Sefiani Communications Group, which had been privately held for 23 years, has been fully acquired by global communications and digital marketing firm Clarity.
As a member of the Clarity Global Group, the agency will continue to operate under the Sefiani brand.
Robyn Sefiani, the company’s founder, CEO, and reputation counsel, will remain with the company in her roles as president of Clarity for ANZ and reputation counsel, as well as serving on the board of global presidents for the organisation.
At the 2022 CommsCon Awards, Sydney-based Sefiani Communications received PR Agency of the Year – Midsize for the second time after taking home the honour in 2018.
Sefiani was voted PR Leader of the Year, and her colleague Julia Hoy was chosen PR Professional of the Year.
With 21 employees, the organisation offers services in Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.
In an exclusive interview with Mumbrella, Sefiani revealed that the sale included a four-year commitment from her to the company.
However, she claimed that she will probably want to extend that when that period because she is so enthusiastic about her work,.
“I’m very focused on ensuring that we have a strong and sustainable future for the agency,” she said. “It’s business as usual, but better, because we now have access to digital and data capability… and a global presence.”
“Clarity is a highly aspirational and ambitious company. I think we are in for an exciting ride of rapid growth,” added Sefiani.
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An immediate fit in culture and values
Clarity approached Sefiani in the middle of last year with plans to establish itself in the area.
“We’d been approached by another agency, and were getting into the mindset of considering how to build a sustainable future for Sefiani so that the agency has a clear pathway for the next decade and beyond that. They [Clarity] wanted an agency in Sydney, and they found us,” said Sefiani.
Sami McCabe, the founder and CEO of Clarity, said that Sefiani frequently came up in conversations and that they clicked “immediately” after making contact with Sefiani.
“If we want to expand across Asia, having people of Robyn, Nick [Owens], Mandy [Galmes] and Tina [Peng]’s calibre in that time zone with all of the existing connective tissue they have with the Asian market makes a lot of sense for us,” McCabe told Mumbrella.
“As opposed to immediately landing in Singapore or Hong Kong, this is a much more straightforward gateway into the region. It’s important to recognise that Australia in itself is important, and we see plenty of growth locally as well.”
Likewise, Sefiani said that there was indeed a culture and values fit with Clarity and that the agency’s plan had already listed digital and data analytics capacity as a top focus for the future..
McCabe further said that Clarity is benefitting from Sefiani’s reputation management capabilities which we will roll out across the globe. It’s a nice integration. It’s definitely about geography but in some ways more importantly it’s about bringing to the table these great capabilities globally.
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Source: Mumbrella
Jaw de Guzman is the content producer for Comms Room, a knowledge platform and website aimed at assisting the communications industry and its professionals.