Klues speaks up on VivaKi restructure

Following news of Publicis Groupe's plans to spin off VivaKi as a separate business unit, retiring CEO Jack Klues tells Marketing the move means the latter will be transformed from a support operation serving four agencies to a business unit open to all group agencies.When asked if VivaKi will go the GroupM way, Klues said this remains to be seen."Our priority is going to be to Groupe agencies and their clients. However, we will certainly explore opportunities that come our way to provide VivaKi solutions and products to other clients," adding that the objective was to grow the business.As a separate business unit, VivaKi (including the Nerve Center, which is its research centre) will focus on product and technology development (including Audience On Demand, The Pool, Hubs), as well as partnerships, ventures, merger and acquisition support and process automation."The scale of the Groupe will be leveraged by VivaKi in all endeavors, including the media muscle delivered through the VivaKi Exchange," added Klues.As for Klues, he will be retiring by year end, with current chief financial officer Frank Voris to take his place.Image - Maurice Levy, chairman and chief executive, Publicis GroupeImage attribution:World Economic Forum at en.wikipedia [CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0), GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons