Another week, another Accenture buy; and an ad making me sad

Accenture has formally moved its tanks onto the lawn of the big holding companies, writes Dominic Mills. Plus: why Captain Obvious has caused a bout of depression

Last week Accenture bought itself another agency, this time the California-based outfit Wire Stone.

The purchase follows hot on the heels of another acquisition earlier this month, the UK marketing training specialists, Brand Learning. According to Accenture, it’s the consultancy’s 15th purchase in the marketing services area in the last five years, and follows that of Karmarama last year.

Although we should not conflate the two purchases – Brand Learning inhabits a very different space from Wire Stone – there’s no masking Accenture’s intent.

This year it is projecting revenue from marketing services of $6bn which, if it achieves it, would make it a bigger player than Havas, although some way off the likes of WPP, Publicis and Omnicom. It has moved its tanks onto the lawn inhabited by the big holding companies.

Looking at the bigger picture, it is clear the tectonic plates are shifting. Looking at the latest H1 M&A figures for the marketing communications sector from Results International, we can see how.

First, of the 438 deals tracked by Results, the single largest volume is in the full-service digital area. Second, while Dentsu, WPP and Publicis are still buyers, their targets are mostly about topping up, either geographically or by discipline, and are therefore small add-ons. No game changers there, and it is worth noting that Omnicom and Interpublic are conspicuous by their absence. WPP’s 22 deals totalled $500m (an average of $23m), according to R3; Accenture’s 6 deals added up to $420m, at an average of $70m.

Third, many of the buyers are largely new to this space – Accenture, Teneo, Serviceplan and Stagwell (no, I’ve never heard of them either).

It’s worth adding too that the much-anticipated wall of Chinese money coming into marketing services seems to have dried up for now, and may well stay that way so long as the authorities clamp down on non-strategic purchases – but not Premier League, Championship and European football clubs.

Widen the screen further to include ad and marketing technology – figures again for H1 from Results – and the sense that the big holding companies are being left behind is even sharper.

Of the deals, many involving platforms, telecoms companies and media players, the one that stands out most is Oracle’s purchase of ad measurement specialist Moat. For $850m. If that isn’t a statement of intent, I don’t know what is. Moat will slot into Oracle’s ‘Marketing Cloud’, which comprises data management and other services from the likes of BlueKai. Add it all up, and it gives Oracle a strong grip on a hugely important area.

Where is all this going? Well, clearly the direction of travel is away from the big holding companies. For now anyway. We wait to see whether the likes of Oracle are content with playing around at the back end, rather than creating work or content.

But what intrigues me is the suggestion from Accenture – as expressed in this interview with More About Advertising by boss Joy Bhattacharya – is that it’s not in the ads business at all, but in “the innovation and ideas business. Our expertise lies in campaigning, creative and digital marketing, and because our belief is that communications is increasingly digital-led, this is where we are investing our creative capabilities. We are placing our bets on making creative digital advertising relevant for the increasingly complex mix of digital channels.”

Which is exactly what you would hear any of the big cheeses at the holding companies say. The difference is that they’re not all going the same route.

This ad makes me feel sad

I know they’re never going to shake the tree, but I usually enjoy the Hotels.com ads with Captain Obvious, an energetic and engaging song-and-dance man, who skips joyfully around various hotel lobbies. They exemplify one of advertising’s oldest tricks: when you’ve got nothing especially interesting to say, sing it.

Until now, that is. His latest ad (above) depresses me beyond belief, not because it is a bad ad per se – it faithfully follows the pattern – but because it features Howard Brown.

Howard who? Those with a long memory will remember Howard as the unlikely star of the Halifax ads at the turn of the century. Howard, plucked from the obscurity of a life as a counter clerk, exploded into instant stardom singing his remix version of Tom Jones’ Sex Bomb.

Gawky, geeky, Howard had no obvious star qualities. But he had charm and a voice as glorious and as smooth as a champagne truffle.

A few more ads, a cover of a Barry White song, and Howard’s 15 minutes of fame were gone – more or less – after he quit the Hailfax and his attempts to capitalise on his fame turned to dust.

But now he’s back, except that this time he’s the butt of a rather cruel joke from Captain Obvious. In the ad, Howard pops up from behind a yucca plant and tries to slip into the ensemble song and dance. “Wrong ad, Howard,” says the Captain, summarily dismissing him. Howard slinks away, tail between his legs.

Of course Howard is entitled – perhaps he really needs it – to earn his money any way he chooses. Life is clearly slow (or he needs to update his website). But this is cruel, unfunny and unnecessary. He brings nothing to the ad, except a touch of pathos and a sense of a man living a half life, willing to prostrate himself for someone else’s joke. Enough.