Iris ventures into Indonesia, partnering Nava Group

This partnership will see Iris entering its fifth country in Asia.  It will now have a stake in 220 offices in Jakarta alone, with a field force of over 700.

Iris also has assets in Singapore, India (New Delhi), China (Beijing) and Australia (Sydney and Melbourne).

This affiliation came after Daya Maha Berkarya (DMB), Advis, Brainstorm and M2M Interface formed a partnership under the Nava+ Group of brands.  It follows DMB's recent split from DDB Worldwide in Indonesia, after a nine-year partnership with the network.

‘Nava’ means ‘new, fresh and modern’ in the Sanskrit language.

Luke Nathans, regional development director, Asia-Pacific at Iris, earlier said the agency considered Indonesia a key strategic market for the network and its clients in Asia, and that it was looking at several opportunities in that market.

The new office will offer end-to-end integrated marketing solutions, in line with Iris’ core proposition that spans advertising, digital, retail, experiential, sponsorship, PR, management consultancy and CRM.

Commenting on its new venture, Nathans noted that Indonesia is an important market for any network, as its growth potential is "extraordinary".

“But more importantly, some of our biggest clients have a presence there, and they want us to be part of their future. We’re looking forward to working with them and the existing management team, including David Wibowo, Brian Estes and Maneha Widarso, to shake up the market and have a bit of fun doing it,” he added.

In November 2009, Iris formed a strategic partnership with Edge Marketing, an integrated marketing agency with offices in Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand, to extend its presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

Iris holds several regional accounts, including Sony Ericsson, Diageo and Coca-Cola, Emirates, Audi, Heineken and Tiger Beer.

Its Singapore office, meanwhile, has had a busy start to the year with a string of recent hires and promotions, including Emma Norris as board director in January, Lawrence Stevenson as senior creative and Kim Lim as producer in February, as well as Lisa Mehydene as its group account director in March.

It also boosted its creative portfolio by promoting Jimmy Lee as creative group head in March, and named Clarence Chiew as deputy creative director in May.

Ian Millner, joint global CEO of Iris, said, “We are the alternative to the traditional global networks. Indonesia is one of the most interesting and rapidly developing markets in the world. We want to give clients an unfair advantage wherever they need us. We can't wait to work with David, Brian and Maneha.”

David Wibowo, the president director of the Nava+ group, said the group is restructuring its services to be a brand experience-focused and entrepreneurial group in the country.

“After 20 years, we’ve built a uniquely strong foundation in Indonesia with offices throughout the country, and now. We’re thrilled to work with iris–iris is extremely progressive as an agency and a completely different type of animal in the market,” he added.