Accenture acquires Malaysian full-service agency Entropia

Accenture Interactive has acquired Malaysian full-service agency Entropia for an undisclosed sum.

The Kuala Lumpur-based agency specialises in building digital experiences for brands, with core capabilities across consulting, customer experience, commerce and communication. It has a big-data offering, Sentient, designed to help brands best utilise their customer data, and in the past year has developed skills across new technologies such as internet of things (IoT), extended reality (XR) and artificial intelligence (AI).

Founded in 2016 by former IPG Mediabrands Asia president Prashant Kumar, Entropia now has 220 employees (as of May) and was named one of the top 10 fastest-growing international agencies in 2020 by Adweek.

Accenture describes itself as an 'experience' company and sees Entropia as complementary to its focus on delivering a "much more holistic customer-centric strategy", according to Azwan Baharuddin, the country managing director of Accenture Malaysia, who was central to the acquisition.

"The acquisition is part of Accenture’s strategy to be the top experience agency in Malaysia and the region, to help our clients become businesses of experience," he told Campaign Asia-Pacific.

Entropia has developed technology-fuelled campaigns for clients including Nespresso, KFC, Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Telekom Malaysia, and Lazada. Most recently, it created an augmented reality (AR) showroom for the new BMW X5, which brought the car and its features to life for consumers during lockdown. It also built an AR campaign for PepsiCo, in which consumers can activate an AR concert using a Pepsi bottle. 

Flaviano Faleiro, Accenture Interactive’s president for growth markets, commented: "The acquisition of Entropia lets us lean further into our global vision to take experiences, designed through deep human insights and powered by creativity and technology, to the next level. It also helps us deliver on our growth ambitions for our people, clients and the industry across the Asia Pacific region."

Accenture would not share terms of the deal or specifics on how the integration will be managed, but Entropia's Kumar told Campaign that the Entropia brand will remain "for the foreseeable future" and that he will remain with the brand "for at least three years", suggesting a three-year earnout period for the agency's leadership.

He said of the deal: “This is the perfect time to join hands with Accenture Interactive and raise the bar in transforming data-driven marketing for businesses. I am thrilled to have both organisations come together and expand the canvas for our people, clients and their customers.”

Baharuddin is particularly proud that a homegrown Malaysia agency is the first acquisition for Accenture in Southeast Asia.

Accenture Interactive has made a handful of acquisitions in Asia-Pacific, but Entropia is the first in Southeast Asia. In the region, its acquisitions include Pacific Link Group in Hong Kong (2015), Japan’s largest independent digital agency IMJ (2016), Australian creative house The Monkeys and sister design firm Maud (2017) and Shanghai digital agency HO Communication (2018), along with the Asian footprints of content production and visualisation networks like Creative Drive (2020) and Mackevision (2018).