Seven Pillars, One Roof for New Look Unlimited Group

UK-based marcoms network the Unlimited Group is making further changes to its structure, with a new visual identity to match. Its 27 agencies are now classified under seven disciplines to offer clients 'a simple, bespoke and fully integrated service'.

The company has also completed its staff integration, bringing scientists and creatives under the same roof in the group's HQ in Soho, London.

Previously known as Creston, the group binned two longstanding MR brands, Marketing Sciences and ICM Direct, in November, combining four insight businesses into a 'human understanding' agency, Walnut Unlimited. Walnut will now be 'aligned with' the Insight & Analytics discipline - the other six created are Health, Customer Engagement, Brand, Digital Transformation, B2B & Technology, and CRM & Acquisition; and the company will position its teams as 'Experts in the Impact of Art & Science'.

Under the new branding, each discipline 'pillar' has been assigned a colour and a matching symbol, formed from a 'U' to represent Unlimited. The group says 'specialist brands' including ICM Unlimited will sit 'beneath these power brands'. The 'pillars' can be bought individually, together or clients can access the entirety of the group's skillsets via a single point of access at the Unlimited level.

Simultaneously, Unlimited says it is launching a range of new talent initiatives to bolster diversity, including an apprenticeship scheme bringing in six apprentices from 'non-traditional backgrounds' in the coming year; and new employee training schemes to help bring different disciplines together.

Group President Tim Bonnet says the firm 'now has a distinct agency offering capable of maximising the opportunities offered by today's fast-moving marketplace', and adds: 'We are the only agency in town where our neuroscientists share the same canteen as our brand creatives, and it's this mixing of disciplines, of people, that's key to reaching the holy grail of integration'. Bonnet says that the move reflects calls from marketing bosses like P&G's Marc Pritchard and Unilever's Keith Weed, who have called on agencies to employ fewer account managers and focus on creative output; and provides 'an antidote for clients vs the big, publicly owned global holding companies'.

CMO Ryan Wain says the new structure and identity send 'a clear message to brands of all shapes and sizes: don't waste your time and money with the one-size-fits-all offerings from the big groups who will always put shareholders first, come and join the Unlimited family for the right combination of marketing skillsets to overcome today's challenges and seize tomorrow's opportunities. We're waiting for you'.

Web site: www.unlimitedgroup.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.