• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, October 22, 2014

Epsilon, part of Dallas-based Alliance Data has begun a major rebranding designed to reflect the company’s evolution to a full-service global marketing operation, the company said Wednesday. 

The company has made several big acquisitions in recent years including last month’s agreement to acquire Conversant (formerly known as ValueClick) for $2.3 billion. Earlier the firm bought Hyper Marketing for $460 million, which brought marketing services firms such as Ryan Partnership, SolutionSet, CatapultRPM and Getmembers.com into the Epsilon fold. 

Epsilon President Andy Frawley said all of the company’s firms would be re-branded with the Epsilon nameplate over time. Ryan Partnership, for example, will be renamed Epsilon Ryan. The exact timing isn’t tied down, but the full rebranding effort may take a couple of years to complete, Frawley said. 

Frawley said that when the firm started to consider its branding strategy going forward, “everything was open,” including a possible name change from Epsilon to something else. But ultimately the firm decided to stick with the Epsilon named given its recognition as a leader in the marketplace particularly in the data and analytics sectors but also increasingly in the broader marketing services arena. 

The company is being positioned as an “end-to-end” marketing solution, said Frawley. In addition to data and analytics Epsilon offers a wide array of digital agency services, CRM, shopper marketing and other capabilities. “This consolidation of capabilities provides the reimagined Epsilon brand with added strengths that allow us to define an entirely new space and become an all-encompassing marketing partner for global brands,” Frawley added. 

Bryan Kennedy, chief executive officer of Epsilon, added that the rebranding is intended to reflect the company’s efforts to “put together the deepest and richest end-to-end solution set in the market to manage the complexities of data, technology, strategy and creative in order to drive business success for our clients. With this launch, we are now unifying all these assets behind a clear, clean revitalized brand.” 

The company still has an appetite for acquisitions, said Frawley, but will take some to complete and fully integrate Conversant, “which brings us scale in digital media,” before making another big purchase. 

Last week, Alliance Data reported quarterly results and noted that Epsilon revenue for the first nine months of the year was up 8% to nearly $1.1 billion.