Dentsu MY merges Lemonade and Isobar, Ruhana DaSilva to lead ops

Dentsu Malaysia has folded Lemonade into Isobar, naming Lemonade's MD Ruhana DaSilva to lead the newly expanded Isobar team. DaSilva (pictured) will report to CEO Tan Kien Eng and brings a decade’s experience in the fast-changing digital landscape with previous experience in SaaS, hedge funds, and capital markets.

Lemonade's influencer marketing and social commerce offerings will now reside within Isobar, which will become the network's go-to-market brand for experience-led transformation for brands. Dentsu's creative offering also brings together creative, marketing, and technology services seamlessly through its new "on demand" delivery model. Lemonade was formed at the end of 2017 as a unit under Consider iProspect with DaSilva at the helm before growing into a full-fledged agency in 2019. 

For the last five years, DaSilva has played a hands-on role in developing highly collaborative and effective digital teams driving the growth of Lemonade. Successful partnerships include Spotify, NBA, Estée Lauder Companies, and Abbott. 

"With dentsu’s global transformation to simplify and deliver integrated marketing solutions that are data-driven, tech-enabled and ideas-led, Lemonade was perfectly positioned to integrate our hyper-personalised and consumer-first approach to that of Isobar’s global digital experience as a market leader, while still keeping Lemonade as a product and largest case study of what we’ve been able to achieve the past three years," she said.

Tan explained that the aim is for clients to have easier access to end-to-end creative solutions that are driven by everything from building meaningful brands, driving end-to-end platform experiences, innovating products and services, and transformation consulting in an age of inclusive intelligence.

“Customer experiences have changed in 2020, and we can only expect to see more brands shifting their focus on creating and realising hyper-transformational customer experiences," he said.

Prior to the merger, former ECD Liew Sanyen oversaw Isobar's operations after CEO Sean Wong left last June, according to Wong's LinkedIn. Liew has since moved on from dentsu Malaysia, having completed his earn-out duration last year as one of the original co-founders and ECD of Isobar Malaysia. Tan said dentsu is grateful for his service and wishes him well in his future endeavours.

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