Global management consulting giant Accenture is set to acquire US ad tech business Adaptly and Australian Oracle reseller PrimeQ for $31 million.
Consultancies have been ramping up on diversified services in recent years, with many acquiring creative agencies, in a bid to gain more revenue from clients and drill deeper into the marketing sector.
Adelaide-founded PrimeQ provides Oracle Cloud, applications, technology and managed services and is thought to be one of Accenture's biggest rivals for local Oracle deals, alongside Deloitte.
More related to advertising, but in the US market, the Adaptly acquisition is part of its quest to “significantly” boost Accenture Interactive's programmatic services offering.
It remains to be seen if this could impact the Australian business and if the ad technology would be used here. The technology aligns with Accenture Interactive's ambition to move into media, announced earlier this year.
Accenture says the acquisition of the digital media services company will strengthen its ability to help clients “transform the digital customer experience” – by managing data-driven campaigns across digital advertising channels and platforms.
Adaptly partners with major digital platforms including Amazon, Facebook, Google, Instagram and Snapchat and has clients such as Chico’s, Mazda, Prudential, Sprint.
Nikhil Sethi, co-founder and CEO of Adaptly, says: “As new consumer experiences emerge and new digital platforms are born, our mission has always been to help brands connect with people in new and powerful ways.
“These digital platforms are where most people interact with the brands they love and as a result, the majority of advertising spend is moving towards them.”
Nikki Mendonça, president of Accenture Interactive Operations, says the acquisition will help it to further reinvent today’s operating approach by “re-engineering the campaign process with data, applied intelligence and digital technologies”.
“This results in improved ROI and greater transparency for our clients’ digital media omnichannel campaigns,” Mendonça says.
The past two years has marked a flurry of consultant acquisitions and investment in some of the best creative agencies. These include several Down Under like The Monkeys, Thinkerbell, The Works and AJF Partnership.
Still on the acquisition trail, Accenture Interactive is rumoured to be part of a small group of bidders looking to acquire ad agency group MDC Partners, the owner of 72andSunny.
The emergence of consultancies into adland has been bold and agency leaders have taken notice. Top execs like The Works’ founder Damian Pincus have added insult to injury by claiming the hybrid consultant/ agency model is stronger than a “traditional agency” model, turning down multiple offers from groups like Omnicom in favour of what he touts as “the future of advertising”.
See: How is adland responding to the threat of consultancies?
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