In June 2014 Millward Brown, part of Kantar within WPP, acquired the Dutch consultancy EffectiveBrands. The buyer combined it with its own strategic advisory unit, Millward Brown Optimor. The merged firm was named Millward Brown Vermeer and positioned as a marketing strategy adviser to the global CMO.
The interview is with the co-founder and director of EffectiveBrands. He gives the motive as acceleration of growth after more than fourteen years, and says the firm had been open to a combination of this kind for several years. The deal closed in three months.
Key findings
- The two sides were of comparable size. Together they counted 150 people across 10 offices worldwide, with access to the parent research business behind them.
- The stated logic is coverage, not overlap. Three capabilities are described as fitting together for one buyer: market research, segmentation and brand valuation, and strategy with structures and capability building.
- The new name was chosen to signal Dutch roots. The founder also offers a second reason for Vermeer: the painter was known for using both hemispheres of his brain. That whole-brain idea recurs in his later work on marketing leadership.
- EffectiveBrands was founded in 2001 by Marc de Swaan Arons and Frank van den Driest. It had 65 employees at the time of the sale. It had launched the global Marketing2020 study the previous year.
Who ran the combined firm
Leadership was split three ways under an executive board. Mario Simon, then president and global chair of Millward Brown Optimor, became chief executive. Frank van den Driest became chief commercial officer and Marc de Swaan Arons became chief marketing officer.
Ownership was not shared. Millward Brown became the sole shareholder of the combined business.
The client bases behind the deal
The two rosters barely overlapped. Millward Brown served Marriott, UPS, Red Bull, Accenture, PepsiCo, McDonald’s, Mattel and Intel. EffectiveBrands worked for Dove, Unilever, Mars and Starbucks.
The combined firm was global from the first day. It listed offices in New York, London, Amsterdam, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Cape Town, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo and Sydney.
Scope and limitations
No financial terms were disclosed. The interview states directly that further financial details were not given, so the piece supports nothing about price or valuation.
This is a founder speaking on the day of the announcement, in a trade interview. The reasoning it records is the seller’s own account of the deal. It carries no independent assessment of the fit and no comment from the acquirer.
Source
This page summarises Millward Brown koopt EffectiveBrands: interview Marc de Swaan Arons, by Marc de Swaan Arons, Elsbeth Eilander, June 2014.