Publicis Media has announced the merger of its two media agencies, Blue 449 and Spark Foundry to streamline operations under the Spark Foundry name. The two agencies will work as a unified entity globally but will remain as separate brands working closely together in the U.K., France and the U.S. where Blue 449 has the strongest foothold.
This consolidation move follows the acquisition of Spark Foundry’s new clients like Marriott and Lenovo (global), Mondelez (multi-market), Macy’s and many others.
The new global company will be led by incumbent Spark Foundry global president and CEO Chris Boothe who was recently appointed last year. In the markets where the separate agencies will remain, the Blue 449 domestic operations will retain its individual executives: Simon Davis in the UK, David Ehlers in the US and Pascal Crifo in France.
“As a brand-led organization, we are committed to our strong agency brands as transformation partners for clients,” said Steve King, CEO Publicis Media. “Guided by this commitment, we are further scaling Spark Foundry as a global network.”
This announcement adds Publicis in the list of companies merging agencies in the last few years. In 2018, WPP merged creative agencies VML and Y&R (VML&YR), and media agencies MEC and Maxus (Wavemaker) in 2017 among several others. Omnicom had also merged Daggerwing and Ketchum in 2016, while MDC Partners integrated KBS to global agency Forsman & Bodenfors.
Related links:
Spark Foundry
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Blue 449
