KPMG aims to bolster customer experience design with UKDU acquisition

Creative design agency to join KPMG's Customer, Brand and Marketing Advisory division

KPMG Australia has made another agency acquisition, picking up customer experience innovation consultancy, UDKU, for an undisclosed sum.

UDKU, which stands for U Don’t Know Us, was set up in 2013 by former M&C Saatchi group head, Mark Timmins; creative strategist, Colin Jowell; and creative leader, Kon Marinis. Under the terms of the acquisition, the trio and their 10-strong team will now become part of KPMG’s Customer, Brand and Marketing Advisory business (CBMA).

CBMA partner in charge, Paul Howes, described UDKU as “a bit of a birthday present for our venture”. CBMA was formed just over a year ago following KPMG’s purchase of Acuity Research and Insights, and has since evolved into a combined team of 43 specialists.

“CBMA is producing some stellar results for clients and enjoying strong double-digit growth,” Howes said.

Over the next five years, almost 90 per cent of companies are expected to be competing on the basis of customer experience alone, KPMG Australia CEO, Gary Wingrove, continued.

“The world according to the customer will define organisations’ design, processes and technology changes. UDKU beautifully complements CBMA’s expertise by deepening our customer experience and digital design capabilities as well as addition a new dimension of physical design skills,” he said.

Jowell said UDKU was founded on the principle of ‘embracing the unknown’ and works with a diverse range of clients and categories. Key projects have included the ‘Duck In, Duck out’ activity turning confit duck into street food with celebrity chefs, Manu Fiedel and Phil Davenport; as well as helping Fonzarelli drive interest in the electric scooter market.

“The opportunity for us to be part of KPMG is just brilliant, allowing us to scale up the customer experience innovation offer at this critical time,” Jowell said.  

KPMG’s CBMA unit has scaled rapidly over the past year. In February, it introduced a new Social Media Advisory group, bringing on former managing partner of social media agency one Green Bean, Louise Pogmore, to join existing social media risk advisory services lead, Greg Daniel, in heading up the group.
One month later, KPMG added a Media Value Advisory, bringing on former Zenith MD, Karen Halligan, to lead the practice.

And in June, the division recruited former Publicis chair and CEO, Andrew Baxter, as senior advisor. Other notable marketing executives in KMPG’s partner ranks include former Virgin Australia chief customer officer, Mark Hassall; former GM of business-to-business IT at Telstra, Melanie Evans; former Google executive, Lisa Bora; and experienced agency chief, Carmen Bekker, to lead its CMO Advisory.

Follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO conversation on LinkedIn: CMO ANZ, join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia, or check us out on Google+:google.com/+CmoAu

 

 

Join the newsletter!

Or

Sign up to gain exclusive access to email subscriptions, event invitations, competitions, giveaways, and much more.

Membership is free, and your security and privacy remain protected. View our privacy policy before signing up.

Error: Please check your email address.
Show Comments

Latest Videos

More Videos

More Brand Posts

What are Chris Riddell's qualifications to talk about technology? What are the awards that Chris Riddell has won? I cannot seem to find ...

Tareq

Digital disruption isn’t disruption anymore: Why it’s time to refocus your business

Read more

Enterprisetalk

Mark

CMO's top 10 martech stories for the week - 9 June

Read more

Great e-commerce article!

Vadim Frost

CMO’s State of CX Leadership 2022 report finds the CX striving to align to business outcomes

Read more

Are you searching something related to Lottery and Lottery App then Agnito Technologies can be a help for you Agnito comes out as a true ...

jackson13

The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration

Read more

Thorough testing and quality assurance are required for a bug-free Lottery Platform. I'm looking forward to dependability.

Ella Hall

The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration

Read more

Blog Posts

Marketing prowess versus the enigma of the metaverse

Flash back to the classic film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Television-obsessed Mike insists on becoming the first person to be ‘sent by Wonkavision’, dematerialising on one end, pixel by pixel, and materialising in another space. His cinematic dreams are realised thanks to rash decisions as he is shrunken down to fit the digital universe, followed by a trip to the taffy puller to return to normal size.

Liz Miller

VP, Constellation Research

Why Excellent Leadership Begins with Vertical Growth

Why is it there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader?

Michael Bunting

Author, leadership expert

More than money talks in sports sponsorship

As a nation united by sport, brands are beginning to learn money alone won’t talk without aligned values and action. If recent events with major leagues and their players have shown us anything, it’s the next generation of athletes are standing by what they believe in – and they won’t let their values be superseded by money.

Simone Waugh

Managing Director, Publicis Queensland

Sign in