Elliot Muscant, who stood down as CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network North last May, has joined Open Partners as Managing Partner.
It also marks the rebrand of the Manchester programmatic consultancy, from Open Programmatic.
“The advertising market has evolved once more, and whilst the big network groups are saying all the right things, they simply can’t deliver due to the operational and commercial dysfunction they have built up over decades of managing disconnected fiefdoms combined with rapid scale through acquisition,” stated Muscant.
“Clients want genuine integration of data, content and media, not teams from different brands or departments ‘collaborating’. Clients want speed and agility, testing and learning fast to gain the edge on their competitors, not being held back by inter-agency politics or arguments over intellectual property and rebates. By building this model from the ground up we will provide clients with the expertise and services that will remove these shackles and drive their business performance.”
Michael Leppan, Co-Founder of the agency explained that it was now based around “three core principles”:
“Audiences not Channels, Clients as Principle, and Partnerships drive Performance. The rebrand reflects our commitment to enabling our client partners to seamlessly combine media and content; to deliver advertising campaigns at speed; to use 1st party data in a highly sophisticated and responsible way to drive performance; and to remain wholly in control of their investment. The rebrand also reflects our commitment to rewarding our consultants as partners in our business as they demonstrate they can consistently deliver excellent performance for our clients.”
The company recently moved into new city centre offices and employs a staff of 14 consultants.
“Elliot brings a wealth of experience in building arguably the most successful independent digital business in the industry, being part of the management team that delivered business transforming post-sale expansion and growth, and can point to a proven track record of innovation and entrepreneurialism,” added Partner, Joe Procter.
“We all feel extremely fortunate to have the chance to work together again and are looking forward to achieving our shared ambitions together.”
