Marcel Sydney has been integrated into Saatchi & Saatchi Australia.

Marcel Sydney managing director, Ryan Bernal has chosen to leave Publicis Groupe. The agency’s remaining six staff members have joined the Saatchi & Saatchi team. Bernal had been with Marcel for almost five years. He joined as director of client services in December 2015 before being appointed managing director in July 2017.

There have been no changes in the day-to-day running of accounts. Those accounts include Marcel’s Rio Tinto, Yellow Tail, Ferrero Rocher, Nivea and the Cerebral Palsy Alliance and Saatchi & Saatchi’s Devondale, Toyota, Nestle, Beam Suntory and Foxtel.

Anthony Gregorio, chief executive officer of Saatchi & Saatchi Australia, commented, “Ryan has decided to leave Publicis Groupe and has an exciting new opportunity that he is about to embark on. On behalf of the Groupe, I would like to thank Ryan for the valuable contribution he has made in our organisation. He is incredibly smart, with a wicked sense of humour and I will personally miss him enormously. We wish him every success in the future.”

This will be Publicis Groupe’s second merger this year. In September, Mercerbell united with performance marketing agency, Performics, to create Performics Mercerbell.

The end of 2020 looks to be another time of reckoning for the advertising industry following clusters of mergers over the last two years. WPP merged Grey and AKQA a week ago, and yesterday created VMLY&R Commerce by bringing Geometry into VMLY&R. VMLY&R Commerce will operate as a distinct company within the VMLY&R global network.