Konecta steps up digital marketing with two acquisitions in France and Italy

Konecta, the world's number 5 BPO company, is stepping up the pace in digital marketing, with two strategic acquisitions in France and Italy: Speak33, a French agency specialising in acquisition marketing and lead generation, and Sales Performance, positioned in Italy in the same niche.

Still alive and kicking
A year ago, in a major article devoted to the future of call centres, Le Monde omitted Konecta from its figures and its study, wiping out 120,000 employees and their know-how from the global BPO landscape. But Konecta seems to be alive and well, and determined to make a place for itself in the age of AI and conversational agents. The group, one of the world's Top 5 in BPO and outsourced customer experience, is rolling out the plan presented at the start of the year by its new CEO, Nourdine Bihmane, and strengthening its autonomous sales prospecting generation services.  

Massimo Canturi, Director of Konecta Digital states :
‘We are entering a new era of digital marketing, driven by agentic AI technology. Our ambition is clear: to disrupt the market by deploying autonomous, scalable systems that meet customers' changing expectations. These acquisitions in France and Italy represent a key step in our platform and AI strategy, enabling us to deliver unrivalled value in Europe and globally.’

The two acquisitions 
Speak33, founded in 2009 by Alexandre Boyer, is a French digital agency specialising in innovative marketing solutions and offers data-driven platforms that generate high-quality leads in the key sectors of energy, finance and telecoms. Sales Performance is one of Italy's leaders in qualified lead generation and customer acquisition. 

These acquisitions, officially announced this morning, will strengthen the company's digital marketing activities and will be integrated into Konecta Digital; which brings together 4,000 experts in AI and generative AI, ‘is at the forefront of deploying advanced agentic AI solutions that go beyond traditional models, using autonomous systems capable of continuous learning and dynamic adaptation’, according to the official press release.  

NB: the group also owns a consultancy specialising in improving customer experience, Colorado Conseil, which has worked with more than 250 major groups since it was founded. 

Upstream of conversion paths, at the heart of conversational commerce
The continuing growth of digital advertising spending in Europe (€9.3 billion in France and €5.9 billion in Italy) has not escaped the attention of the Konecta teams, who are determined to seize this market opportunity: consumer behaviour is changing rapidly, particularly in the way they search for information online. Users are moving away from traditional search engines (Search Engine Optimization - SEO) to social platforms and AI-based conversational tools - marking a transition to AI Search Optimization (ASO). Konecta is adapting to this transformation by integrating autonomous campaign management and developing strategies based on advanced generative AI. 

CCA International, at the time headed by Patrick Dubreil and subsequently acquired by B2S, had already begun to move in this direction by creating its own digital agency, Brand Value by CCA International. 

120,000 employees worldwide
The group, which employs 120,000 people worldwide, is number 1 in several regions, including LATAM in Italy, and is the leading partner of major telecoms, energy and automotive groups, with a target of 2.5 billion euros (Nissan, Orange, Sanofi, ELM Leblanc, etc.).  

The French team, led by Marcos Gallego, will be at the 2nd New Biz Forum in Paris on 11 June to run a Master Class on effective new acquisition and retention techniques.

Gallego has recently moved into historic premises in Levallois-Perret.

From the 15th century onwards, the staggering amount of gold that the conquistadores sought out and took from the Americas enabled Spain to become the richest country in the world. In the modern digital economy, intentional leads are the new gold, the new treasure. Konecta, now headquartered in Spain, apparently intends to go out and win them back.  

The En-Contact editorial team.

Front page photo: In Amiens, at one of the group's contact centres in France. © Edouard Jacquinet.