After building the success of The Observatory International in France, Nathalie Descout and Nicolas Gondeau launch Ex4, a marketing management consultancy, augmented by technology. Supported by an ecosystem of global partners and experts, this new player will support the Marketing & Communication directions of international brands. An "enlarged and enhanced" vision of Marketing Management consulting.
In a highly changing marketing & communication sector, Nicolas Gondeau and Nathalie Descout, until now respectively President and Managing Director of The Observatory International's Paris office, are launching Ex4, a new marketing management consultancy. With over 20 years of industry expertise, the two partners designed Ex4 around a strong conviction: the value of a marketing management consultancy lies in its ability to make brands more robust. This means being able to cover the entire value chain, from strategy to operations, while incorporating new technologies as an acceleration driver.
Ex4: The "4E" compass
Based in Paris, the independent consultancy will support marketing and communication leaders of global brands, with a range of services structured around four "E"s: - Explore: providing C-level marketing executives with a clearer picture of global market practices and players through "state of the art", "peers’ benchmarks" and "mapping". - Express: helping brand leaders to express their strategy, action plan and related narrative. - Execute: helping brands to build, populate and implement the ecosystem of marketing and communications partners they need to rely on to support their brand strategy. - Excel: offering proprietary technological solutions made to empower brands’ marketing execution capacities.
Investing in technology
Ex4 is already investing in the development of technological solutions capable of strengthening its methodologies. Nicolas Gondeau, CEO and co-founder of Ex4 said that "AI is already revolutionizing marketing and, if properly framed, it is a great accelerator for certain aspects of our business. Thus, we are working with experts to launch in 2024, a first AI-based agency search solution to instantly identify the best partners in France and internationally."
A strong ethical approach
Ex4 advocates a responsible approach to marketing management consulting. As the only player in France who opted for a 100% client-oriented business model, Ex4 positions itself as a trusted third party whose remuneration exclusively come from the brands it supports, and not from agencies. For Ex4, this is an essential condition to guarantee its clients the assurance of totally objective, impartial, and transparent recommendations.
Nathalie Descout, co-founder and Managing Director of Ex4 announced "With The Observatory International, we demonstrated the power of a robust and responsible business model. Building on our DNA and strong knowledge of the market, Ex4 will provide a unique consulting offering to global brand leaders thanks to the recognized expertise of our consultants and partners and the strength of our proprietary technology solutions».
Stuart Pocock, co-founder of The Observatory International added «Nicolas and Nathalie have been a talented part of The Observatory family for the last few years, and we know they have an exciting future with this new proposition. We wish them well and look forward to continuing our partnership for moments when we can support clients even better together. »
The Ex4 Management Team
Nicolas Gondeau - CEO and co-founder of Ex4
Nicolas spent most of his career in digital marketing and communications. He began his career at Yves Rocher Montréal as product manager. He returned to France in 2000, where he held various management positions with digital agencies in the Omnicom (Tribal DDB) and Publicis (DIGITAS LBi) networks. Nicolas was elected vice-president of the Association for Consulting Communication Agencies (AACC). In 2011, he left Digitas to join Uniteam as associate managing director. He became a lecturer at Sciences Po Paris later that year. In 2015, he joined Roth Observatory International. Nicolas has a Master's degree in Economics and another in Marketing and Communication. Within Ex4, Nicolas will focus on agency search and selection, RFI, RFP, remuneration models definition, agency models implementation...
Nathalie Descout - Managing Director and co-founder of Ex4
Nathalie has over 20 years’ experience in the marketing and communications sector. She started her career in 2004 at the Renault Group in Spain. First, she was in charge of consumer intelligence. Then, she integrated the group’s Worldwide Marketing Direction, where she worked on the global advertising strategy, production, and coordination. In 2010, she joined Publicis Group as head of Renault coordination, first in South America (based in Brazil) and then at a global level (based in Paris). In 2017 she joined The Observatory International where she was the Managing Director until 2023. Nathalie speaks four languages (FR, SP, PT, EN), is a graduate of Paris Dauphine University (MSG), holds an MBA in Strategic Management (Universidad de Belgrano – Buenos Aires), is an auditor of the 79th cycle of Economic and Strategic Intelligence at IHEDN and is in the process of certification at the Ecole Polytechnique Executive Education to be a consultant in sustainable performance. Within Ex4, she will be strongly involved on strategy expression, state-of-the-art, peers’ benchmarks, key players mapping, agency models definition, RFI, RFP and workshop facilitation.
