AUCKLAND, Wednesday: Publicis Groupe has bought – lock, stock, and barrel – the business of leading NZ independent customer experience agency Affinity ID, which will be relaunched later this month under the ‘Digitas’ brand.
Immediately, however, it’s apparent that most of the decisions – including the first press release – are being forged in Sydney.
Founded in 1999, Affinity ID clients on both sides of the Tasman include Countdown, Kiwibank and Southern Cross.
Publicis ANZ’s Sydney-based ceo Michael Rebelo said (in the release): “Under the new mantle of Digitas Affinity ID, the NZ team will be joining a network of 34 offices across 22 countries, allowing their New Zealand and Australian clients access to the largest number of data scientists in the industry and the biggest buying power of digital media globally.
“The launch of Digitas New Zealand comes during a period of expansion for the brand, following recent openings in Dubai and Jakarta over the past few months.
“Immediately, it’s apparent that the big decisions – including this first press release – are being forged in Sydney.”
“New Zealand is a key market for APAC,” Rebelo said. “And the launch of Digitas through Affinity ID completes an important part of the picture for us here. Now, in addition to our creative, strategic, digital and media expertise; under the ‘Power of One’ platform, we can provide clients seamless access to best in class, data-driven customer experience capabilities.”
Affinity ID NZ co-founder/director Angela Day says their decision “to choose” Publicis Groupe and Digitas was grounded in shared expertise and ambitions and the ability to link into the resources and capabilities of the global network.
“We had a number of unsolicited approaches from leading communications and management consultancy groups, however, we felt the strategic direction and vision of Publicis Groupe and Digitas, were congruent to what we truly believe in – the ability to fuse technology and creativity to ignite change.
“Throughout the process, we found Publicis Groupe to be the leading player, more knowledgeable than the others, with proven expertise and already delivering in this space. Their ‘Power of One’ ethos really resonated with us and we are looking forward to working closely with Saatchi & Saatchi and our other sister agencies to deliver end to end marketing transformation for clients.”
Sydney-based Digitas ANZ ceo Adrian Farouk said: “Increasingly, clients want their agencies to help navigate the ever more complex digital ecosystem and to do this well in New Zealand requires us to be on the ground and amidst the action.
“We are excited to bring into the fold a smart group of people in Affinity ID, who will help build on Digitas’ strength as The Connected Marketing Agency by using data to fuel creativity.”
About Affinity ID
Affinity ID was founded in 1999 by Angela Day and Geoff Cooper.
About Digitas
Digitas is The Connected Marketing Agency, with 3500 employees across 22 countries and 34 offices, with an extended network via Publicis Media of over 23,500 employees present in more than 100 countries.
About Publicis Groupe
Publicis Groupe includes Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett, BBH, Marcel, Fallon, MSL, Prodigious, Starcom, Zenith, Spark Foundry, Performics, Digitas, Publicis Sapient and Publicis Health. Epsilon, the data-driven marketing and tech company and its platform Conversant, is positioned at the centre of the group fuelling all operations in over 100 countries with 84,000 employees.
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