Isobar China Group reorganises to stress consultancy approach

Isobar China Group has announced a "strategic integration plan" to reorganise current operations into four cross-agency functions: client servicing, specialist, product development and business support.

Upon reorganisation, the group will become a "new type of digital-marketing-solutions provider with consulting at its core," said CEO Alvin Huang. 

"Our goal is for Isobar to be more than a client's agency; we aim to be their partner and business consultant," explained Huang, adding that over the last few years, Isobar has already delivered consultancy services, but wanted to ensure "true transformation" for clients by repositioning as an integrated consulting and marketing offering.  

"We will not be only consultants; we also execute and are responsible for the output of our consultancy services," he told Campaign.

The group will also embark on a new working approach that uses a "business consultancy mindset" to analyse client needs, according to a spokesperson.

James Yang, executive director of Isobar's internal brand commerce consultancy as well as the consulting practice lead in Beijing, has been appointed as managing director of Isobar Beijing where the transition will start first, before implementation in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Wuhan.

It is currently unknown if the reorganisation will be applied to other Isobar offices in Asia, which have less complicated structures than the one in China.

New functions and leaders

The Isobar China Group comprises six agencies: Isobar, OMP-Linked by Isobar, Trio Isobar, Verawom-Linked by Isobar, Verystar-Linked by Isobar, and Isobar Commerce. The latter two will not be reorganised as they are still in their respective earn-out periods.

Client servicing:

This group will integrate all account service and creative teams from the first four agencies. Due to this, Trio Isobar will merge with Isobar under one roof, with custom-configured servicing teams based on the different needs of each client.

Trio Isobar's CEO and executive creative director, Chris Chen, was promoted to the newly-created role of chief creative officer in December 2017. The former CEO of Isobar China, Grace Liu, left to join Reprise Australia, announced this January.

For OMP, its vice president, William Wu, has been promoted to managing director, and will lead teams to serve local clients on ecommerce marketing solutions.

Jack Wang, CEO of Verawom, will focus on teams working on social creative and video content.

Wu and Wang will co-lead this function by continuing to run their respective agencies.

Specialist:

To better leverage resources and improve efficiency, all specialist teams from the Isobar China Group agencies, including social media, planning, media, procurement and production, will form the specialist function. April Chang, formerly chief strategy officer of Trio Isobar, will be appointed as managing director of operations as the leader of this specialist function.

Product development:

This function is in response to increased client demand for digital transformation, according to Isobar. Three products are in the pipeline: Entertainment Marketing Solutions, Effective Optimization System and Code 1 Lite.

Britney Pai, formerly general manager of Trio Isobar, will be appointed as vice president of Entertainment Marketing Solutions.

Jeffery Ding, who was previously CEO and founder of OMP, will serve as the group's special adviser, taking charge of the development of Effective Optimization System.

Code 1 Lite will be a new data-planning tool based on its existing Code 1 tool, with no known leader as yet.

(Campaign has requested more details on what Effective Optimization System entails.)

Business support:

This function is the back office for the group, including human resources, finance, IT, marketing and communications and administration.