Global Rebranding at MindShare

NEW YORK WPP Group's Mindshare has launched a global rebranding effort to support the restructuring the WPP shop implemented in April.

The agency's North American senior executives are relinquishing their formal job titles. For example, Scott Neslund, CEO of Mindshare North America, will now be identified simply as Scott Neslund, Mindshare North America, the agency said. The same will apply to about a dozen top N.A. executives who comprise the shop's North American Leadership Committee.

"This new identity heralds our next stage of growth as a new model agency, one that acts as a marketing spine to our client's business, focusing on partnerships, consumer exchanges and collaborations," said Neslund. "Relinquishing our job titles signifies the breakdown of silos and a new spirit of openness and equanimity throughout the upper ranks of our agency."

For now, relinquishing titles applies only to the senior North American executives. Other regions may or may not adopt that change.
 
Also under the new branding, Mindshare retains its signature color purple but is introducing a redesign of the agency's logo and visual identity. The new logo consists of a custom-made word mark and symbol.

In a departure from the previous branding, the written version of the company's name will no longer contain an uppercase "S" in the middle of the word and the company's name will be written as "Mindshare."

Dominic Proctor, CEO of Mindshare Worldwide, added: "When we launched Mindshare 10 years ago, we wanted it to be the agency of the future. Now that objective is stronger than ever. This new branding is the result of input from our global network, one of our greatest assets, and represents our continuing ambition to set the marketplace agenda in partnership with our clients."

In April Mindshare announced a global restructuring that integrated the company's traditional and digital services and staff. The broader overhaul focuses on four key areas of service: client leadership; business planning; "invention" (including branded content and other creative disciplines); and "the exchange" (including buying and activation).

"We see this as a reinvention of the agency rather than simply a restructuring," Neslund said at the time. The impetus for the revamp was a mandate from Proctor last year to reposition the company based on changing client needs and the constantly evolving media landscape.

Globally, the shop buys more than $23 billion in ads annually, according to Recma.