Award-Winning Agency Changes Its Name and Rebrands

On Mar 29, 2018

DSM, a full-service marketing, advertising and public relations agency located in Bergen County, recently announced that it has completed a rebrand – introducing a new name, logo, website and brand identity. The agency, formerly The DSM Group, will now be known as DSM.

The agency celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, relocated to a new 6,600-square-foot office building in Mahwah and was at a defining moment in its history. It consolidated its name and updated the branding in order to better reflect the image and philosophy of its evolving brand. The name change and rebranding was a natural evolution for the Agency. One that will be more adaptable as the agency continues its growth.

“We recognized that big changes needed to occur in order to continue on our journey while remaining fiscally responsible,” said Darren Magarro, president of DSM. “The Agency has grown 298% in the past six years. While we still have the same values we always had, we were landing larger clients with bigger budgets. It was time.”

“We set out with one clear goal, to create an integrated marketing communications agency that offers our clients all of their marketing needs under one roof with a team that collaborates together for the best results,” Magarro continued. “There is a true collaboration with our clients and we believe that the future will serve untold opportunities in all types of marketing. We have structured our agency for the future yet we always have to remain aware that we will have to change again in the future.”

Ryerson Kipp, chief creative officer at DSM, is not a stranger to the challenges of rebranding an existing entity. “Being objective and understanding of the core tenets of how a company was built is critical to creating a brand that can both pay homage to its past and communicate its future. Remaining objective can be particularly challenging when that company is one you helped build.

Ultimately, the logo solution came from one simple but progressive idea…our logo doesn’t matter. DSM is a behind the scenes marketing partner. We are not in this for glory, awards and accolades. We do this because we want our clients to win. Our attention is focused on the client, not on our logo. For this reason, we do not have brand standards in the traditional sense, we encourage employees to use it how they wish. You will often see our mark at the bottom of a page or vertically on its side. This mark is intended to be a graphic insignia that can live in myriad forms. The DSM brand is not confined to a ‘Safe Zone’ and neither is our logo.”

The agency’s new brand positioning statement best reflects what it feels as it looks towards the future:

DSM represents a united front of relentless personalities who are genuinely invested in the success of marketing.  We pair our unique collective experiences with closed-loop analytics to craft powerful narratives for the marketplace. We take risks, push back on complacency and exclusively work with brands who share the same battle cry. Driven by ego and tempered with empathy, we operate with brutal honesty and transparency. We think and operate outside the norm of typical agencies.  This is our charge.

Even as the company shifts, the executives strive and continue to fuel growth. “Most of our key hires in the past year or so have been from larger companies and they bring with them experience with big-brand clients and new ways of thinking,” Magarro says.

With a flurry of awards over the past 11 years, the company has grown to 17 employees. The Agency became the first and only platinum HubSpot certified agency partner in NJ, three of its employees (Ryerson Kipp, Jason Diller and Leon Grassi) were inductees for the 2017 Jersey’s Best Marketing & Communications Professionals Under 40 award and Darren Magarro was recently a finalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year® 2017 Award in the New Jersey Region. The agency has also received the SmartCEO Small Business Awards – Sales & Marketing in 2014 as well as the SmartCEO Corporate Culture Awards – New York in 2015.

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