Isobar (digital marketing agency)

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Isobar
Type Division
Founded 2003
Headquarters London
Industry Advertising
Employees 3150
Parent Aegis Group plc
Website http://www.isobar.net/

Isobar is the world's largest digital agency network.[1] It is part of Aegis Media and therefore a wholly owned subsidiary of Aegis Group plc.

Aegis launched its first digital business in 1995 in the UK. By 2000 it was operating in the top 10 markets of the world. Whilst being primarily focused on online media it had acquired some small creative assets in the US, Germany and Spain. An informal global management team was formed to help spread best practice and this became an important forum during the dotcom crash to ensure that the businesses were properly supported at that time. This helped ensure that as a group we went into the crash with 200 people and came out of the crash with 200 people.

When the first green shoots of recovery in online advertising were tracked at the end of 2002, the Group decided to undertake a wide ranging strategic review of digital marketing. Conducted during Q1 of 2003, this looked at our current business, the agency market, the consumer and future client needs.

As a result of this a separate division to align, integrate and manage all the digital assets within Aegis was created in May 2003. It was branded Isobar on 5 July 2004.

Contents

[edit] General Information

As of February 2008, Isobar has 2740 people working in a global network of over 100 offices in 37 markets. Each agency within the Isobar network is fully owned but retains their own branding and specialisations. Agencies which are part of the Isobar network include Farfar (Sweden), de-construct (London), glue (London), iProspect (US), Molecular (US), Freestyle Interactive (US), Marvellous (London), Netthink (Spain), Chewing Com (France), Xenion Interactive (Germany), Bookmark (Netherlands), Agencia Click (Brazil), Mindblossom (Canada), OneDigital (Australia), wwwins (China), AgencyW and ION Global (South Korea), Digithais (Thailand), Kirowski (Hungary) and others.

[edit] Corporate History

  • July 2004: official launch of network under the Isobar brand[2] and acquisition of Chinese digital agency wwwins[3]
  • December 2004: acquired US search marketing firm iProspect[4]
  • January 2005: acquired UK creative web build agency de-construct[5] and Swedish creative agency Farfar[6]
  • April 2005: acquired US web build and ecommerce specialist Molecular[7]
  • August 2005: acquired UK creative agency Glue[8]
  • October 2005: acquired Hungarian agency Kirowski[9]
  • February 2006: acquired US word-of-mouth agency Ammo[10]
  • February 2007: acquired Brazilian digital agency AgenciaClick[11]
  • August 2007: acquired ION Global in Korea, Hong Kong (to merge with wwwins) and San Francisco (to merge with Molecular)
  • November 2007: acquired Canadian full-service digital agency Mindblossom[12]

[edit] References

  1. ^ RECMA's Interactive Agency report (published February 2007) http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=62795.
  2. ^ Aegis creates international digital network | Internet Marketing News and Blog | E-consultancy.com
  3. ^ Article at www.mad.co.uk
  4. ^ Aegis Acquires iProspect for $50M - ClickZ
  5. ^ Aegis Group Gets Creative - ClickZ
  6. ^ Aegis' Isobar Adds Another Agency - ClickZ
  7. ^ Isobar Acquires Molecular for $31.5M - ClickZ
  8. ^ Aegis buys Glue London for £14m | Business | The Guardian
  9. ^ http://business.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=54&id=2037202005
  10. ^ Isobar Acquires Ammo for WOM Marketing - MarketingVOX
  11. ^ http://www.adweek.com/aw/iq_interactive/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003549456
  12. ^ Daily Research News Online article no. 7620

[edit] External links