Ashley Earnshaw departs DAN as it rolls Vizeum into iProspect
The Dentsu Aegis Network’s (DAN) Vizeum will merge into iProspect, in a move described by the holding group as a ‘further simplification of its media business’.
Ashley Earnshaw has resigned his role as CEO of Vizeum, only a year after taking up the role. Oliver Rapson, the managing director of iProspect, has been named CEO in an expanded role to integrate the Vizeum leadership team.
Earnshaw leaves after five years at DAN
It is another added responsibility for Rapson, who took control of performance marketing agency Merkle in January following the departure of Australia and New Zealand managing director Rebecca Tos.
Rapson’s new role in merging Vizeum and iProspect will result in “providing the right balance of client centricity and craft excellence”.
“Our teams will be helping clients leverage a full end-to-end experience to create robust, through-the-line strategies underpinned by digital DNA. This is an exciting step forward for our business and clients, meanwhile providing more opportunities for our people,” he said.
Rapson’s role as head of iProspect will be expanded
Rapson has been with iProspect since 2014 when he joined as general manager.
The move comes from DAN’s new CEO Angela Tangas, who stepped into the role in November last year when Henry Tajer was ousted by the regional team after just a year as chief executive.
The merger of Vizeum and iProspect continues the holding group’s restructure kicked off by Tajer, following the loss of the $40m Mondelēz International account, $20m Amart account, Super Retail Group, Virgin Australia, Asahi, and Bega (which moved to Thinkerbell after a 10-year relationship with Carat).
The first change was a round of senior executive redundancies, including iProspect’s managing director, Nick Seckold, president of Amplifi, Adrian Roeling, DAN’s head of public affairs and communications, Andrew Hewett.
Sue Squillace started as the CEO of media agency Carat in September last year, leading the major account wins of L’Oreal and the $50m Medibank and AHM business. Squillace’s appointment also triggered the departure of Carat’s MD Simon Williams.
In August last year, head of government solutions Nick Swifte’s and ANZ managing director of Amnet Indy Khabra’s roles were made redundant. Swifte had been with the business for 22 years.
That month, Erik Hallander was appointed CEO of Isobar, and soon after the agency was merged with With Collective. The latter’s CEO and COO, Justin Hind and Dominique Hind respectively, exited the company.
Following the release of Dentsu’s quarter three of FY2019 results, President and CEO of Dentsu Inc Toshihiro Yamamoto also announced that a new group management structure will be effective from January 2020, aiming to become a “pure holding company”.
Tangas said the most recent merger is taking place to “fast-track the evolution of our business”
“To better anticipate the changing consumer landscape and to ensure we provide clients with increased tangible value, we need to transform and fast-track the evolution of our business. COVID has only accelerated this further and set a new benchmark for partnership value,” she said.
“With deeper digital integration, underpinned by radical collaboration, agility and faster decision making, our focus is on making it easier for our clients to access the best of Dentsu.”
Tangas is looking to accelerate the evolution of DAN
Meanwhile, Earshaw’s departure comes after five years with the holding group. He started out at DAN as head of investment at Carat. After a year he became the chief investment officer of Carat and, later, Amplifi.
Tangas said: “After five years of service with Dentsu, Ashley has made the decision to pursue further opportunities. Ash has been a valuable contributor to the group over that period and we wish him all the best for what comes next.”
In July, Tangas launched Dentsu Commerce, a specialised team offering total ecommerce solutions to clients.
Vizeum rolled into Isobar made much more sense. It will die in iprospect’s narrow business.
User ID not verified.
Good on you Ash. Enduring DAN for that long through some incredibly tough conditions is a credit to you.
User ID not verified.
Your facts and dates remain incorrect on multiple levels even after your minor update, this is amateur journalism at best and misleading at worst.
User ID not verified.
Hi there,
An earlier version of this story incorrectly listed Simon Ryan in the place of Simon Williams. It was updated shortly after. From what I can see, the story is correct now, and links to the corresponding articles to support the timeline. If you could please give me some clarifications around the incorrect facts and dates I will definitely look into them further.
Thanks,
Hannah – Mumbrella
Someone better tell Vizeum global that they’re no good at “anticipating the changing consumer landscape to provide clients with increased tangible value”…
User ID not verified.
Acquiring Merkle? I think you mean Columbus.
User ID not verified.
All around good changes by Angela, of course some people will leave as a result. Can’t help that its a big change. But its the right move for Dentsu and will enable us to be much more client focused.
Good things are happening at DAN.
User ID not verified.
Hi Hmm,
According to the most recent information we have on Merkle and Columbus, Oliver Rapson took over the role at Merkle as Rebecca Tos stepped down. Columbus sits under Merkle. I’m not sure where there is mention in the story about anyone acquiring Merkle – it still exists within DAN.
Thanks,
Hannah – Mumbrella
Ha, come on Mumbo. I don’t work at DAN anymore, nor would I want to again, but even I think this article is rubbish. The first half is fine, but is it really necessary to rehash old news about redundancies? With so many in our industry going through change at the moment, why don’t you try to focus on reporting the news from today and heck, maybe even find some positive angles.
User ID not verified.
Dentsu was gaining decent momentum pre-covid and is making the right choices to set themselves up for growth.
Losing Ash will be a big loss as he’s an incredibly talented operator. That said, this move will bring together the best of brand & DR, backed with solid data & tech from the Dentsu Solutions team.
This is a smart move, because it will simplify the business model, make the business more client centric, whilst maintaining depth of the solutions.
They’ll be in safe hands with Rapson. iProspect has continually been a top performing business unit for years under his leadership.
Context for Mumbrella:
1) DAN should be referred to as Dentsu since the move to ‘One Dentsu’ globally (bringing together Japan & international)
2) Dentsu owns Merkle
3) Merkle acquired Columbus, but then decoupled. Columbus then merged with iProspect
4) Dentsu Solutions is a central hub within the group, bringing together the best minds and capabilities to solve client problems
5) Dentsu haven’t just lost clients over the past few years, they’ve won & retained some as well, with some being quite happy customers. Believe it, or not.
It’s good to see Dentsu heading in the right direction. Well done guys.
User ID not verified.
Wow, what a mouthful to read. Ash is a great guy so that part is a loss for DAN. But putting the sledging of DAN aside, what they’re trying to do actually makes sense… I think, hard to know what the change actually means considering this piece is riddled with a bunch of other stories. If the first line captures the sentiment of the change ‘further simplification of its media business’ then that can only be a good thing. Holding cos can only benefit from having a simpler model.
User ID not verified.
Pretty sure “Merkle” isn’t run by Oliver. Might want to fact check that. Merkle has a few brands underneath it.
User ID not verified.
Hi Anonymous,
To clarify – he took over the ANZ business in January. You can read that story here – https://mumbrella.com.au/rebecca-tos-merkles-anz-md-steps-down-with-iprospects-md-to-lead-both-dan-businesses-613349
Thanks!
Hannah – Mumbrella
This can only be a good thing and they should have done this years ago.
One of the biggest frictions for clients has been the separation of traditional media/search & social across two separate teams in two separate businesses that never really worked well together.
Guessing this wasn’t the only job loss as a result of the merger though unfortunately.
User ID not verified.
Congrats to Dentsu for making this necessary but still challenging move. It’s always tough losing good talent like Ash but this is just the start; not for Dentsu but for all major holding Co’s. Too many brands offering what is really a rather vanilla offer. Clients don’t care what you call yourself, what your vision, mission and purpose are, they just want smart teams who can deliver great outcomes at the lowest price (caveat that’s what procurement want). Harsh but true.
User ID not verified.
Well said
User ID not verified.
I really do not understand the need to continuously drudge up facts from over 12 months ago when writing current articles.
It is not only boring it is perceived as negative reporting.
When the industry is facing it’s toughest time it has ever seen how about you show some support!
User ID not verified.
Linking a previous incorrect article does not correct the mistake in this article.
User ID not verified.
Ash is a good guy and will be missed but have heard only good things about where DAN is heading. Sounds like Angela is turning it around after some really poor leadership wrecked the place.
User ID not verified.
My first ever job was under Oli, was a great guy and one of a few bosses I’ve had who genuinely cared about people in the office. I’m glad to see him doing well
User ID not verified.
How many years ago does an account loss have to have occurred before it is removed from the same old paragraph inserted into every. single. article on Dentsu?
Maybe think about changing the template going forward?
User ID not verified.
Can’t understand why mumbrella continues to rehash such old news losses from over 2 years ago how about more recent wins like Pandora, Caltex and more. This is getting a bit old now
User ID not verified.
Agree that in parts this article is not factually accurate.
Let’s start with the arrival of Sue Squillace. L’Oréal, Medibank and AHM were already clients of the DAN network which Carat and Columbus servicing across media and digital performance. It was under Joey Pardillo’s and Mitchell McBeath’s leadership these accounts were retained (before Sue started).
Not that long ago iProspect was an underperforming business in ANZ, only a few global account wins out of UK and USA turned around the business (not because of local leadership or capability). iProspect absorbed Columbus not Merkle, Merkle has all but disappeared in ANZ apart from DWA and Amicus. Columbus was the digital performance marketing brand of Merkle in AUZ.
Dentsu Commerce is a global initiative, the article reads as if Tangas drove this (not the case, it was created in a different market).
User ID not verified.
@Ex-Dentsu
On your point around DAN vs. Dentsu, I’m sorry but you’re incorrect. DAN still exists but it’s under and reports to Dentsu Group (holding company).
By the sounds of things you also know DAN is massively underperforming with only a few minor new business wins in the last 12 months (which don’t make up for the huge client losses, hence all the redundancies and restructure).
Dentsu Solutions is another excuse to sell more services from other parts of the network as the One P&L concept never worked.
Independents are performing much better because in Australia we see through the smoke and mirrors of the holding companies.
User ID not verified.
BMW now in market for closed pitch.Clearly not happy with the decision to close Vizeum.
User ID not verified.
Hey Hannah. Appreciate you don’t have all the answers, but it’s factually incorrect to say that Oli leads Merkle.
User ID not verified.