Euro rscg san francisco acquires digital shop kadium

Alan Burgis, CEO of Euro's San Francisco outpost, said the add-on of Kadium's expertise in Mobile River, digital, site development and buzz selling made his business office instantly competitive with the city's top digital shops. The acquisition was completed earlier this year, and the federal agency has now been wholly integrated into Euro's offices.

"One of the things we didn't have in the San Francisco office is a strong digital presence," he said. "We surely did everything else, and we did some digital, but we were not at a competitive level. I had known and respected the guys at Kadium for years, and respected the work they did. It's a great cultural fit."

With charge of about $40 1000000, Kadium brings the Bay Area office's total annual billings to about $75 1000000, according to Burgis. Kadium's 30 employees bring that business office total to about 60. Euro claims its San Francisco office experienced double digit growing in 2007.

Former Kadium principals Kevin Newby, Mike Fung and Derick Daily have joined the Euro San Francisco management team. Newby is now manager of digital services, and Fung and Daily are co-ECD's with Euro San Francisco ECD Ernie Lageson.

"Digital at the core" has become an unofficial mantra for Euro RSCG in recent years as it tries to passage from a traditional agency into a top-notch interactive shop. Its digital offshoot, Euro 4D, continues to operate separately, but Burgis said Euro itself needs to aims to incorporate digital into everything it does -- not merely offer it as a pattern area.

"You don't want to say, 'Floor one is digital, floor two is media and floor three is the rest,'" he said. "The company is trying very hard to take away those walls."

However, Burgis said that his office had never seriously attempted to grow a digital capability organically, preferring instead to add it by acquisition.

"Digital is such an exploding channel, such an exciting area that you need to have the platform from which to delver results for your clients," said Burgis. "No one's going to go out and hire enough people to be able to do site development and marketing and mobile and media, etc. You're not going to hire enough people to make it real."

Kadium clients include Google, Sony, Genentech and Adobe. According to Burgis, there are no potential client conflicts between the two shops.