• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, July 31, 2013

Y&R North American CEO Matt Anthony is starting to put his stamp on the agency. In his first big move since joining the shop in March (from digital subsidiary VML which he co-founded), Anthony has created Y&R Austin, the fifth office in Y&R’s North American network.

He did it by rebranding SicolaMartin, an Austin-based subsidiary of Y&R since 2001. Sicola, now Y&R Austin, will continue to be run by Cherie Cox as CEO, reporting to Anthony.

The Austin shop was established 28 years ago and now has a staff of 45. Current clients include Dell, NetIQ, SAP, SanDisk, St. David’s Healthcare, Xerox, Avaya and Terracotta.

In some ways the rebranding is a formality. “The truth is we have worked alongside SicolaMartin as partners within Y&R for many years,” said Anthony.  “Their clients will benefit from access to our talent and resources,” he added. But Y&R clients in other markets will benefit from their expertise, Anthony said, particularly in the tech and healthcare fields, two of the shop’s strong suits.

The North American move comes just a week after Y&R announced big expansion plans for Africa and named Yossi Schwartz Chairman Y&R Africa to oversee that effort. The WPP agency network is planning to expand its African presence from 11 to 20 offices by 2015. Take that Publicom!