Publicis takes minority stake in Arcade
Arcade, the Singapore-based agency with offices in Shanghai, Tokyo and Jakarta, has sold a minority stake to Publicis.
The four founders of Arcade – Nick Marrett, Gary Tranter, Matt Cullen and Mark Taylor – felt the time was right to bring a global shareholder on board to help their expansion into markets like China, India and Africa and support their existing ventures in Singapore, Indonesia and Japan.
“We have been looking for a partner who loves what we do, how we do it and wants to be a part of it – not change it,” said CEO Nick Marrett (left). “In the Publicis Groupe, we believe we have found that partner. Like us, they have a great entrepreneurial spirit and believe in the Arcade business model. They have seen it succeed as a viable, sustainable alternative to the traditional agency model, one that attracts the best storytelling talent and adapts quickly to an ever-changing world. To use an Arcade pinball analogy, it’s the same game but with a new multi-ball feature.”
Arcade currently employs more than 100 staff across the region. In addition to planned expansion in China, India and South Africa, they are about to launch in the Vietnamese market.
8 Comments
Bizarre how all this stuff gets thought out…Arcade is in partnership with unilever…publicis same with P&G. Now the P&G agency has a stake in a Unilever agency…hows all this work?
And what happens to IAN (independent agency network)?
So much for the entrepreneurial indie spirit….i guess the moral is that life is tough all around. They won a lot of business by scavenging from their previous employer….and most of the long client list they lay claim to are just one off projects not an AOR relationship. I cant see life getting any better under a new mnc umbrella…just look at bbh.
So much talk about doing the same thing (equally bad work when with their former m&c employers) but on your own with less big agencies nonsense, more focuses for the clients. Wonder if these clients felt cheated now as everyone involved are going back to square one.
Good job Arcade!
You’ve all worked bloody hard building the brand and the expansion into other markets, particularly Indonesia, has been amazingly successful. Good luck for the future and your growth.
Judge by a series of amazing work at the end of the day. Can’t name any done by Arcade. None at all. Anyone? Anything? Correct me.
Congrats guys. Great news for a great group of smart and hardworking people.
@Not impressed
Just because you haven’t seen it doesn’t mean squat.
The clients who gladly paid for them have.
The audiences around the world have.
Publicis has.
And that’s all that matters.
Just goes to show you cannot believe a thing these guys say….they sure make quick turnarounds to suit their interests. I think it’s an amateur move that will backfire in time.
At least when they were independent, they had an indentity….now they’ll be known as Publicis Lite….and Im not sure that’s necessarily a good thing.