Global brand
services agency Tag relaunched today, incorporating the marketing services arm of its parent company Williams Lea. WL agreed to buy Tag in 2011 for an undisclosed sum. The agency also said that John
Paulson, formerly CEO of the Americas, has been appointed global CEO of Tag, based in New York.
Tag manages and implements global communications campaigns for brands and their creative
partners, including agencies that are not part of the big holding companies and don’t have their own global distribution networks.
The shop claims expertise across all marketing
channels-- including digital, TV, print, out-of-home advertising, direct mail, point-of-sale material and packaging. Tag’s clients include 47 of the top 500 brands. The agency has 2,000
employees in about 40 countries.
“We’re not looking to do the big ideas” that form the core of strategic marketing or advertising campaigns, Paulson said of Tag. Instead,
the agency helps with the logistics, procurement, production and distribution of those campaigns through its worldwide network of offices.
Combining WL’s marketing services unit with
the Tag offering, added Paulson, “is an important step in evolving our offer, growing our business and delivering better, more cost-effective services for our clients.” WL’s
contribution includes print management and strategic sourcing expertise.
With its marketing services operation now realigned with Tag, WL will continue to offer its consulting and other
core business services to clients in the financial, legal, professional services and government sectors.
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Outsourcing these seemingly mundane "post creative" tasks to a firm with the expertise and network reach to execute makes sense. Agencies can't really look at this work as a core competency, and aren't organized to staff for it productively. But WL units, including Tag, have been doing this work for years. So it seems, to me at least, a sensible, efficient way for brands and agencies to operate.