IBM has announced it completed the acquisition of Resource/Ammirati, a leading, US-based digital marketing and creative agency. Resource Ammirati will join IBM Interactive Experience (IBM iX).
IBM iX is a next-generation services organization dedicated to creating personalized experiences. Services span industry strategy, creative and design, to scalable digital, commerce, mobile and wearable platforms. iX specialists work side-by-side with clients across over 25 global IBM Studios to co-create innovations that drive results.
Earlier this month, iX announced its intent to acquire European full-service digital design agencies Aperto and ecx.io (both with headquarters in Germany) as part of its strategy to expand the design and experience expertise of IBM iX.
Resource/Ammirati’s 300+ employees across its offices in Columbus, Chicago and New York will continue to serve a diverse roster of clients while supporting growing demand for iX’s services in the fast-growing North America market. Resource/Ammirati shares 75% of its current clients with IBM.
Among Resource/Ammirati’s most sound works it is the Sherwin- Williams ColorSnap, considered by Ad Age as the app of the decade.
Acquisition framed into the convergence agencies-consultancy-tech companies trend
“We’ve migrated and shifted away from being a core consultancy and likewise companies like Resource/Ammirati have had to adapt and change and move to really address more the digital advent and challenges clients face,” John Armstrong (IBM’s North American leader for IBM Interactive Experience) said.
Kelly Mooney (Resource/Ammirati CEO) underlined: “The CMO and CIO increasingly have to partner to tackle shared objectives”.
Ohio-based Resource, known for its retail and e-commerce expertise, acquired New York-based creative shop Ammirati in April 2014. At that time Mooney explained: “We’re bringing in more advertising, shopper marketing and package design capabilities that allow us to be agnostic about what the (client) problem is and how we approach it.”
Recent launches of consultancy oriented agencies like Nurun (Publicis), consultancy -agency alliances and purchases, such as the many carried out by WPP Group, Dentsu and other big Ad multinationals, even the propposed change in its corporate business object at Dentsu, or the fact that this Japanese agency itself is developing tech software and solutions for years, all together considered, show that this trend is no way just a fashionable one, but rooted in a deep change of the business.
In this context, the agency purchases by IBM just are a live example that acquisition movements may come from the tech and the consultancy side of the business as well.
Imagen sobre el titular.- © IBM iX
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