Digital marketing agency Aquaonline has merged with marketing network Wunderman, to create what the companies are calling SA's “first truly integrated digital and direct agency”.
Although Wunderman acquired Aquaonline in 2007, their operations had not been fully integrated in SA until now.
Aquaonline CEO Brent Shahim will head the new entity in Johannesburg.
“Although we were aligned with Wunderman and fell under their management network, for the last few years we had still been operating separately with separate offices, but now we have merged into a single operation,” explains Shahim.
Global meets local
Wunderman headquarters are located in New York, and the company owns a network of marketing agencies from countries around the world including India, Japan, France, Russia and Sweden.
The company focuses on direct marketing, or reaching a target audience through focused database analysis and directed customer relationship management (CRM).
On the other hand, Aquaonline focuses on online and mobile campaigns.
The next level
The two companies have worked together on a number of projects, including campaigns for Microsoft, Land Rover and Standard Bank. The marriage brings Wunderman's global clients together with the Aquaonline client list that includes MTN, Pick n Pay, Nokia and Southern Sun.
“The line between digital and direct marketing has become blurred,” says Shahim. “Direct marketing used to rely on the more traditional methods such as direct mail and CRM. Such methods are now essentially being taken directly to the next level by digital marketing.”
Looking ahead, Shahim says, while the companies had only been working as single unit for about a month, “in the next three or four months, you will see the start of some really interesting integrated projects”.
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