Dentsu Australia merges Isobar under Merkle and BWM

Dentsu Australia is folding digital experience agency Isobar into a consolidated customer experience practice (CX) under the Merkle brand, while its creative team will move under BWM.

The move forms part of an ongoing simplification of Dentsu's businesses in Australia, after it consolidated Amicus Digital, Davanti Australia, DWA and Gyro under Merkle in January.

At the time, it also integrated data-driven customer experience consultancy Accordant into Isobar to form a specialist Adobe practice.

Now, Isobar's CX practice will move under Merkle to enable it to deliver "total experience outcomes", commented Dentsu ANZ CEO Angela Tangas, who has overseen the consolidation of Dentsu Group.

"We need to have our people and capabilities in the right place to deliver meaningful progress and outcomes for our clients to ensure there is no disconnect between what their brands promise and what a customer, community, or employee experiences," she said.

The consolidated Merkle CXM proposition brings together data transformation, digital transformation, and CX consulting, with key partnerships with Adobe, Salesforce, Sitecore, Google and AWS, the company claims.

Meanwhile, Isobar's creative team and brand will be retained under new creative brand BWM Isobar.

Tangas said the merging of BWM and Isobar brings together "BWM’s long heritage and success in brand strategy and creative communications...with Isobar’s world-leading innovation and service design".

The CEO also outlined plans to "strongly leverage" the Dentsu Mcgarrybowen brand, or DentsuMB, in the Australian market.

The folding of Isobar is the latest in a string of changes at Dentsu Australia. Last August, Vizeum was folded into iProspect, and in January, various sports businesses were brought under the umbrella of Dentsu Sports International, as part of a global realignment.

It means Dentsu Australia's capabilities are now concentrated as follows:

• CXM: Merkle
• Creative: BWM Isobar and Dentsu Mcgarrybowen
• Media: Carat, iProspect and Dentsu X
• Sport: MKTG
• Gaming: SMG

Isobar has also been merged in Japan, where it will become Dentsu Digital from July 1.