InSites Rebrands Australian Firm

Online communities specialist InSites Consulting has renamed its Australian company Direction First in line with the group branding. Founder Erica Van Lieven remains at the helm of what is now InSites Consulting Australia, with the title of MD.

Direction First was established by Van Lieven in 1997, and partnered with InSites as long ago as 2011, to make use of its communities for Australian clients. A long-term partnership was established in 2014, and InSites acquired Direction First in November 2017.

Van Lieven says of the change: 'We will still be able to deliver the flexible service of a small local agency but with the resources and capabilities of a global one. Locally ignited, globally fuelled! The synergies we felt by collaborating where spot on and it's amazing to see it all coming together. The wealth of expertise, knowledge and capabilities the global team is able to contribute to the Australian market has recently even resulted in an AMSRS Best Paper Award for our latest research on deploying chatbots in research for Nestlé Australia'.

The InSites Consulting group is now more than 450-strong, generating more than EUR 50m in revenue from 11 offices on 5 continents (Ghent, Rotterdam, London, New York, Timisoara, Düsseldorf, Sydney, Johannesburg, Paris, Manchester and Singapore). Investment firm Mentha Capital acquired a majority stake in the group last year, since when it has acquired South Africa-based consumer agency Columinate, Paris-based creative crowdsourcing firm eÿeka, and UK-based insight community specialist Join the Dots. The last of these acquisitions is discussed in detail, along with ambitious future plans for the company, by InSites co-founder and CEO Kristof De Wulf in a detailed interview with MrWeb's Nick Thomas, as part of DRNO's Online Communities special edition this month.

Web site: www.insites-consulting.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.