MIG Global launches merged agencies as Savanta

With the strapline, ‘Make better decisions’, the combined business employs about 200 people – the majority are based in its London office, as well as about 20 in its technology and innovation team in Cambridge and 15 in New York. It has also satellite offices in Chicago, Dallas in the US and Toronto, Canada.

Savanta will be headed by Roger Perowne, previously CEO of MIG Global and co-founder of Morar HPI, who now takes the position of global CEO. The rest of the global senior team are made up of: Lewis Reeves, Viga’s chief exec, who becomes global chief commercial officer; Paul Bath, chief operating office of MIG Global, and now global COO; Alistair Cunningham, Morar co-founder and chief technical officer of MIG Global, who is global CTO.

Nick Baker takes the UK CEO role having joined as Morar HPI managing director last year; and Vin de Robertis is Americas CEO.

In addition, Andrew Dalglish, previously Circle’s managing director and then director of brand and marketing for MIG Global, becomes executive vice-president brand and marketing.

Dalglish said the new business would offer “the best of big, with the best of small” and that by bringing together the separate businesses it could create an “end to end offering for clients”. He added that there would be no job losses as a result of the merger – instead they were adding a top layer of global support including human resources and a talent team. “This is very much a growth exercise; we’ve added about 10 – 20% more staff to get ready for this and the plan is to add more people and there will be acquisitions.”

Savanta will have three main offerings: data collection and analysis – with access to 100m respondents through its proprietary technology platform; bespoke research and consulting – consisting of tailored tools structured in industry and methodology practices; and intelligence products – which will include its BrandVue and MarketVue reputation trackers.

Perowne said: “The world has changed fundamentally in the past decade – we’re inundated with information and face overwhelming complexity. The most successful businesses decode this nuanced environment and make fast, nimble, impactful decisions. Insight is central to this, but the old agency model is too slow and too blunt. Savanta is here to shake that up.”