IPG’s Acxiom division in Conway looking to expand digital footprint abroad

Now part of New York-based Interpublic Group (IPG), Conway-based Acxiom recently announced it has expanded its digital and global data capabilities to Japan, Australia, Spain and Canada. Acxiom said it is building on its position as the industry leader in global data, with ethically sourced data offerings for 2.5 billion addressable customers across the globe.

Following the global expansion of Acxiom’s data products in early June, company officials said the new growth will benefit multi-national companies that have audiences in those regions and are looking to create successful borderless marketing campaigns, in addition to providing support to marketers in those regions.

“As brands, ad platforms, and publishers continue to expand their services worldwide, Acxiom’s global data and digital marketing capabilities enable marketers to anticipate their customers’ specific needs by proactively developing their next priority audiences,” said Karen Caulfield, group vice president of Acxiom’s Global Data Products. “Acxiom is the only industry partner in the market that’s able to address companies’ offline and digital needs and take their unique customers on a global journey across the omnichannel ecosystem. Data fuels exceptional customer experiences, no matter where you are in the world, and today marks another step forward in our vision of borderless marketing.”

Almost a year ago, the former publicly traded Acxiom Corp. was sold to New York City-based global marketing and advertising giant Interpublic Group of Cos. for $2.3 billion. The deal, which occurred two days before Independence Day, included 1,400 employees who work in Acxiom’s legacy Marketing Solutions (AMS) business, which accounted for nearly three-fourths of the company’s revenue.

After splitting off the Arkansas tech firm’s legacy marketing business, Acxiom also transferred the brand name and associated trademarks to IPG and renamed the remaining company LiveRamp. That publicly traded company, now trading under the new stock symbol “RAMP,” immediately picked up stakes and moved to Silicon Valley, where former Acxiom CEO Scott Howe and CFO Warren Jenson still run the former Arkansas identity solution firm in San Francisco.

Following the split, former company executives Dennis Self and Rick Erwin stayed on as co-presidents of AMS, which is now a standalone division aligned with IPG Mediabrands. Those Acxiom executives now report to Arun Kumar, IPG’s chief data and marketing technology officer.

On a visit to the Conway and Little Rock campuses in early 2019, Kumar told Talk Business & Politics that Acxiom would continue to be a growth catalyst for the portfolio companies under the IPG Mediabrands division. He said the purchase of Acxiom would speed IPG’s entry into new international markets because the Arkansas company already knows the legal and regulatory framework for the data marketing industry.

“It becomes really, really hard from marketing perspective to keep track of that and making sure you are following those regulations when you enter into those markets,” Kumar said “So, having Acxiom kinds of helps us to do that because it has the talent base and set of people who deal with the complexities and data on a day-to-day basis, and that was a big deal strike point for us.”

In Arkansas, Acxiom still has major operations in Little Rock and Conway, the firm’s headquarters. It also has other U.S. locations in Austin, Texas; Burlington, Mass.; Chapel Hill, N.C.; Independence, Ohio; Redwood City, Calif.; New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Internationally, Acxiom has locations in Australia, China, France, Germany, Japan, Poland and the United Kingdom.