Interpublic has rebranded its US and Indian out-of-home agencies as Rapport, promoted the UK chief executive of the agency, Roy Jeans (pictured), to global chief, and rehired Mike Cooper to run the US arm.
The changes, which are effective immediately, mean the US-based Outdoor Advertising Group (OAG) and the India-based Lintas Initiative Outdoor will use the Rapport brand name, which was introduced to the UK last year.
Rapport India will be run by the current chief executive, Suresh Balakrishna, who joined the company last year. Mike Cooper, former US managing director at Posterscope, has been named the president of Rapport US as part of the rebrand.
Cooper will report to Jeans, now the global chief executive of Rapport Worldwide, and he replaces Christian Dietrich who held the position of managing director at OAG before he left the company in February.
Cooper joins from BSkyB in the UK, where he served as director of project management.
Before moving to the US to join Posterscope, Cooper served as managing director for Rapport London. While there he brought in big name accounts, including BSkyB and Suzuki.
There will be no other changes to either of the companies as part of the rebrand and there will be no job losses or changes to roles.
The rebrand follows the rebrand of the UK outdoor specialist IPM to Rapport last year. As part of this rebrand, the agency also developed a new positioning it called Rewarding Connections.
Jeans said: "We recognise the digital/technical revolution happening in the out-of-home space and the potential growth opportunity for IPG Mediabrands and the Rapport brand in the US and around the world.
"We are confident that our go-to market offering will easily be the US contender for best-in-class within a very short period of time."
Rapport is housed under Orion holdings, a division of IPG Mediabrands and part of the Interpublic Group.
This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk
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