SapientNitro gets to start 2015 as a Leader for the 3rd consecutive year in Gartner’s evaluation of global digital marketing agencies, and a Leader in The Forrester Wave: Innovation Agencies ranking.

At the end of the year, information technology research and advisory firm, Gartner, chose 20 digital agencies that it considers to be strategically and creatively led. It ranked them on their ability to execute and completeness of vision and divided them into four groups: Leaders, Challengers, Niche Players and Visionaries. The resulting chart is called the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Global Digital Marketing Agencies.

SapientNitro has been placed first in completeness of vision and second in ability to execute in Leaders. This is the third year in a row it has been named a Leader.

It was also named a Leader in The Forrester Wave: Innovation Agencies last month. The global research and advisory firm used 27 criteria to identify its 10 most significant firms – SapientNitro was joined by AKQA, Critical Mass, frog, Huge, Isobar, Mutual Mobile, R/GA, Razorfish and T3.

The Gartner report authors, Richard Fouts, Andrew Frank, Martin Kihn and Jennifer Polk explained the thinking behind their evaluation, “As CMOs and digital marketing executives continue to influence and lead strategic growth plans, particularly those available from a connected economy, a new type of agency — which blends business strategy, creative services, experience design and technology — continues to evolve and mature.”

According to the report, “Leaders in this market have a broad representation of all competencies, most notably their strategic services (whereby they also provide business strategy and digital business transformation skills). Leaders are also strong in technology, creative services and experience design, and marketing effectiveness.”

“Being recognised by Independent Research company Gartner, for a third year in a row, is a great honour and testament to the great innovative work we are creating for our clients around the world and confirms the power of our connected capabilities across communications, experience, technology and commerce” Marcos Kurowski, managing director, SapientNitro Australia, commented.

Below is Gartner’s evaluation of SapientNitro in full. Read all twenty here.

SapientNitro

SapientNitro, a unit of Sapient, continues to innovate on its well-known strategy that combines insight from cutting-edge, instrument-based marketing research and seasoned business strategists with experience designers, storytellers and technologists. Gartner estimates SapientNitro’s 2013 revenue at $851 million (approximately 40% outside the U.S.). 

Strengths

• Digital business and emerging technologies:SapientNitro’s 2013 growth is evidence of its successful “storyscaping” approach to redefining how marketing stories are told across brand, digital and commerce. In 2013, it focused on helping clients harness emerging technologies and trends to merge their digital and physical businesses for competitive advantage (examples include Target, Marks & Spencer, and Whole Foods).
• Global expansion and growth:SapientNitro is experiencing strong growth outside North America, using its seasoned account management team, unified global staffing and methodology model, along with integration of new acquisitions and longtime alliances (especially Adobe) to deliver consistent, quality engagements as supported by feedback from references. SapientNitro’s growth also comes from increased client wallet share, which is important in a space known for the high cost of new client acquisition.
• Knowledge management and reuse:This is an area where many global agencies suffer due to strong regional management that doesn’t reward the sharing of assets. Conversely, SapientNitro is investing millions in platforms, workflow tools, and digital asset and source code management to streamline its operations and accelerate delivery for clients that “want it yesterday.” Its Project Archetype applies standardization without compromising the creative process.

Cautions

• Competitive pressures:Though SapientNitro is well-known for its strategy-led offering, our reference survey reveals a couple of large brands favoring SapientNitro competitors, particularly those with stronger track records in operational strategy, tax and the legal implications of globalization. Sustaining its high win rate of 70% could be at risk as competitors from professional services continue to step up their game.
• Overall program execution:References said SapientNitro did not deliver quite the same level of satisfaction with program management compared with its primary rivals. Though this is not a red flag, SapientNitro needs to pay a bit closer attention to the management challenge associated with the complex engagements it is known for pursuing.