Dive Brief:
- Publicis.Sapient, the digital business transformation segment of Publicis Groupe, has named Teresa Barreira as CMO, a news release announced. Barreira was previously CMO at Deloitte Consulting and has experience with Accenture and IBM in digital and agile marketing, omnichannel and client-centric strategies.
- Barreira will support business growth and Publicis.Sapient's position in digital business transformation by bringing together experience design, technology and consulting expertise to SapientRazorfish and Sapient Consulting.
- In separate news, Wunderman, a digital agency that's part of WPP, launched Wunderman Inside, an agency model to provide onsite services for its clients as an alternative to in-house agencies, a news release announced. The company appointed James Sanderson as managing director to lead the practice.
Dive Insight:
Traditional agency holding groups like Publicis and WPP are weathering growing competition from consultancies and in-house shops as brand clients search for marketing services providers with a greater focus on technology and agility. Publicis has in recent years been positioning itself as more data- and tech-driven, and Barreira — a veteran of Deloitte, Accenture and IBM — brings a wealth of experience from the consulting side of the ad world that might help the company further accelerate its transformation and stay competitive.
Publicis' shift toward digital technology has recently delivered some returns, with Marriott International earlier this month announcing plans to consolidate its massive global paid media business under Publicis Groupe's Spark Foundry and SapientRazorfish. Marriott, which previously had WPP's Wavemaker handle the bulk of its paid media duties, cited a desire to become more data-driven and streamlined as the reason for the change. In February, Mercedes-Benz also named Publicis as its global network and digital agency, and the agency launched a Berlin-based shop called Publicis Emil to handle the account.
The Wunderman Inside news demonstrates another way traditional agencies are trying to become more fleet-footed as some major brands bring marketing services, particularly on the digital side of things, in-house to cut costs and better manage their campaigns.
"There's growing demand from clients for greater proximity to their marketing teams. Wunderman Inside combines strong on-site resources and the strategic and creative power of the agency to give clients the right balance of speed, cost efficiency and innovation," Wunderman Global CEO Mark Read said in a statement. "We believe this is a more effective long-term model than typical in-house agencies that struggle to attract talent and consultancy-led models where clients become dependent on expensive resources."