Marketing services and technology firm Applied Graphics Technologies Inc. officially changed its name to Seven Worldwide, taking the name of an agency within its fold.
The New York company abandons brands such as Black Dot, AGT-Seven, AGT-West, PreMediaOne and PP/FA. But it retains the identities of its Ambrosi and Meridian agencies as well as the Hudson Yards boutique retouching studio.
“Quite frankly, we found we were going to market under a number of different names and felt the power of the brand was getting diluted,” said John Harris, CEO of Seven Worldwide. “We looked at internal names, and the Seven brand already covered 70 percent of our worldwide customer base and employees. It was logical to go ahead and use that name.”
Seven (www.sevenww.com) employs 2,700 people reporting to 35 offices across Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. Revenue last year totaled $375 million from services that span creative, production, distribution and management of marketing and advertising.
“Our positioning is being able to provide a whole array of marketing execution services geared toward clients' print assets,” Harris said. “It's being able to work with their total packaging, direct mail, point of sale and advertising.”
Clients include Sears, Roebuck and Co.; Kellogg Co. and its Keebler brand; The Home Depot Inc.; Patagonia; Cadbury Schweppes; Kraft Foods; American Express Publishing; Martha Stewart Living; Wyeth and Dow AgroSciences.
Seven plans to expand its footprint. Extracting more business from current customers, addressing clients' global needs and handling more end-to-end processes are Seven's new focus.
“From a capabilities standpoint, our classic sweet spot is the prepress base and pre-media,” said Gary Deutsch, vice president of marketing and strategy at Seven. “Over time, we've expanded our services to below-the-line adaptive creative. We do a lot of photography, working with core messaging materials and artwork.”
