Landor Australia and Designworks Australia have merged to form what WPP AUNZ hopes will become Australia’s leading brand and customer experience design agency.
It’s a marriage of complementary halves. Designworks brings regional strength in corporate branding and customer experience design.
Landor brings globally recognised capabilities and proprietary methodologies in consumer branding and innovation.
Designworks sees itself as the strategic design practice for an omni-channel world – and marketing’s new paradigm: “It’s now widely recognised that reputation is no longer defined, or loyalty won, by what brands say about themselves but rather what consumers are saying about them.”
Landor sees itself as the design agency that “builds some of the world’s most agile brands—brands that thrive on change.”
Landor has 27 offices globally and clients that include BP, FedEx, Procter & Gamble, and Singapore Airlines. Designworks is Australasia’s largest strategic design and branding consultancy with Australian offices in Sydney and Melbourne and a client list that includes Officeworks, Stockland, and Westpac.
The merged agency will operate under the Landor brand in Australia. The Designworks brand and businesses will continue unaffected in the New Zealand market.
Dominic Walsh, managing director of Landor Australia, discussed the merger with The Stable.
The Stable: What triggered the merger talks?
Dominic Walsh: Both agencies have been successful in their own right. However, we wanted to take the opportunity to create a branding agency with scale in the Australian market. This was a unique opportunity to create Australia’s leading agency in branding and experience (CX).
TS: What advantages do you think the new company will bring?
DW: The combined business brings a unique set of capabilities in the market. Clients will have access to Designworks strength in experience design with Landor’s global capabilities in branding, design and Innovation.
TS: What do hope the new company will achieve – short and long term?
DW: Landor and Designworks have a shared vision in many areas. Landor’s global ambition is to create agile brands for its clients. This means that in the short term we would like to build on our existing strengths in innovation and brand experience. This includes leveraging Designworks’ strong spatial/environmental branding capabilities. Longer term we would like to become the benchmark as a new breed of omni-channel brand experience. This incorporates a full spectrum of physical and digital touchpoints for our clients brands.
Michael Connaghan, WPP AUNZ chief executive officer, noted, “Landor and Designworks Australia are both outstanding businesses in their own right. Bringing them together creates a unique offering in the Australian marketing landscape; the power and strength of Landor’s global brand with the agility, the local expertise, and knowledge of Designworks. They are both highly innovative and future-focused in their approach to business, and their combined scale and capability will drive even greater value for existing and future clients.”
Sven Baker, Designworks chairman and group chief executive officer noted, “Landor’s agile brands philosophy is remarkably similar to our own. Both firms employ design thinking as a strategic business tool in a rapidly changing world and put customer experience at the heart of designing for the future. We’re delighted to be joining forces. Being part of the Landor global network will deliver significant benefit to our clients and it makes complete sense for the group.”
The combined business will be led by Dominic Walsh, reporting to Sven Baker as executive chairman. Brad Doble, currently managing director of Designworks Australia, has been appointed to the newly formed role of managing partner in Sydney, and Landor’s Nick Davis as managing partner in Melbourne.
l-r: Sven Baker & Dominic Walsh
