• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, November 7, 2019

Kenshoo’s new Agency Partnership Division, designed to foster relationships and opportunities to co-develop projects and support brands, officially launched this week with Kate DuBois, GM of search, at the helm.

DuBois will lead the agency, with support from Yoav Izhar-Prato, CEO and executive sponsor; Megan Edwards, VP, of agency client success; and Zvika Goldstein, chief product officer.

“We plan to provide dedicated partnership agreements by addressing the needs of specific agencies,” DuBois said. “We plan to organize the teams based on their objectives. Some agencies are under a lot of pressure in terms of in-housing, or parts of their responsibilities are getting broken up.”

The group will take a data-first focus, DuBois said, supporting a variety of media from search to social. Agency veterans who understand the day-to-day experience will support the new division, including those from GroupM, Publicis Groupe, Dentsu, and Omnicom.

DuBois came to Kenshoo in April 2019 with 15 years of experience working at agencies such as Edelman, Resolution Media, and Starcom. There are 15 people supporting the group today, with more coming on board as needed.

The division, already in strategic talks with three major international holding companies, comes in response to the inherent challenges of audience targeting and media-mix planning. The goal is to help agencies quickly maneuver the landscape to support brands.

DuBois believes that as agency partners consolidate functions like creative and media, Kenshoo will provide support, innovations, and an independent view of the consumer journey through data and thoughtful insights.

Services will include quarterly consultation with a board of advisors from various holding companies, who will share industry assessments and inform product and innovation roadmap. It offers strategic consultation, transitional account services, custom development of campaigns, and training and certification programs for agencies across holding company.

"We're not looking to displace any publishers," she said. "There's a strong investment from Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon and other large publishers, all working with the teams."