Clarity and US firm JEGI jointly publish an annual report into M&A trends in marketing services, which shows big groups such as Dentsu and WPP bought fewer agencies while consulting giant Accenture led the way as a new entrant which ramped up its acquisitions in 2017. Anselm, whose firm advised on the sale of three agencies, The Monkeys, Maud and Brand Learning, to Accenture last year, said he has seen a wave of new acquirers emerge at a time when the big holding companies have seen their sales slow and their share prices tumble. "They've been distracted by a lot of reorganisation internally," Anselm said, referring to how groups such as WPP, Omnicom, Publicis Groupe and Havas have each been merging their agencies to improve collaboration and cut costs.