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Accenture buys The Monkeys and Maud

Global professional services company Accenture has bought independent creative agency The Monkeys and design business Maud.

The acquisition aims to strengthen Accenture Interactive’s customer experience capabilities, as well as the services Accenture Interactive provides to chief marketing officers and chief digital officers.

Mark Green, The Monkeys’ chief executive officer, chief creative officers Justin Drape and Scott Nowell, and Maud chief creative officer David Park, will continue in their current roles as well as take on additional Accenture Interactive leadership positions to drive brand strategy and creativity in Australia and New Zealand.

Originally known as Three Drunk Monkeys, the independent creative agency launched 11 years ago in Sydney.

Since then, The Monkeys, which now boasts 130 employees, has won awards including 2017 Asia Pacific Creative Agency of the Year Mumbrella Asia Awards2016 AdNews agency of the year, as well as six gold Effies, the Grand Effie and Effective Agency of the Year at last year’s Effies.

The agency has been shortlisted with 14 nominations across 11 different categories at this year’s Mumbrella Awards, and boasts some of Australia’s biggest clients, including Telstra, Qantas and Meat and Livestock Australia.

Some of The Monkeys’ best known work over the past 12 months includes Meat and Livestock Australia’s Australia Day campaign and Spring Lamb campaign, as well as Qantas’ third ‘Feels like home’ campaign, which was inspired by former creative director Neil Lawrence.

Meat and Livestock Australia’s Australia Day ad sent a powerful political message:

The Monkeys’ most recent work for Qantas:

The agency also won the creative account for Pizza Hut earlier this year.

A series of creative and strategic appointments have also been made over the past year, including Carlton Big Ad co-creator Grant Rutherford as creative director and Michael Hogg as head of planning.

Commenting on the acquisition, Green said: “The combination of Accenture Interactive, The Monkeys and Maud is a great opportunity for our clients and teams as it will dramatically enhance our ability to connect brand strategy and creative all the way through to customer experience delivery.

“We look forward to offering clients an unrivalled and holistic customer experience offering.”

Brian Whipple, head of Accenture Interactive, said the acquisition will enable the company to “integrate creative excellence with digital customer experience delivery”.

“Together, we’re bringing our unique model to the market: part creative agency, part business consultancy, and part technology powerhouse – all focused on creating the best customer experiences on the planet,” Whipple said.

Michael Buckley, head of Accenture Interactive Australia and New Zealand, said: “For over a decade, The Monkeys has created provocative ideas that have redefined the industry and delivered innovative customer experiences.

“This acquisition further differentiates Accenture Interactive as a new breed of agency providing CMOs with innovative thinking and a new set of connected capabilities to win in today’s experience-led economy.”

Celebrating the agency’s 10th birthday in 2016, Green told Mumbrella:”I think you want to provide opportunities for the business to be successful and we have found, to date, that that has been us driving it and going independent.

“As long as we keep finding new ways to make it interesting and different … being in control helps us do that.”

Accenture Interactive’s acquisition of The Monkeys is the 12th for the company since 2013, and follows on from it buying Belgium-based integrated communications agency, Kunstmaan last month. Other recent acquisitions include Karmarama, SinnerSchrader, IMJ, AD.Dialeto, Pacific Link, Chaotic Moon and Melbourne-based Reactive.

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