dentsu international officially launched the new iProspect around the world as a game-changing digital-first end-to-end media agency. This came close on the heels of iProspect’s merger with media network Vizeum.
iProspect is now focussed on being the first agency to offer performance-driven brand building at a global scale. Along with this, iProspect has adopted the “Brands Accelerated” tagline to sit beneath a reimagined logo within a new, bold and accessible brand identity and website.
The new agency will fuse existing capabilities such as brand building, strategic planning, business intelligence, marketing activation and performance optimisation, plus the capabilities of scaled services within dentsu international; to give the team’s huge breadth and depth of skills to draw upon to accelerate client growth.The new iProspect is set up to focus on how consumers behave in their digital world and apply that to real world scenarios via a highly connected and creative use of media, regardless of channel. As digital specialists, its perspective allows it to rapidly optimise the work and adapt to ever-evolving human intent at those pivotal intersections in life, when culture, content, data, and technology meet.
The new iProspect entity is led by Global President Amanda Morrissey, bringing together more than 8,000 media and performance specialists across 93 key global markets.
Rubeena Singh, CEO, iProspect India in an exclusive chat talks on the launch, the global implications and to have a more performance-driven brand building.
iProspect the digital-first end-to-end media agency globally.
We are very excited and thrilled to begin this new journey.
Two agencies with a lot of heritage and globally scaled brands have come together to make this new iProspect. By integrating these two award-winning agencies, dentsu international brings Vizeum’s media strategy and planning, storytelling and brand building capabilities together with iProspect’s digital expertise, audience knowledge, and performance mind-set. Clients will have access to the unique capabilities of both agencies, all from one integrated team of highly skilled experts from across a multitude of media specialisms. According to us, growth really lies at the intersection of brand and performance. On one level all advertising is all about performance and on the other hand advertising can and should be about brands for growth. We are no longer in an ecosystem where there can be two different elements that can be planned and brought separately. So, what we must do is look at our business and brand goals through a combined lens. This will help us accelerate growth for our clients and that is what the new proposition of iProspect is and that is what we are working toward. Hence, I feel that this is a fantastic solution that the new agency is bringing to the market.
The strategy?
The new iProspect thrives at the intersection of brand and performance. We believe that brand drives performance and performance drives brand. It cannot be separated anymore. We at iProspect will be defining a new era of performance-driven brand building. We have the leading heritage of both the brands which have been brought together as one today. The new iProspect is born at an intersection where there is the science of performance marketing and the art of brand building on the other side. This I think is an unrivalled perspective that we bring to the table right now.
How will this move help your existing clients?
Clients are now looking to drive growth and transformation through simple and more integrated agency relationships. They want reduced complexity and want to create more integrated skilled solutions. They don’t want to have multiple agencies and they themselves trying to stitch up the consumer journey. The new iProspect will fuse the existing capabilities of brands building and strategic planning at one end along with activation and performance optimisation. Both of these capabilities which are skilled services will be found within the new iProspect. For clients, there is a brand that is able to get you this digital-first, end to end capability and they really love it.
The pandemic saw the rise of digital and is this move to enhance your brands digitally?
Of course, the pandemic has affected how brands are looking at digital. There are more and more people that are connected now and that provide us with new areas of growth. We believe that growth happens at the intersection of culture, brand, data and technology. It is majorly for this reason that the new iProspect is bringing together two trailblazing companies with their respective skillset, which are equally bringing equities to the table which enables the truly digital-first, end to end solutions to our clients through one core team. Yes, the pandemic has accelerated the opportunity for us – to work with brands that find themselves at a pivot point in their digital transformation in media.
Today the consumer is very aware digitally and also applies it to their real world scenario, how will the new entity of iProspect translate this to the brands?
The new iProspect will fuse existing capabilities such as brand building, strategic planning, business intelligence, marketing activation and performance optimisation, plus the capabilities of scaled services within dentsu international; to give the team’s huge breadth and depth of skills to draw upon to accelerate client growth.
Our unique perspective on the whole consumer journey goes with the digital mind-set and specifically through a performance lens. We respond to data and insights in order to rapidly adapt to consumer behaviour, which accelerates brand growth for clients.
You have said that ‘we are extremely proud to be the first agency to offer performance-driven brand building at scale’, can you elaborate on this?
We are the first one to go to the market with this proposition. There are performance agencies that focus on a narrow range of channels and they prioritise on short-term returns. The traditional media agencies that leave a lot of value by view on the table by the delivering brand when delivering brand. They see performance as a tactical tool.
We apply performance thinking to your whole business and your whole value chain.
‘Future-ready solutions’ your thoughts?
This launch is the beginning of our journey. As the new iProspect, our key focus will be on demonstrating our end-to-end capabilities to our clients. Moreover, maintaining and empowering culture that really allows our people to thrive and grow because they are the heart of the business. And hopefully, deliver award-winning work for a client. That is the charter we have set out for ourselves. Fingers crossed for that!
How will the team structure be like?
The team will be the same but we have re-organised and integrated them so that we don’t work as two agencies. The idea is to come together and offer an integrated solution to our client. The leadership team will continue to be the same but they have been re-organised with new mandates to make sure that we can see this integration through.
