Deutsche Bank appoints Essence as lead media agency

Deutsche Bank has appointed Essence as its lead media agency, effective 1 January 2022. This will be the first time a single agency will manage the media buying for most of the portfolio of brands and products across the group, including all media and platforms online and offline, nationally, and internationally. 

The appointment will see the agency focus on dovetailing offline and online channels that will take new technologies into account and integrate new formats as well as new media. A Deutsche Bank spokesperson also told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that the appointment will be for "the next couple of years". Deutsche Bank has declined to disclose the monetary value of the account.

According to Deutsche Bank's spokesperson, agencies Spark Foundry, Starcom and Performance Media were vying for the account as well. The spokesperson also added that it previously worked with Zenith Singapore to "cover all 14 markets in the APAC region".

Deutsche Bank had put out the tender together with DWS Group in Q2 2021, and invited agencies to pitch.The pitch involved a multi-stage selection process and was managed by the bank's group purchasing department and an interbank committee; along with independent media, audit and consulting company IMEDIAG. 

The bank was looking for an agency that uses innovative, data-driven marketing strategies, with a forward-looking approach to operate proactively in a dynamic and competitive environment; and were impressed by Essence's customised strategies, quality of planning and creativity.

Christian Rummel, deputy head of brand communications and CSR, Deutsche Bank, said that it was convinced by Essence's holistic approach, excellent understanding of the market and many innovative ideas about the Deutsche Bank brand.

Adib Sisani, global head of communications and marketing at DWS, agreed, saying that Essence has a strong affinity with innovation, data and technology, and will deliver a global setup that is a perfect fit with its strategy and beliefs.

Tim Alexander, CMO and CXO of private bank, added that Essence is the ideal partner to have at its side. "Essence thinks through campaigns based on data from the customer's point of view – and scales and distributes them together with their global network GroupM. This will also be particularly helpful to us in further anchoring our two-brand strategy with Deutsche Bank and Postbank in the market in Germany," he added.

This is another win for Essence, which bagged integrated media duties for Carousell in August this year. Based out of Essence’s Singapore office, the agency’s scope of work for Carousell includes brand and performance marketing in Singapore, the Philippines and Hong Kong. Essence’s offering covers media services such as media planning, media activation, automation and media technology, alongside its specialist capabilities such as consulting, analytics, data strategy, eCommerce, experience, strategy and advertising operations.

Separately, the agency appointed Monica Bhatia as MD for Singapore in October last year. As part of Essence’s APAC leadership team, Bhatia is responsible for driving continued client-centric innovation in data, analytics and technology, as well as business growth and company culture for Essence in Singapore. Bhatia is now part of Essence’s APAC leadership team and reports to APAC CEO, T. Gangadhar, who was appointed in September that year.