As companies seek to grow their footprint and expand their services, they are tapping into mergers and acquisition even as they position themselves to remain competitive.

Intracto Group acquired Swedish full-service agency Stendahls. The acquisition of Stendahls has emphasized Intracto Group's ambition to build an integrated full-service agency on a pan-European level. Intracto Group aims to be a true partner for its clients, allowing them to excel in the areas of strategy, creation, content, marketing and technology.

To further expand its reach, Intracto Group has also acquired Utrecht-based agency Codezilla that develops innovative front-end solutions for its customers on a daily basis. The agency believes in a smart balance between working closely with the client at their offices and remote consultancy. It has 25 front-end development experts.

On the other hand, Clarity, a global integrated communications agency has announced a senior appointment in the London office. Amy Grimshaw has joined Clarity in the role of associate director and will sit on the London senior leadership team. This is a strategic hire for Clarity, with Amy coming on board to supercharge its offering for VCs as well as work within Clarity’s global startup team and lead its offering for early-stage business in Europe.

Havas Media Group has also announced the appointment of Meghan Grant as Chief Strategy Officer of Havas North America.

Based in New York, Grant will report directly to Global CEO Peter Mears and serve on Havas Media’s North American executive leadership team.

Grant joins Havas Media Group after other recent leadership appointments across North America spanning operations, commercial, investment, data, and technology, with Amy Ginsberg named chief investment officer recently, responsible for the overall media investment vision and strategy.

World Federation of Advertisers, WFA, announced its new leadership team ahead of Global Marketer Week 2021, with a raft of new appointments from leading global brands and national advertiser associations.

Conny Braams, Chief Digital and Marketing Officer at Unilever, will become Deputy President on December 1, taking over from Phil Myers, Senior Vice-President for Global Public Policy and Government Affairs at PepsiCo, who has served as part of the WFA leadership since 2019 and remains on the Executive Committee.

To commemorate this year’s Earth Day held on 22 April, WPP announced a new commitment to reach net zero carbon emissions in its operations by 2025 and across its entire supply chain by 2030.

To deliver net zero emissions from WPP’s operations, electricity will be 100% renewably sourced by 2025.

Within WPP’s supply chain, which accounts for the overwhelming majority of the company’s emissions, the two largest sources are the production of advertising content and, most significantly, the placement of that content in media channels from television and press to radio and online. WPP is the first in its industry to include media in its net zero commitment.

Many media owners are already investing heavily in measuring and reducing their carbon emissions. Through GroupM, WPP’s media investment operation, WPP aims to work with its media partners to develop industry-wide standards for measuring and eliminating the carbon emitted from the placement of advertising in the media.

In UK, The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, IPA, announced that BBJ&K and Yonder Media had been elected into IPA membership.

BBJ&K is a full-service media planning & buying agency that ‘invest in their relationships with clients and suppliers, and define audiences based on intelligent insights’. Founded in 2016, their clients include Betfred, Camping & Caravanning Club, Parker Knoll, West Midlands Combined Authority, Boylesports & Aston University.

Yonder Media was founded in 2018 and specialises in ‘Audience Experience Planning®’. Based in London, and part of independent group, The Beyond Collective, Yonder’s clients include Vita Coco, Shelter and Proper.

Verizon Media, a company dealing in innovation, content and commerce, announced Mind Together, a coalition of brands working to address mental health and set a new standard in how employees are supported at work.

Kellogg Company, Snap and Spotify are founding members committed to improving workplace culture around mental health, and scaling best practices.

The goal of Mind Together is to destigmatize mental health at work through education, awareness campaigns, and expert led sessions.

In others news TikTok is launching a new range of commerce focused ad offerings that integrate transactions into its existing user experience.

The new ad formats are similar to TikTok’s commerce tools available on Douyin, the Chinese version of the app. The new tools will allow brands to show their products, retarget users and highlight promotions in a series of different ad formats. These new formats are currently in testing but are expected to roll out in the first half of 2021.

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