WPP has announced the merging of the Assignment Group with Y&R creating a New Zealand arm to its global business VMLY&R.
This means that VMLY&R’s footprint in New Zealand will expand, with Assignment’s staff in Wellington relocating to Y&R’s current premises and both businesses rebranding as VMLY&R as part of the ongoing global rollout of what WPP considers one of its strategically “core” agency brands globally.
Current Y&R Wellington managing director Fleur Head will be appointed managing director for VMLY&R Wellington, while James Mok will continue to lead the VMLY&R office in Auckland.
The leadership team will report to both Sven Baker, New Zealand managing director WPP AUNZ, and VMLY&R’s AUNZ leadership team of Aden Hepburn and Pete Bosilkovski.
Sven Baker
“Combining Assignment and Y&R with the vast scale and capability of VMLY&R globally will create an incredibly exciting opportunity to build an agency capable of delivering truly connected customer experiences,” said Baker.
Head added: “I’m excited to have more digital, strategic and creative minds to collaborate with in solving business problems for our clients. I’ve always admired the Assignment ethos of judging their success on their clients’ success and bringing together a broad range of thinkers to solve problems.”
The merger follows news earlier this week that WPP-owned Kantar will consolidate its brands under one name at the beginning of next month with all services to be offered under the Kantar brand name.
The WPP-owned Kantar, which employs 30,000 worldwide will, will retire brands such as Kantar Consulting, Kantar Worldpanel, Kantar Health, Kantar IMRB, Kantar Media, Kantar Millward Brown, Kantar Public, Kantar TNS, Lightspeed, as well as country-specific brands will be retiring.
