Euro RSCG San Francisco Acquires Digital Shop Kadium
Kadium brings 30 staffers and billings of about $40 million to Euro RSCG's Bay Area office.
Furthering its mission to put “digital at its core,” Euro RSCG has acquired interactive shop Kadium and integrated it into the agency’s San Francisco office.
Alan Burgis, CEO of Euro’s San Francisco outpost, said the addition of Kadium’s expertise in mobile, digital, site development and buzz marketing made his office instantly competitive with the city’s top digital shops. The acquisition was completed earlier this year, and the agency has now been completely integrated into Euro’s offices.
“One of the things we didn’t have in the San Francisco office is a strong digital presence,” he said. “We certainly did everything else, and we did some digital, but we were not at a competitive level. I had known and respected the guys at Kadium for years, and respected the work they did. It’s a great cultural fit.”
With billings of about $40 million, Kadium brings the Bay Area office’s total annual billings to about $75 million, according to Burgis. Kadium’s 30 employees bring that offices total to about 60. Euro claims its San Francisco office experienced double digit growth in 2007.
Former Kadium principals Kevin Newby, Mike Fung and Derick Daily have joined the Euro San Francisco management team. Newby is now director of digital services, and Fung and Daily are co-ECD’s with Euro San Francisco ECD Ernie Lageson.
“Digital at the core” has become an unofficial mantra for Euro RSCG in recent years as it tries to transition from a traditional agency into a top-notch interactive shop. Its digital offshoot, Euro 4D, continues to operate separately, but Burgis said Euro itself needs to aims to incorporate digital into everything it does — not simply offer it as a practice area.
“You don’t want to say, ‘Floor one is digital, floor two is media and floor three is the rest,'” he said. “The company is trying very hard to take away those walls.”
However, Burgis said that his office had never seriously attempted to grow a digital capability organically, preferring instead to add it by acquisition.
“Digital is such an exploding channel, such an exciting area that you need to have the platform from which to delver results for your clients,” said Burgis. “No one’s going to go out and hire enough people to be able to do site development and marketing and mobile and media, etc. You’re not going to hire enough people to make it real.”
Kadium clients include Google, Sony, Genentech and Adobe. According to Burgis, there are no potential client conflicts between the two shops.
