Deloitte Digital picks up Dutch marketing agency Pervorm

The Dutch arm of Deloitte has acquired Pervorm, an online marketing agency specialised in digital marketing and digital transformation services.

The move sees around 50 professionals join the Big Four accounting and consulting firm in the Netherlands. As part of the integration, Amsterdam-based Pervorm will be integrated into Deloitte Digital, lifting the division’s headcount in the Netherlands to over 200 employees. Pervorm’s small hub in Vietnam (based in Ho Chi Minh City) also transfers, and will fall under the belt of Deloitte Digital in the Netherlands, while working together with the firm’s local Vietnamese practice as well.

Commenting on the deal, Erik Nanninga, managing partner of Deloitte Consulting in the Netherlands, said: “[This acquisition] strengthens Deloitte Digital’s position as a full-service digital service provider.” 

Launched globally in 2012, Deloitte Digital supports clients with a range of digital transformation services, including design, creative offerings, digital marketing, tech delivery and apps. The division has grown strongly since inception, and currently has a footprint in 28 countries. 

According to Jeroen van den Nieuwenhof, a partner Deloitte Digital, the specialised experience of Pervorm will enable the firm to “better support our customers with the development and implementation of their digital marketing strategy.” In particular, it will beef up the firm’s search, social and programmatic advertising offerings, an area which is in high demand and one where Deloitte Digital in the Netherlands had the ambition to ramp up. 

“We want to become the number one creative digital consultancy firm in the Netherlands,” stated Victor Hoong, formerly a partner at Deloitte Digital around a year ago. Among the firm’s main rivals locally are traditional agencies, digital marketing players and other consultancies that have invested heavily in their digital skills, including Accenture (which recently absorbed Storm Digital into its ranks), Capgemini and IBM.

The bolt-on follows one year after Deloitte Digital in the Benelux acquired Brandfirst, a Belgian interactive marketing firm, months after the unit purchased a technology player in New Zealand (CloudinIT, marking its entry in the country) and Australia (The Terrace Initiative; 50 employees). Meanwhile, Deloitte Digital in the Netherlands last month opened a new office within walking distance of Deloitte's Amsterdam office ‘The Edge’ – lauded by architects as one of Europe’s most sustainable offices. 

For Pervorm, the joining of forces will enable the firm to widen its offerings, allowing it to better serve its customers, as well as tapping into Deloitte’s massive client network and footprint. Pieter Meijer, managing partner at Pervorm, remarked: “We can now integrate our expertise in the field of programmatic, social and SEA with the (marketing) transformation and platform technology experience of Deloitte. This combined offering enables us to better help our customers with the design and scaling of a performance marketing organisation.”

Deloitte has around 5,500 professionals in the Netherlands, generating revenues of nearly €900 million, up from €814 million two years ago. Last month the firm was named one of top digital marketing consulting firms in the country.