South African brands have a problem: consumers are spending more time in games, on TikTok, with influencers, on WhatsApp and in immersive digital experiences than they are watching traditional media. But most creative agencies can’t build in those spaces – they outsource to specialists, coordinating multiple vendors, and watch timelines and budgets blow up.
VML South Africa has solved this by acquiring Yonder, one of the country’s leading digital innovation agencies, from WPP Media where it was acquired eight years ago.
Jarred Cinman, CEO of VML South Africa, says: “We were tired of telling clients, ‘We can do that, but we’ll need to bring in a partner. We had the strategy and creative, but not the full creative technology build capability. Now we do.”
Combined expertise
VML already has strong capabilities in enterprise technology consulting and enterprise marketing tech via its VML Enterprise Solutions and data businesses, which will work closely with the VML Yonder team in due course.
Yonder brings fifteen years of experience building in emerging platforms. Their team has created:
- Gaming integrations and branded experiences in Roblox and other spatial platforms
- Augmented reality campaigns for retail and luxury brands
- Blockchain-based customer experiences
- WhatsApp commerce platforms and integrated retail/FMCG promotions management for some of SA’s biggest brands
- Social and influencer-led content at scale
Its direct client roster includes Shoprite, Amazon, PG Glass, Old Mutual and Legalwise, among others, with always-on solutions also provided to clients of other WPP agencies.
What’s changing (and what’s not)
For existing VML clients: Nothing changes in terms of how they work with VML’s current teams. They simply have access to the new integrated capabilities when they need them – no more coordinating multiple vendors.
For existing Yonder clients: The Yonder team will remain intact within VML, so it will be business as usual. However, they’ll now also have access to VML’s brand strategy, creative, social, tech and data capabilities.
For new clients: They get brand strategy, creative, technology builds, and influencer content from one integrated team. One timeline. One P&O. One point of accountability.
“I’ve spent over fifteen years – together with my talented leadership team – building Yonder into a business I’m incredibly proud of,” says Rick Joubert, outgoing CEO of Yonder. “But the time has come to unleash that value by combining it with a larger agency which shares a similar culture. This merger gives Yonder’s team the resources and stability to do their best work and also offers opportunities to do more international work.”
Why this matters now
The traditional model – where creative agencies, digital shops, and production companies all work independently – is broken, says Cinman. “Clients waste time and money coordinating between partners. Ideas get diluted in translation. Budgets evaporate in mark-ups and project management overheads.
“Our new mission is ‘Creativity serving commerce,’ and this is what we mean. We’re not interested in beautiful work that doesn’t perform, or performance marketing that’s soulless. We need both. And increasingly, we will now have the technological capability to build in the platforms where audiences engage and convert.”
VML Chief Creative Officer Fran Luckin welcomes the additional capability and the potential it unlocks. “I see creativity and technology becoming more and more integral to each other,” she says. “We have the innovative ideas but getting them to happen has involved constantly having to engage different outside partners. With this merger, we can now dream the dream and deliver it – all under one roof in an integrated way. It’s exciting!”
The combined business will operate as VML Yonder, with Yonder functioning as a specialised unit within the larger agency, while maintaining its distinct culture and expertise. The unit will be headed by long-term Yonderian Julie Gresse.