BrazilAccenture Interactive tapped by INFINITI for Middle East marketing
The Middle East arm of luxury auto-line INFINITI has tapped Accenture Interactive to perform marketing duties across eleven regional markets.
Accenture Interactive – the digital marketing arm of professional services giant Accenture – has bagged a lucrative contract in the Middle East with the regional branch of INFINITI, the luxury vehicle line of Japanese automaker Nissan. Accenture Interactive will handle INFINITI’s digital marketing activities across eleven local markets, both in terms of digital innovation as well as management and maintenance.
“Making cutting-edge vehicles isn’t enough for automakers to maintain their competitive edge in today’s digital marketplace,” commented Accenture Interactive Middle East lead David Fregonas. “Digitally-empowered consumers are also looking for innovative customer experiences, and INFINITI Middle East understands the important role that digital plays in shaping new experiences.”
According to a press statement, Accenture will seek to amplify and optimise INFINITI’s brand presence across digital channels and touch-points, while improving overall customer experience through digital innovations to anticipate and meet the demands of digitally-savvy consumers. In addition, Accenture will attend to INFINITI’s content management, digital analytics and performance marketing requirements.
“We look forward to collaborating with Accenture Interactive to strengthen our digital marketing efforts,” said INFINITI Middle East marketing manager Karsten Jankowski. “A welcoming CX and customer-centric thinking are the core of our brand. In a digitalised world, this requires a seamless online-offline experience enabling a 360-degree of the customer and synchronised, cross-device access to personalised shopping.”
While Accenture Interactive – aided by a slew of worldwide acquisitions – has in recent years rocketed to the very top of the agency realm, INFINITI, and automakers in general, have been facing much tougher times – due to both the global economic slowdown and threat of wide-scale industry disruption. INFINITI sales in the US were recently reported to be down by around 17 percent for the year to date, while parent Nissan, under sales pressures of its own, is still contending with the Ghosn affair.
Accenture Interactive has already meanwhile been serving German automotive giant BMW, drafted in to improve customer experience and the promotion of content across digital channels, while Accenture has been snapping up a number of auto-tech and peripheral services firms in recent months – including Nytec and Pillar Technologies in the US, Germany’s Zielpuls, and Chinese company FutureMove Automotive.
Locally, Accenture Interactive has also brought on board industry veteran T.J. Lightwala as its new regional Experience Services Lead, given responsibility for growing the firm’s end-to-end experience services practice. Lightwala crosses after seven years leading digital specialised solutions at GroupM MENA and its subsidiary Mindshare (WPP), prior to which she served at iProspect (Dentsu) – amassing altogether close to two decades of industry experience across the US and Middle East.
