'This is about bringing together people, not destroying anything,' he told PRWeek. 'If anything, the PR and marketing teams are going to have a more unified and stronger voice within the company.
'I see only an upside for all the functions and I think it will be a lot more rewarding to work on the Nissan brand both in-house and for agencies.'
He said the decision had been partly driven by changes in the wider business environment: 'We are in a massively changing comms environment and we all need to work out how to build consistency and clarity of message over increasingly diverse communications channels.'
Sproule added: 'I find it hard to know how you could manage a brand in a seamless way without everyone working together. For a global brand this kind of move makes a lot of sense because we are going be able to do more and do it better for less investment.
'There is going to be a more seamless interaction between the consumer and the brand which will make it easier to approach, understand and interact with.'