Publicis Worldwide are continuing to expand their roster of digital and mobile focused businesses with the acquisition of the award-winning mobile specialist business, Front Foot, which will be joining forces with Publicis Worldwide Australia, effective immediately. The business, which is based in Sydney, will complement Publicis Australia's existing digital and integrated communications capabilities, with the company's founders, Anton Sher and Ben Astill, moving their small staff of 14 employees into Publicis Worldwide's Sydney and Melbourne offices. The business will still, however, continue to operate under the Front Foot name. This is the second announcement this week involving Publicis acquiring a mobile-focused agency, as on Wednesday the Publicis Groupe announced the acquisition of the mobile specialising, real-time data-driven digital ad firm RUN.
The business, which is based in Sydney, will complement Publicis Australia's existing digital and integrated communications capabilities
Front Foot was founded in 2006, and has spent the last 8 years earning a reputation as one of the most capable, mobile-focused digital services businesses in Australia. They might specialise in mobile, of course, but they also offer multi-channel solutions to their clients using the highly adaptive “Agile” methodology, which is an increasingly popular alternative to traditional project management. The business brings a wealth of blue-chip clients to Publicis, including sports broadcaster ESPN, Tabcorp, Zurich Financial Services and Telstra. The business has also earned more than its fair share of awards, claiming successive AIMIA Awards for best mobile product or service, and earning a place as a finalist at this year's AIMIA Awards for Best Tablet Product or Service for its work with TAB.
This will be the second major addition to the Publicis Worldwide's Australian roster engineered by Andrew Baxter, who also played a part in the acquisition of Cubed back in July
Andrew Baxter, CEO of Publicis Worldwide Australia, said that plans for their new partners include “A focus on providing full capabilities to manage end to end customer engagement for clients and their brands.” He calls Front Foot a “Stand out business,” which was an incredibly attractive prospect from them as they turned their attention “To the role mobile plays in customer engagement.” This will be the second major addition to the Publicis Worldwide's Australian roster engineered by Baxter, who also played a large part in acquiring the (similarly) award-winning Cubed agency back in July, which significantly strengthened the group's CRM and digital communications capabilities.
The business brings a wealth of blue-chip clients to Publicis, including sports broadcaster ESPN, Tabcorp, Zurich Financial Services and Telstra
Sher and Astill are both delighted to be joining the Publicis family. Sher said that “Being part of the capabilities Andrew Baxter and his team are assembling at Publicis Worldwide Australia will be fantastic for Front Foot,” and Astill believes it'll be a great fit because they have always backed their team “To deliver the highest-quality, transformative and commercially successful digital products and services,” and will have an even greater chance to do this with Publicis. They are, of course both aware of the challenges they will face joining forces with such a huge agency, but both say they “Love a challenge to demonstrate what (they) can do for clients.”
Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and musician from Kidderminster in the UK.
