Subsidiary of black-owned JSE-listed Sekunjalo Investments, Saratoga, has acquired a majority stake in Cape Town- and Johan- nesburg-based full service digital marketing agency, World Wide Creative.

“The information technology landscape is maturing and the acquisition of World Wide Creative positions us for this change. The acqui- sition brings a new orientation to the group, in response to changing market and customer needs, says Saratoga CEO Anthony Robinson.

World Wide Creative cofounders Fred Roed and Mike Perk said “the move underpins our commitment to creating remarkable products and marketing campaigns in the digital space”.

Saratoga believes that this acquisition creates a broader base of knowledge, skills and services. “We aim to offer a full house digital agency, backed by very solid technology delivery. The company has identified this as a gap in the market,” says Robinson.

World Wide Creative serves several blue chip clients, such as Hyundai and Virgin Mobile, in creating profitable online communities that support their brands.

“Becoming a key part of the exciting Sekunjalo group of companies and the partnership with Saratoga enables World Wide Creative to ramp up their service provision to customers in the key areas of e-commerce, Web application development, search optimisation and digital media advertising,” says Roed.

For Saratoga, this partnership signifies a convergence of technology and marketing.

“We see the compelling synergy between Saratoga’s established technology ability in strategic software development, which enables clients to save on costs and raise efficiencies, and World Wide Creative’s record in growing online customer bases as a significant value proposition for our customers,” he adds.

For World Wide Creative and its team, the move signifies a shift away from the current industry trend. “Currently, in South Africa, the status quo is for digital agencies to be absorbed into the traditional advertising agency space.

“The danger is that agencies disappear into a bigger corporate structure and lose their passion and identity. The partnership with Saratoga not only enables World Wide Creative to retain their focus but also allows them to scale up on exciting areas, such as mobile Web content, big digital developments, media and search optimisation,” explains Roed.

Robinson adds that, locally, the industry trend is traditional media agencies acquiring digital agencies to boost their capabilities in the digital space.

“I would say that, on a much broader scale, the top three megatrends are a shift to mobile, hyper-usability and hyper-personalisation.

“The acquisition will change and shape these trends for the better; we are bucking the local industry trend. The pairing of traditional media agencies with digital agencies still leaves them weak from a technology perspective. Today’s digital leaders like Amazon, Google or Apple have three things in common – they have great design & marketing, great technology and they put mobile first. That’s why we believe that World Wide Creative, Saratoga and Digital Matter, the mobile arm of our group, is the right combination,” notes Robinson.

Sekunjalo Technology Solutions Group CEO Andrew Connold says: “Saratoga’s acquisition of World Wide Creative aligns with Sekunjalo’s information and communications technology strategy to accelerate growth through investment in companies that are leaders in high-growth niche markets.”