From left to right: Paul Lafortune, Elizabeth Henry, Hans Laroche and Jean-François Renaud.

Montreal-based digital strategy agency Adviso has acquired loyalty-focused consultancy R3 Marketing.

R3 Marketing was founded in 2015 by former Les Evades partner Hans Laroche with loyalty expert and consultant Paul Lafortune, providing services in developing new programs, optimizing existing ones and providing organizations with advice on best practices. Both partners will be active in the company during its transition and provide advice in the follow years, while all current R3 employees are expected to transition to Adviso.

The acquisition will help Adviso enter the customer loyalty and retention market, which the company describes as “underdeveloped” in Quebec. It also compliments Adviso’s existing services, which are focused on helping organizations in their digital transformations, including ecommerce, lead generation, customer experience, content creation and media strategy.

“In addition to combining strategy and activation, the integration of R3 will enable us to go beyond conversions, passing over the threshold and into the wider universe of customer loyalty,” says Elizabeth Henry, CEO of Adviso.

She adds that this will allow it to activate on first party data, something that will be especially important as Adviso works with clients transitioning away from third party cookies. She also points to SimplicityDX data showing that new customer acquisition has increased 222% over the last eight years, and 71% of consumers now expect to receive a personalized experience from the brands they interact with.

“With this acquisition, we hope to make Adviso one of the most advanced consulting firms in Canada when it comes to relational marketing and loyalty,” Henry says.

For R3, Laroche says the acquisition will allow the tools he developed with Lafortune to continue, with the added benefit of Adviso’s expertise in data science, segmentation and content personalization.

Adviso’s clients include National Bank, Cirque du Soleil and Énergir. R3’s clients include Métro, the SAQ, Jean Coutu, Sépaq, the Royal Mint, Nespresso Canada, Loto-Québec and Desjardins.