S4 Capital: An Integrated Offering

What is the advantage in having MediaMonks and MightyHive closer together or more integrated, versus the Accenture’s of the world?

Again, it comes back to the motor torpedo boat versus the aircraft carrier; to have a fully integrated business, where people work – that much overworked word – seamlessly, together. On the call to Australia, I had our content people and our data and analytics and digital media people and they work extremely closely. We are moving towards one office in each city. We operate in about 46 cities, in 30 countries. Actually, the great thing about Covid – if there is a great thing about it, as at least 1.6 million people have been killed by this virus; it’s probably higher, given the lack of the veracity of the statistics – is that one of the things it has done has made us eject offices and reduce the number of offices much more quickly than we would have done anyway. Sydney is a very good example. Melbourne were probably in one building already because of jettisoning leases but, in Sydney, we’ll move together as well.

Can we focus on the consultancies, for a moment, and the deep relationships they have with the C-suite and doing digital transformation?

Accenture had a deep relationship with BMW and it didn’t do them any good in the review.

Why do you think that is?

You’ll have to ask them; I’ve got no idea.

Would you be looking to move S4 somewhat into that realm, potentially?

We have continuous debates. I think there is a fourth leg, if you like, beyond first-party data, digital advertising content and digital media, into something more strategic. On the other hand, a lot of what we do is very strategic. I don’t want to take on board these heavy structures that the agencies have. The problem the agencies have is their most highly-paid people are the overpaid people. They’re overpaid and you get this imbalance. The growing parts of the business are the ones that are probably underpaid, which is natural. It’s the analogue that the resources were devoted to, historically.