After almost a year of uncertainty, SapientNitro’s regional operation has closed its doors.
The Dubai office of SapientNitro was set up in April 2010 to handle Mars’ Dove Galaxy account, but BBDO Worldwide and DDB Worldwide took over the business previously handled by TBWA and SapientNitro after the FMCG giant Mars’ re-alignment of its global agency roster 12 months ago. It is understood that the network will now focus on bigger priorities in other international markets.
The roster shake-up was effective from September last year and meant the agency was without a single client in the Middle East. An aggressive business development strategy was put in place following the Mars account loss, but despite being shortlisted in a number of pitches the agency failed to win any new creative briefs. No one from SapientNitro was available to comment on the closure.
Sapient started as an IT consultancy in the US in 1991 and in 2009 acquired ad agency Nitro for $50 million, leading to Nitro’s rebranding as SapientNitro. Nitro is best known as the agency behind Tourism Queensland’s ‘Best job in the world’ campaign, which won two grands prix at Cannes in 2009.