Dentsu Aegis Network Acquires Character

Acquisition of Prominent Branding and Design Agency Will Form the Cornerstone of the Group’s Brand Design Offering

NEW YORK – Dentsu Aegis Network today announces the acquisition of Character, a leading branding and design agency headquartered in San Francisco. Character’s proven ability to create lasting and meaningful relationships between clients’ brands and people through distinct brand experiences brings critical expertise to the network in today’s consumer-to-brand economy. 

Character was founded in 1999 by three designers – Ben Pham, Partner and Director of Strategy, Rishi Shourie, Partner and Creative Director, and Tish Evangelista, Partner and Creative Director – as an independent creative agency with a passion for launching, rejuvenating, and propelling brands through the design and creation of holistic brand experiences. In 2011, Oliver Ralph joined the agency as Partner and Managing Director. Based in San Francisco, Character has taken advantage of the growth explosion in Silicon Valley as it works with both well-established tech titans such as Amazon, Google and Facebook as well as new economy brands like Fitbit and Essential.  

Following the acquisition, Character will retain its leadership team, who will report into Nick Brien, CEO, Americas, Dentsu Aegis Network.  

“Character is a best-in-class branding and design agency that immediately strengthens our value proposition and reinforces our brand promise of innovating the way brands are built,” said Brien. “As we rapidly evolve Dentsu Aegis’ business model to help clients grow their brands through experience, Character’s upstream strategic focus and compelling design creativity will ensure our brand solutions reflect the complex nature of today’s customer journeys in an omni-channel world.” 

“After years of rapid, bootstrapped growth as we’ve taken on larger projects with bigger global companies, it became clear that we were ready for the next evolution of Character,” the partners at Character said in a joint statement. “As we looked at the landscape, Dentsu Aegis Network quickly stood out out as the best group to complement our growth plans, with a collaborative spirit of innovation that aligns with the way we work every day at Character. We’re thrilled to join the network and scale as part of this global team. 

Financial terms were not disclosed.

 ENDS

For further information contact:

Belle Lenz
Regional Communications Director, Americas
Dentsu Aegis Network
T: +1 646-742-5029
E: belle.lenz@dentsuaegis.com