Iris is to launch its in-house strategy consultancy Concise in Australia, to be headed by Peter Clifton Smith.
The marketing agency said the division, which has already been established in Europe and North America, will aid its Australian clients, which includes Adidas, Shell and Sony Ericsson.
Existing Concise clients InterContinental Hotels Group and AstraZeneca will now receive an additional Australian-based service.
Iris said Concise will add CRM and loyalty strategy, commercial innovation, research and analytics capabilities to its existing offering.
Clifton Smith will head the division as director, with the launch overseen by Josh Thomson, the new regional CEO of Iris APAC, and Simon Porter, MD of Iris Australia.
Thomson co-founded Concise in 2002, before its $10m sale to Iris last year.
Porter said: “Like our other specialist, discipline-led operations in digital and experiential, Concise further deepens our formidable capabilities in Australia, which are clearly bearing fruit when you consider our rapid growth and our numerous new business wins”.
Thomson added: "The integrated agency model of the future has to be about more than just communications to have a long term effect on a client’s business.
“Integration is about business partnership and we want to become inseparable from our key clients because of the difference we make, the value we add and our energising effect on their perspective and performance. Our aim is to offer more breadth, depth and value by forging relationships further upstream in our clients’ business strategies.”
Separately, Iris has been appointed by Asia Pacific Breweries Singapore to run Heineken’s music platform over the next twelve months.
