Nearshore Americas

Publicis Groupe Acquires Majority Stake in Brazil’s Espalhe

French advertising giant Publicis Groupe has purchased a majority stake in Brazil’s digital and social media marketing agency, Espalhe. Financial details of the deal have not yet been disclosed.

The news comes barely a week after Geometry Global, a subsidiary of British advertising giant WPP, bought controlling stakes in Argentina’s digital agency Brandigital.

Espalhe, according to analysts, is popular for its ability to integrate digital and social media, PR and other disciplines to deliver creative campaigns. The agency has seen double-digit organic growth in each of the past five years. With 90 employees, Espalhe counts Fiat/Chrysler, Halls, Activia and Adidas as its clients.

One of Espalhe’s most popular platforms is IndexSocial, which provides insights into how brands are performing in Brazil’s social media landscape. The agency has one of the largest fan pages on Facebook, with almost 50,000 fans in Brazil.

Following the acquisition, the agency will be renamed as Espalhe MSLGROUP, but the current management team will continue to lead the company in Brazil.  In 2012, Advertising Age declared it as one of the 50 most creative organizations in the world.

“We strongly believe that being part of MSLGROUP and Publicis Groupe is the next step towards achieving our agency’s mission, which is to bring disruptive innovation in communications that benefits clients here in Brazil and around the world,” stated Gustavo Fortes, one of the founders of Espalhe.

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Publicis Groupe has a significant presence in Brazil and its clients include Procter & Gamble, General Motors, Bradesco and Petrobras. The European agency recently announced that it was merging with Omnicom Group to create the world’s biggest advertising agency.

Narayan Ammachchi

News Editor for Nearshore Americas, Narayan Ammachchi is a career journalist with a decade of experience in politics and international business. He works out of his base in the Indian Silicon City of Bangalore.

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