us reshape how brands imagine, create, and deliver customer experiences. Karmarama will become part of the world’s largest digital agency, expanding our global capabilities across experience, marketing, content and commerce with excellence in creative and mobile. This will contribute to further differentiate Accenture Interactive as a new breed of agency (experience architects) which helps brands connect disconnected experiences and shares accountability with clients for their business outcomes.”
Anatoly Roytman, head of Accenture Interactive Europe, Africa, Middle East and Latin America (EALA), said: “Karmarama is a pioneer of modern creativity that CMOs want – a big ideas agency with a deep understanding of how to connect people with brands. Together, we have created a new industry powerhouse and one of the largest homes for digital creativity in the UK. This acquisition will help Accenture Interactive to meet growing client demand in the UK market and beyond, and will enable us more than ever to push the boundaries when it comes to creating remarkable brand experiences.”
Ben Bilboul, CEO at Karmarama, said: “As part of Accenture Interactive, we will dramatically enhance our ability to offer best-in-class creativity and digital delivery. We look forward to extending our creative ideas across the entire customer experience, offering clients consistent and connected creativity. We believe this is a genuinely game-changing moment for clients and for our team, who will now have even greater opportunity to work with leading global brands across international markets.”
Karmarama was founded in 2000 and received backing from Phoenix Equity Partners in 2011. Karmarama is the latest in a series of acquisitions Accenture has made to rapidly scale Accenture Interactive’s end-to-end customer experience transformation solutions for brands globally. In April this year, Accenture acquired a majority stake in IMJ Corporation (IMJ), a full-service digital agency in Japan. Prior to that, Accenture acquired AD.Dialeto, an independent Brazilian digital agency; Pacific Link, a set of independent digital agencies serving Hong Kong and Greater China; Chaotic Moon, an Austin, Texas-based creative technology studio; and Brightstep, a Swedish provider of digital content and commerce solutions.
Salt December 1st, 2016, in the morning
Very interesting news