Brand Union

Brand Union was a global brand and creative design consultancy agency, composed of about 500 people across 25 offices.[1] Brand Union was a wholly owned subsidiary of the WPP Group.

Brand Union
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryCommunications
PredecessorEnterprise IG
SuccessorSuperunion
Founded1976
HeadquartersLondon, England, UK (Head office)
ProductsConsultancy
Number of employees
500
ParentWPP Group
Websitewww.brandunion.com

As of January 2018, Brand Union had been integrated into Superunion,[2] the newly formed WPP brand consultancy.

History

In May 1976, graphic designers Terry Tyrrell and Sam Sampson formed Sampson Tyrrell. The catalyst for this was an opportunity given to them by an advertising agency to help with the corporate identity of British Gas. They worked for clients including Kodak, Lowrey, London Docklands and Legal and General.

The business grew slowly and by 1984 had grown to 10 employees working across a broad range of assignments, focusing mainly on graphic design projects. In 1984, Dave Allen joined from Kodak and helped accelerate growth with assignments from Citizen, Mazda and Castrol.

In 1986, Sampson Tyrrell was acquired by the WPP Group plc. This resulted in a period of rapid growth and by 1991 the company employed over 100 people in London. In 1992, Sampson and Allen led the formation of Enterprise identity Group with Jim Johnson of Anspach Grossman Portugal, Flavio Gomez of Sidjakov Berman Gomez and Miles Young of Ogilvy and Mather in Asia who owned a design network based in Hong Kong and Taiwan called Artistree. This was in response to the globalisation of international brands, particularly in Asia. All the founding businesses were transitioned into a new brand - Enterprise IG. Enterprise IG was launched in 1996. Allen and Johnson became Joint CEOs.

The business grew organically and by acquisition. Enterprise IG acquired Horniak and Canny in Australia, Springham Anderson in Singapore, Brindfors Design in Stockholm, Winderlich design in Hamburg and in 2001 Brown KSDP (part of the Tempus acquisition made by WPP) decided to join Enterprise IG - adding offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Amsterdam and Paris. This took Enterprise IG to over $100m revenue, 19 offices and over 700 employees. That year Enterprise IG topped the Design Week 100 league table.

In July, 2001 Enterprise IG acquired The Identity Business, Ireland's leading brand and identity consultancy .[3]

The Enterprise IG global network expanded with 21 regional offices in 18 markets, and formally became known as Brand Union in October 2007.[4]

Offices

Brand Union had 24 offices around the world:[5]

  • Bangalore
  • Bangkok
  • Beijing
  • Berlin
  • Cairo
  • Cape Town
  • Doha
  • Dubai
  • Hamburg
  • Hong Kong
  • Jakarta
  • Johannesburg
  • London
  • Madrid
  • Moscow
  • Mumbai
  • New York
  • Paris
  • Riyadh
  • São Paulo
  • Seoul
  • Shanghai
  • Singapore
  • Stockholm

References
  1. Brand Union - About Us Archived February 9, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  2. Dawood, Sarah. "Brand Union, Lambie-Nairn and The Partners become Superunion in huge WPP merger". Design Week. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  3. "Enterprise IG acquires The Identity Business". Archived from the original on 2012-02-17. Retrieved 2019-06-14.
  4. LogoLounge - ENTERPRISE IG IS NOW THE BRAND UNION Archived June 29, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  5. http://www.brandunion.com/connect


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