Anatoly Roytman, managing director of Accenture Interactive in
Europe, Africa and Latin America called the move "a game-changer in
the industry. We've arrived. There was no pitch because no other
agency could offer this entire, end-to-end scope. It's our first
win using everything we have as Accenture Interactive."
This year for the first time, four
consultancies cracked Ad Age's ranking of the 10 largest agency
companies in the world, with Accenture Interactive leading the
pack.
Roytman was behind last year's acquisition of
London creative agency, Karmarma, which will lead the Maserati
account. The focus is on being a customer-centric "experience
agency," looking at every point where the consumer comes into
contact with Maserati. This includes brand and creative work,
digital advertising, strategy and content production, campaign
management, SEO, analytics -- everything down to the test-drive
experience.
Accenture Interactive already works with Fiat Chrysler on
smaller-scale projects. The success of the Maserati partnership
will be judged on how many cars are sold, says Roytman. "It's not
about clicks and views; our KPIs are about selling cars to the
right audience," he says.
Roytman claims Accenture Interactive has broken down traditional
silos. He says, "We've learned step by step. We bought a service
agency Fjord (in 2013) and integrated that – it was a
learning curve. Then we bought a performance agency, then
production."
The process of building Accenture Interactive into a network
that can take on Maserati globally has taken time. "Each
acquisition taught us lessons around maintaining an agency's
culture while integrating it into something bigger," Roytman says.
"Putting a more technical business together with emotional creative
people is not easy. It requires the right environment, where both
sides can express themselves. We go as fast as we can without
breaking them in the process."
Accenture Interactive acquired two more creative agencies this
year –
Monkeys in Australia and
Altima in France.
But the agency has been steering clear of media. "We never
wanted to be in media," Roytman says. "We don't want to be in the
commission business and we agreed not to do that from the
beginning. It's not a good model to get involved in."
Asked whether agencies need to be worried about consultants,
Roytman says, "We all need to be worried."
He adds: "We all need to change. The consultancies need to go
beyond the single project mindset. Clients need a partner to
generate growth, and it's not possible to do that on a project
basis."
He concedes, however, that Accenture Interactive still has a way
to go. "The majority of clients still buy in the traditional way,
and procurement is not set up to deal with this new model. But the
pace of change is getting faster and faster. "
"We want to engage with our customers across all channels in
more meaningful ways. Accenture Interactive have the capabilities
to manage our customer touchpoints holistically so we can deliver
great experiences that build consistent, seamless and authentic
interactions with our discerning customers," says Jacob Nyborg,
Maserati's head of marketing, in a statement,
Maserati has been responsible for several
celebrated Super Bowl ads over the years, but none since Saad
Chehab
quit as global chief marketing officer in October 2015.
Italy-based Nyborg was promoted to the role in September 2016.