A new tune for Switzerland: Accenture Interactive becomes Accenture Song

Werbewoche.ch: Benjamin Tück, Accenture Interactive, together with its various sub-brands, forms the largest digital agency in the world. Now you have decided to undergo a comprehensive transformation, culminating in an almost poetic rebranding: From now on, you'll be operating under the name "Accenture Song." Why? Benjamin Tück: I would like to talk not just about transformation, but rather about further development. The pandemic has taken a lot out of all of us over the past two years - as individuals, but also as employees or as managers. And yet, at Accenture, I believe we've been able to use this time productively: We've been thinking about how to completely reinvent customer relationships, sales, commerce, marketing, as well as business innovation. In parallel, the number of people working with us has more than doubled in the past 18 months. A structural adjustment and bundling of competencies is a logical consequence of these two developments.   So it's not just a new name, but a new organizational set-up. How is that set up? The setup is integrated and scales along content dimensions to quickly provide custom-fit solutions for the customer's ever-changing requests. Diverse agency expertise is aligned along customer challenges. A classic agency setup is no longer sufficient to serve the transformation challenges of our customers and to achieve sustainable growth and stability.   What exactly does this show in? In product or service innovation and design, marketing transformation, forward-looking sales and commerce, brand communication, and understanding and tapping into new frontiers like the metaverse ... among other things, this is what we set ourselves up for in a "seamless organization", that is, a fully integrated organization.   Fully integrated organizations usually bring with them clarity and structures that are designed to make it easier for customers to work together. Wouldn't a somewhat less "poetic" name have been obvious? You weren't the only one who reacted with surprise to our new naming. In deriving the name, let me start with our corporate culture: I can say with conviction that we have long lived a culture of permanent change and put it into practice in our work. Accenture Song builds on this: A song, a song, stands for an ancient, universal form of human craft. What associations does the term trigger for you? Not also connection, inspiration, technical skill and experience; all combined in one great harmony? This symbiosis we are now undergoing has a lofty goal: to help unleash the imagination and ideas of our employees to achieve tangible results for customers.   Will you also try to play those instruments that were previously the domain of the more "classic" marketing and communications agencies? It is well known that several large consultancies also want a piece of this "pie". I think the market perceives - and accepts - our expertise in technology, consulting and innovation very well. Now, to answer your question, we're going to shift our focus even more to creation, communications and media. Bringing our teams together under Accenture Song will give us a broad base to do that. You know, the name Accenture Song reflects the many dimensions and layers of who we are and what we can achieve for our female clients. "Song" begins our new chapter of existence, where we can all feel part of a community and culture. It represents how we bring together imagination, intelligence and technology.   What happens to all the sub-brands that you have acquired with Accenture Interactive in recent years - and in some cases painstakingly developed and sharpened? Will they disappear? Our more than 40 acquisitions over the past decade will market uniformly as Accenture Song to strengthen our synergies in product innovation, experience design, marketing and commerce. In Switzerland, there aren't quite as many; here, Boomerang, Fjord, Sinner Schrader Swipe and Wirestone operated as part of Accenture Interactive or, newly, Song. So for our location, the move is relatively small; the teams have worked together for a long time without friction or barriers. But Accenture Song as an umbrella brand will, above all, allow us to build expertise in areas that have not been in focus before by bringing our global experts together under one roof.   How would you like to use the changes in your organizational structure to the benefit of Swiss customers? In almost every conversation I have with our customers, the question of relevance comes up: How can your company remain relevant - for customers, employees and society? I already talked at the beginning about how rapidly the world and thus people's needs are changing - and of course our customers notice that, too. They ask themselves, "What kind of products or services do I offer, how do I reach my female customers, how do I interact with all my stakeholders?" Please keep in mind very clearly: companies are working towards a future that is very different from the one they were originally designed for, and in which they should still grow! We want to provide all the assistance it takes: Accenture Song's consolidated capabilities will hopefully enable us to become mission-critical partners in Swiss ecosystems, to accompany large digital acquisitions from strategy to campaign implementation, to develop new product groups and value streams with our clients, and to lift e-commerce into the metaverse together with them.