CAREERS: D'Arcy poaches branding specialist from Scient

As some ad agencies lose work to brand consultants, D'Arcy has responded by poaching Shauna Li Roolvink, director of strategy at Scient and a former associate director of strategy at Interbrand, Omnicom's brand consultancy business. Scient employed her to help some of its pharmaceutical clients develop an online presence in China, while at Interbrand Roolvink handled strategy for General Motors, Du Pont, Cerebos and StarHub. At D'Arcy, Singapore-based Roolvink is director business strategy, working across the region on accounts such as Procter & Gamble, Bristol Myers Squibb and Mars. D'Arcy hopes the move will ensure it gets involved in client business at the early stages rather than coming in late in the process when strategies are already implemented. "Most ad agencies come in on the communications level but now that we're involved in brand consultancy we can come in at the business level," said Jan Gerits, D'Arcy director of business development for Asia-Pacific. "We want to walk away from being an ad agency and become an ideas company that builds businesses and brands," he added. "Most ad agencies rate highly when it comes to creativity but less so when it comes to business building." As a consequence, many clients turn to brand consultants much to the chagrin of ad agencies. And brand consultants - unlike ad agencies - have an easier time getting to the top of the totem pole, often working with the company managing director or chief executive officer, while ad agencies work with the marketing manager. Kim Faulkner, managing director of Interbrand in Singapore, said ad agencies in Asia like to think they are the client's brand custodian. But ad agencies are incapable of doing the work of brand consultants, according to Faulkner. She said ad agencies focus on advertising, while brand consultants examine all aspects of the client's business. Focusing on internal brand management work can help ensure that whenever a customer comes in contact with the brand - whether it be via the company call centre, at store level and so on - it helps improve the brand's image, she said. To achieve this, brand consultants have to train client staff on how to deal with customers.

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