GRID and Yellowwood: creating a formidable marketing services force

The partnership has been formalised with the acquisition of a 51% stake in GRID by Omnicom's Marketing Services Group that also own the majority shareholding in Yellowwood.

GRID, which was established as an independent agency in 2005 by design specialist, Nathan Reddy and joint CEO, Ashantha Thompson, is known for its edgy and award-winning work on brands such as Brand South Africa, Nando's, Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), FNB, British Airways Slow Lounge, Liberty Life, Converse and Virgin Mobile. Recent new business includes Internet Solutions and the re-brand of Sandton City and Eastgate.

Kay Nash, CEO of the Marketing Services Group says: "We are acquiring businesses that are outstanding leaders in their categories and will leverage the diverse expertise and entrepreneurial spirit in a collaborative coalition for the benefit of our clients."

Reddy and Thompson say that the choice of Omnicom was a strategic one, as the Group's culture, way of operating and vision match those of GRID. "We believe that being part of the Group and especially the alliance with Yellowwood will create an exceptional offering to clients. We have great respect for the work that Yellowwood does and believe that positioning the two companies together will create a unique best of breed offering to clients."

Yellowwood's Group MD, David Blyth, comments: "We believe that GRID, as the leaders in their field, will add to the strong specialist capabilities of Yellowwood and will help us incrementally build our clients' businesses."

Yellowwood will provide research and strategy expertise to GRID and in turn, GRID will provide its cutting-edge design competencies to Yellowwood.

Nash adds: "The expansion of our marketing services capabilities is a key next step, as it affords us the opportunity to build specialist boutique businesses that can go to market independently or jointly depending on clients' needs, with the client experiencing it as a seamless solution without compromising expertise. We are building a group of global boutiques that can partner clients across the continent and which will allow us access to best practice from across the world."