WPP-owned Outfit Wunderman has taken a majority stake in software solutions specialist Pierry, a US-based outfit with specialization in optimizing campaigns in Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
The agency network has not disclosed financial details of the stake it has taken in the US-based outfit, which has a headcount of approximately 100 across offices in New York City, Boulder, Colorado with an outlying office in Kyoto, Japan. It posted revenues of $14.5m for 2016, and boasts a client roster with names such as: LifeLock; Louisiana Tech University; plus Major League Soccer franchise the San Jose Earthquakes.
Pierry touts its marketing-as-a-service approach to client services as its unique selling point, and is a Salesforce Platinum partner with the development, keeping in line with WPP’s strategy of investing in outfits specializing in content, data and technology. For instance, other WWP investments include: Amazon focused e-commerce outfit Marketplace Ignition; content management specialist Cognifide; plus digital creative shop Celtra.
The move also complements WPP’s recent investment in podcasting specialist Gimlet, plus it comes in the wake of the holding company consolidating its agency roster, a spate of activity that has seen its bring Rockfish under the VML umbrella, as well as merge Brand Union, The Partners, Lambie-Nairn, Addison Group and VBAT to form one global agency.
Speaking during its most recent results call, where it posted disappointing results, WPP chief Sir Martin Sorell portrayed a somber state of the current advertising industry, and even went as far as describing top-line growth for large corporations as “anaemic”.
Sorrel is often quick to highlight that it is this awareness of the growing need for marketers to demonstrate an ROI to their boards that has spurred some of the agency network’s investment decisions in recent years.
“In a slower growth world, both more recently and post-Lehman, inflation has been negligible, perhaps also suppressed by digital deflation. As a result, clients have markedly less pricing power and finance and procurement departments are very focused on cost," he said in WPP’s most recent earnings call.
