Ask five people “What is G2 USA?” and you might get five different answers. That’s because — in many ways — today’s G2 bears little resemblance to the legacy brands and companies from which we were forged.

Our deep roots extend back more than a decade, when we were first born as the marketing-services division of Grey Advertising. However, in the intervening years since the launch of the original G2 brand, we have transformed into the full-service brand-activation agency that we are today, a member of WPP’s family of marketing-services companies.

Up until the end of 2008, G2 was comprised of four separate business units: G2 Branding & Design, G2 Direct & Digital, G2 Interactive and G2 Promotional Marketing. Today we are a single agency, G2 USA, with practice expertise in branding and design, data and analytics, experiential, interactive, media, promotional/shopper, and relationship marketing.

Historically, our clients were principally engaged with just one of our businesses, and depending on the engagement, viewed G2 as simply a direct marketing agency or an interactive shop or a promotional marketing company or a design agency.

By realigning our business units under a single P&L and a unified management structure, we’ve been able to coalesce our service offerings and capabilities, while maintaining the high level of discipline expertise that our client partners expect.

There have been massive changes in the marketplace when it comes to consumers’ commitment to brands. Now more than ever, consumers are able to ignore, tune out or de-select brands. Traditional advertising alone can no longer be expected to transform ordinary consumers into the committed consumers that marketers covet most. Committed consumers, after all, are less price-sensitive, will go out their way to find brands they love, and — ultimately — will become loyal brand advocates.

At G2, we maximize brand commitment for our client partners but we understand that brand commitment doesn’t come easily; it has to be earned and constantly repaid. Through the depth and breadth of our marketing-services expertise, we’re able to deliver on this promise.

As the marketplace has changed, so has the nature of what marketers are asking of their agency partners. We see a tremendous opportunity to fulfill the changing needs of clients who are hungry for a different approach to marketing communications. The scale and scope of capabilities that we have within our organization are well-suited to address these changing needs. In the past, the capabilities of activation-marketing companies were often viewed as simply tactical in nature, but now we have an interesting opportunity to lead at a more strategic level. That’s because building brands today is about creating holistic, integrated brand experiences. Our activation-marketing heritage is better suited to delivering the two-way/interactive marketing programs that are necessary today.

Because we are channel and approach agnostic, we know there is no such thing as a silver bullet. Indeed, we deeply understand that there are various points-of-influence where consumers can be reached on their paths-to-purchase.

Our proprietary planning process maps out what we call the consumer’s “Purchase Decision Journey,” and determines exactly when, where, and how to most effectively communicate with them to ensure context-relevant communications.

Marketers are challenged to recreate the perception of value between their brands and consumers. This is particularly true when consumers have been trading down because of hard economic times. Consumers don’t necessarily see significant value in a premium brand when their budgets are tight.

Brands that proactively demonstrate value through a set of experiences and interactions will ultimately lead consumers to recognize and pay for that value because every time they engage with brands they like — that give something back, that they are committed to — they can see the difference. Therefore, creating a set of platforms on which consumers can interact with brands at multiple touchpoints has become paramount. Otherwise, the consumer is left to experience lesser-priced options that may fit the bill functionally, but lack deeper experiences.

As marketers, we have to give consumers a reason to believe that functionality isn’t enough; a positive experience with the broader brand persona is ultimately where the value of the brand truly shines. Legacy structures at client organizations continue to challenge those of us working in the marketing-services space. Most client organizations realize that they must become less reliant on traditional marketing approaches, but organizationally they haven’t made it easy for the people in charge of brands to make vastly different decisions. I think that client organizations will start to change themselves over time, but it’s the responsibility of agencies to change first, to anticipate and meet client needs.

G2 is especially adept at adding value when we are engaged with a client across multiple disciplines. In some cases we can help bring together disparate parts of a client organization simply because we happen to be engaged across those organizations.

We encourage a strong sense of entrepreneurialism because our go-to-market strategy requires it. We’re taking advantage of what we believe is the best way forward, and not something that is rooted in a legacy structure. If someone has a strong idea — regardless of its origin — we will rally around new thinking in service of a better model.

It’s important that we foster a sense of success via collaboration as opposed to success in an individual’s own back yard or in a particular silo. So, our direct marketing team, which in the past had little, if any, interaction with our promotional marketing team or shopper-marketing team, is now actively engaged with them — in multiple businesses, in some cases. For us, collaboration is key. An entrepreneurial spirit is key. An open and creative mindset is key. We try to reinforce those ideals in every way we can as we continue to evolve as a company.

We’ve been the interactive and shopper/promotional marketing agency for CoverGirl for more than a decade. Now, we’re also working with them on in-store design. In many of the campaigns that we’ve launched, digital has informed the in-store experience and vice versa.

Following the launch of CoverGirl’s Lash Blast, shoppers were directed through in-store displays to view user reviews from the CoverGirl website, which were delivered via mobile application. This approach effectively married an online experience with a traditional bricks-and-mortar retail one. It’s a small example, but it unfolded because of the active collaboration between our shopper team and our digital team, and it highlights the lateral connection points within our organization.

As an agency, there’s always going to be an evolution to ensure that we have the right skill sets in-house. Today, it’s having people who really understand social media. In the next few years we might have people who are focused exclusively on place-based networks in retail.

We’ll continue to evolve our suite of services, which will be primarily driven by technological innovations.Beyond that, G2 will be increasingly engaged on a higher strategic level — even if we are not activating for a particular client. We definitely see an opportunity to engage clients in the context of overall communications planning.

Our clients are not just asking us whether we can execute a promotion-marketing plan in a particular part of the country; they’re asking us for the insights that deliver bold and focused plans across all channels of communications.