An article from

Dive Brief:

• Dentsu has resurrected its 360i brand in the U.S. as a social-first solution equipped for the artificial intelligence era of marketing, according to a press release shared with Marketing Dive. 
• The offering, which previously folded into Dentsu’s creative banner in 2022, has received an updated logo and will work on a fixed-fee pricing model. It will not operate as a standalone agency from Dentsu Creative, but rather as an agile team that can tap into the full range of Dentsu’s creative, media, data and technology capabilities.  
• The unit will be led by Chrstine Cotter, who joins the group from Ogilvy as managing director of 360i and head of social innovation at Dentsu. Currently without any clients, 360i is in active talks for new business, the release said. 

Dive Insight:

Rather than build or acquire another agency specialized in social-first expertise, Dentsu is bringing back a legacy name and refitting it as a “focused branded solution” that is built around AI and additive to its existing roster. 

Included in the relaunch is a new 360i logo inspired by modular designs and fresh leadership in Cotter, who previously acted as Ogilvy’s president of social innovation. Dentsu said the modernized 360i is targeted at brands looking to invest more heavily in social, creators and commerce, as well as those that are navigating significant changes in their business, such as category disruption. The network repeatedly emphasized technology shifts driven by AI and algorithms as a justification for the move, underscoring 360i’s AI-powered workflows and ability to leverage the dentsu.Connect AI operating system.   

Debuted in 1998, 360i began as a search specialist before branching into social, where it became well-known for its real-time activations and pop culture savvy. Among its most noteworthy work was Oreo’s response to a Super Bowl blackout in 2013, when the cookie brand quickly put up a Twitter post noting that “You can still dunk in the dark.” The fast online response turned an unwelcome moment during advertising’s biggest night into a major brand win. 

Such reactivity was novel at the time, but has become commonplace in a media ecosystem increasingly oriented around fast-scrolling, algorithmically driven feeds. The revamped 360i recognizes this new reality, promising “lean, integrated teams, fewer approval layers, and a fixed-fee model exclusively” to ensure agility, per the release.

The fixed-fee aspect marks a break from typical agency billing structures based on hours worked, and is an approach Dentsu Creative has been championing more broadly. Among marketing and procurement decision-makers, roughly two-thirds express concern about a lack of connection between agency pricing and outcomes, according to a Forrester study conducted with Dentsu.  

The 360i brand returns at a point of contraction for Japan-based Dentsu, which recently tried to sell its sizable international business before those talks reportedly collapsed. While Dentsu has been relatively resilient in its home market, organic revenue declined 3% year over year in the Americas in Q1, with weakness in creative.