Added Value Launches Global Marketing Initiatives

LONDON , Sept. 29 /CNW/ - Added Value is launching AV-id(TM), a digital insight and innovation platform that leverages the principles of social networking to help clients explore, develop and refine conceptual marketing ideas in real time.

AV-id(TM) is the first of three new initiatives that Added Value is introducing to help clients answer the strategic marketing questions facing their business and brands.

Added Value will also launch Character Creation, a new brand development approach developed to equip clients and their agencies with a more vivid and inspiring portrait of the qualities which turn well-known products into famous brands; and thirdly, a specialist innovation approach, armed with a proprietary new trends offer, and a hi-speed innovation process to help clients get innovation projects out of the pipe and into the market faster than ever before.

Added Value claims AV-id(TM) provides clients with richer, deeper consumer insight and idea generation through a wealth of social media tools. As evidence of the success, the proprietary platform has enabled Added Value to land innovation projects from Ikea, Kimberley-Clark and Levi's.

Jonathan Hall , CEO of Added Value France , is responsible for accelerating the integration of AV-id(TM) into the group's 22 offices spread over 14 countries in five continents.

Janine Hawkins , Global CEO of Added Value, said: "Added Value has always been known for providing strategic marketing advice to Fortune 500 companies and innovators.

"With the launch of these new initiatives we are both building on our foundations, and creating a truly motivating and compelling proposition to enable clients to address the big, challenging marketing problems that they face."

Paul McGowan, Chief Marketing Officer, said "This recession has made consumers less forgiving and more questioning. There is less room for business and brands to make mistakes and less time to correct them. We know how important it is to find the right answers, so we are providing the expertise, insight and geographical capability to tackle the toughest marketing challenges."

Added Value is unveiling a new global website http://www.added-value.com from 29th September 2009 and hosting events in October across the globe to introduce its new initiatives. A UK event will be held in London on 9th October 2009 at Altitude 360.

About Added Value Group

Added Value provides consultancy on brand development and marketing insight for iconic brands, both big and small, around the world. They help solve clients' central marketing questions about market, equity, positioning, innovations and communications.

Many clients are Fortune 500 companies, such as AT&T, Microsoft, VW Audi Group, HSBC, Allianz, Vodafone, P&G, but they work with start ups and challenger brands too. The company has 22 offices in 14 countries, yet their experience spreads across 150 markets worldwide and across all industry sectors.

Added Value was formed in October 2004 by bringing together three leading agencies from within WPP - the German-based Icon Brand Navigation, the US-based Diagnostic Research and the UK-based Added Value.

The acquisition of companies including Oracle Research in China , innovation consultancy Cheskin in the USA, and most recently, Saffron Hill in Singapore and the Philippines , have reinforced the group's expertise, offer and presence in these markets.

Added Value serves Poland , Russia and eastern Europe through a strategic partnership with Stratosfera in Poland and a joint venture with Young&Rubicam in Russia .

Added Value operates under the business names Added Value, Icon Added Value, Oracle Added Value, Cheskin Added Value, AV-Stratosfera and Added Value Saffron Hill.

Added Value is now one of the largest operations within WPP's Kantar division http://www.kantar.com, a wholly-owned subsidiary of WPP plc. WPP is the world leader in marketing communications services, employing 135,000 people (including associates) in 2,400 offices in 107 countries. For more information, visit http://www.wpp.com.

For further information: Michael Saxton/Rafal Kwiatkowski, Grappa, Tel: [phone], [email protected], [email protected]