What you need to know:

• Accenture Interactive set to confirm cull of major agency brands as early as next week.
• Monkeys set to survive.
• Capgemini stepping up marketing services business drive, poaches new ANZ boss for Frog unit from Accenture Interactive.

Accenture Interactive CEO David Droga is set to imminently wrap almost all of the group’s ad businesses under the parent brand in a bid to capitalise on the trend for consolidation underway across key markets and upsell more services to major advertisers. Locally Mi3 understands there will be little change with The Monkeys to survive the homogenisation process.

Other outfits including Droga’s own plus London hot-shop Karmarama and design agency Fjord are also expected to retain brand identities amid industry speculation of pushback from some of the affected agencies.

Mark Green who heads both Accenture Interactive ANZ and the Monkeys declined to comment on the global plans, which were first reported by Business Insider. But he is known to be close to Droga who took the helm at the US$12.5bn powerhouse last year and appears intent on a major shakeup as it vies for supremacy with Deloitte Digital, now reported to be booking US$16bn globally, though much of that is said to come from IT services.

Locally Deloitte Digital is thought to be writing upwards of AUD$1bn in revenue, underpinned by IT services. As a like for like comparator, Accenture Interactive plus Accenture’s technology services arm is also estimated to be booking around a billion dollars of revenue in ANZ.

As traditional ad holding companies feel the heat, Capgemini is also attempting to carve out a larger piece of the action and has soft launched San Francisco-founded global design firm Frog in Australia. The firm has raided rival Accenture Interactive to spearhead Frog in ANZ, last week appointing Jason Ross to lead the business as managing director reporting into Capgemini Invent boss Susan Beeston.

Globally the company said strategy and transformation revenues accounted for 7 per cent (€1.27bn/AU$1.86bn) of group revenues totalling €18.16bn/AU$26.6bn for FY 2021, but was by far the fastest growing part of its business at +27 per cent.

Capgemini ANZ boss Kaylene O’Brien is tasked with doubling local business within three years and told Mi3 that tapping CMO budgets in parallel with CIO spending envelopes forms a mainstay of that plan following last year’s $96m acquisition of listed Australian tech, CX, brand, data and design group RXP, which two years earlier acquired creative agency The Works for $33m.

Unlike Accenture Interactive, however, which will need to beef-up media buying capabilities if it is to land the consolidated Coles account locally, O’Brien indicated that Capgemini has little current interest in challenging traditional holdcos on placing brand media budgets.