Dentsu has doubled down on agency brands with Carat’s new positioning, “Difference Engineered”.
The move follows networks’ media arms increasingly pitching as one offering, such as Publicis Media’s “Power of One” strategy, which united different agencies from within the group. WPP Media and Omnicom Media have also pitched for a number of accounts as a single entity.
Previously, Carat’s positioning was “Designing for people”, and this new positioning promises to cut waste, earn attention and drive growth.
Speaking to Campaign, Chrissie Hanson, global brand president at Carat and chief executive, North America, at Dentsu’s media practice, said: “We’re in the business of building brands. How does an organisation build brands if they don’t believe in it themselves?
“I’ll personally be delighted if I don't see more brand refreshes because, for me, it sends a signal that you don't really believe in [agency brands].”
On the refresh itself, she said: “Over the past 10 years there has been this programmatic push which has meant that clients can be pushed to the middle. In that middle, clients can lose distinction, differentiation and advantage.”
The new proposition, she said, will focus on dead reach analysis.
“This new brand positioning ensures that you will deliver more growth. In the way we’ve all been buying there is maybe 5-15%, maybe more, dead reach.
“It takes a level of bravery to shine a light on yourself and go, ‘What can I do better?’”
Explaining why the agency didn’t do it before, Hanson said: “We didn’t always have the information before. We didn’t have the infrastructure and capabilities. The way we work [compared with] six months ago is quite different.
“The way we apply agentic capabilities into workflows and our own day-to-day operations, it now means you can look at signals at volume and from different places and spaces.”
Recently, Carat promoted Bram Meuleman to global chief planning and intelligence officer and appointed Sarah Stringer as global chief strategy and innovation officer.
At Cannes this year, the network was named Media Network of the Year.
This article, titled “Dentsu doubles down on agency brands with Carat’s new positioning,” was originally published in Campaign on 14 October 2026.
