• by Larissa Faw , October 15, 2015

Publicis Groupe is acquiring creative content agency August, citing that content marketing is key to the network helping its clients transform their brands. 

"August is digitally advanced beyond most of the consumer publishing agencies: this acquisition will bring the expertise and ability to develop content quickly across multiple platforms to give our clients a strong competitive lead," says Arthur Sadoun, global CEO, Publicis Worldwide.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 2005, the UK-based August's roster of clients includes GAP, IKEA, Ocado, Hiscox, Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, Ligne Roset, Renault, Fitness First, Whole Foods Market, among others.

The agency's founding partners Mark Lonergan, Steven Hunter, Sarah Bravo and Jules Walker-Rogers will remain in their leadership roles and will be responsible for integrating the current business as well as growing "content revenue." 

However, they will need to update their business cards. Lonergan and Hunter will take the roles of Joint CEO with Bravo and Walker-Rogers assuming the roles of ECD.

August will be housed in Publicis UK's 82 Baker Street building, which also includes creative shop Publicis London, digital agency POKE, shopper marketing firm Vivid, and customer relationship manager Publicis Chemistry. Meanwhile, Publicis Blueprint, a content division within its group, will now become part of August. By housing all of the competencies under one roof, the Publicis UK operation is easily able to develop creative across various platforms, specifically digital, say agency executives.

The holding company said the deal underscores focus on creative content saying that this discipline continues to drive business, with content marketing set to become a $313 billion industry in 2019, according to this year’s PQ Media’s ‘Global Content Marketing Forecast.