• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, September 14, 2017

WPP is combining five of its brand consultancies and design agencies — Brand Union, The Partners, Lambie-Nairn, Addison Group and VBAT — to form one large global brand agency.

The new agency, which will formally launch in January 2018, will have a combined staff of 750 people in over 20 countries, with client billings of more than $100 million worldwide.

The entity, which has not yet been named, will be led by Jim Prior as global CEO and Simon Bolton as executive chairman. Prior is currently the CEO of The Partners and Lambie-Nairn, and Bolton is currently CEO of Brand Union.

The move is the latest in a recent spate of consolidation shifts by the agency.

Earlier this month, the holding company confirmed it was placing digital shop Rockfish within VML, its larger digital sibling.  

In June, the firm announced it was combining MEC and Maxus, which has since unveiled its new name — Wavemaker.

Also in June, Mindshare absorbed Ogilvy’s Neo; in July, the holding company merged Possible into Wunderman.

WPP stated the branding and design agency consolidation would enable clients to engage with a wider array of specialists in those fields, providing them with a broader scope of services. In addition, it will enable each of the five firms to operate on a broader scale than they could individually.

Prior stated: “This convergence builds the next generation brand agency and is motivated by the opportunities for growth — for our clients and for us."

Added Bolton:"Bringing our agencies together will instantly give our clients the benefit of scale and single point of access to a breadth of services that covers almost every aspect of brand and communications."