Dentsu Aegis introduces consultancy to help brands leverage Amazon

Dive Brief:

Dentsu Aegis Network, part of agency holding group Dentsu Inc., introduced a new consultancy aimed at helping brands develop an Amazon strategy and called Sellwin Consulting, according to information shared with Marketing Dive. The new division will provide a range of services to brands looking to grow their business through the e-commerce giant, including sharing insights on everything from warehouse strategies to branding and customer reviews.
Travis Johnson, who recently served as global CEO of mobile marketing agency Ansible at IPG, will lead the new consultancy as president. Sellwin will operate out of a New York office and the team will include professionals with backgrounds in e-commerce and marketing from both inside the Dentsu Aegis Network, as well as new people with experience at Amazon, eBay and R/GA.
Sellwin kicks off with 12 clients, which come from preexisting Dentsu business, as per AdExchanger. These clients include beauty and product companies. While the consultancy will focus on Amazon, it may eventually offer services for brands looking to sell through eBay, Alibaba, Walmart and Target, AdExchanger reports.

Dive Insight:

Dentsu Aegis Network CEO Nick Brien recently said that legacy structures leave agencies passive and slow to change, per AdExchanger in its coverage of the 4A’s Decisions 2020 conference last month. Being able to offer new insights and services around marketing through Amazon could help Dentsu Aegis Network position itself as more agile and having its finger on the pulse of the latest developments in marketing.

Sellwin might help Dentsu Aegis Network sign on consumer packaged goods brands, a group that has traditionally been among agencies' most important clients but that is increasingly working directly with large digital platforms and bringing some marketing functions in-house. At the same time, consultancies like Accenture are ramping up their marketing-related services, making inroads into agencies' terrain in the process.

As Amazon continues to grow its wallet share for consumers across a number of product categories, including grocery, CPG brands are rethinking how to activate shoppers on the site through advertising and unique engagements, an area where Sellwin hopes to provide added value. Amazon's advertising business surpassed $10 billion last year alone, and the e-commerce giant revealed a 95% year-over-year jump in Q4 to $3.4 billion.

CPGs are already working with Amazon to develop campaigns. For instance, Kraft Heinz brand Maxwell House Coffee worked with Amazon Prime series, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," for an exclusive offer. Consumers who ordered Maxwell House coffee on Amazon received a limited-edition Passover Haggadah that included the show’s main character Midge’s own personal touch. Brands can work with Amazon in these unique new ways that mashup popular television with e-commerce.

This news comes as a number of large agency holding groups are struggling, with their failure to be agile in an ever-changing consumer landscape hurting business. If agencies can prove themselves as strategic guides in this new e-commerce landscape, they can potentially support client needs and do so in a more agile fashion than legacy models.