Dentsu is restructuring again, this time in a move to drive greater client value and grow market leadership, according to the agency. In the process, the agency is losing its Dentsu Media Americas CEO, Doug Rozen, who has held the role for over four years.
“Doug Rozen will be leaving Dentsu. We are grateful for his contributions to our business and specifically, our portfolio of media brands, which represent some of the best-in-class capabilities, scale, and talent in the industry. We wish Doug great success in the future,” the company wrote in a prepared statement.
The latest changes find Dentsu realigning its key performance capabilities to “help clients capitalize on the next wave of growth through customer transformation and technology.” In order to do that, Dentsu has made several leadership appointments.
Dentsu will bring together Merkle’s media capabilities under iProspect, performance creative capabilities under Dentsu Creative and media analytics capabilities under Merkle.
“As we embark on the next phase of growth in the Americas, these strategic moves will accelerate our speed to market and further cement Dentsu as a leader in marketing innovation, customer transformation and technology,” said Michael Komasinski, CEO, Dentsu Americas and global CEO of Merkle. “Critically, it will help our clients deepen their relationships with their customers and build a lifetime of repeat interactions, loyalty and advocacy. We’re setting the direction and pace of growth—not only across our industry, but for Global 500 companies.”
Merkle and iProspect will combine their media offerings under the iProspect brand and will operate alongside Carat and Dentsu X to bring media to the heart of the customer journey.
Leading the practice will be Liz Rutgersson, who has been named CEO of iProspect, North America. Liz has 17 years of experience leading media teams. She was previously chief media officer at Merkle.
The performance creative businesses within Merkle and Dentsu’s media brands will be unified under Dentsu Creative, the company’s global creative network. Dentsu Creative will bring together creativity, technology and intelligence through Tag, a recent Dentsu acquisition, a global omnichannel digital marketing production company.
The practice will be co-led by Amy Thorne and Octavio Maron. Thorne is chief creative officer at Merkle and evp, business lead / b-to-c performance and b-to-b brand creative. Maron is evp, head of creative and content at Dentsu International.
Dentsu Creative was previously led by Fred Levron, who left the company in March of this year. Dentsu Creative came about in June of 2022 and was the amalgamation of global agency brands DentsuMB, Isobar and 360i.
Dentsu’s analytics capabilities will be unified under Merkle’s analytics practice. By connecting the analytics capabilities across Dentsu’s CXM, media and creative offerings, the practice will focus on helping clients build a deep understanding of their marketing efforts, customers and drive performance.
Leading the analytics practice will be Shirli Zelcer, global head of analytics and data platforms at Merkle. Zelcer brings over 20 years of experience.
Additionally, Danielle Gonzales, who was previously CEO of iProspect, has been named chief growth officer, Dentsu Americas. In this role, she will focus on building new client relationships and delivering cross-brand, integrated marketing solutions that accelerate growth for clients.
At the top of this year, Dentsu integrated Dentsu International and Dentsu Japan Network into a single organization. That move saw the departure of global CEO Wendy Clark, with the entire business falling under the stewardship of president and CEO Hiroshi Igarashi.
In June, Jacki Kelley resigned from her role as CEO, Americas of Dentsu to take the role of chief client officer and chief business officer at IPG. Komasinski was then named CEO, Dentsu Americas.
The agency currently has no plans for layoffs due to the realignments, according to a story by AdAge, but roughly 1,000 U.S. staff will be shifted to different departments.