M&C Saatchi exalts brand consultancy

M&C Saatchi’s chief executive David Kershaw says brand consultancy is poised to flourish as a high-margin business over the coming years and will be a key plank of the marketing services mix.

Kershaw was speaking after M&C posted impressive pre-tax profits of £8m, a result he largely attributes to its merger with the brand consultancy Clear Marketing last year.

‘Brand consultancy will rep resent an increasingly profitable activity within the group,’ he says. ‘Because advertising has been under a lot of pressure recently to maintain the profitability of the business we identified the need to rebalance into highmargin businesses. Clear Marketing sits at the thinking end of the spectrum, which is something of high value in today’s market, though it is something the industry has often given away for free,’ he adds.

Clear Marketing is expanding  internationally, Kershaw says. As well as opening up teams in Amsterdam and New York, he says the group is now looking at opportunities across Asia.