Wealth & Finance International - Business Awards 2016

Business Awards 2016 12 Corporate Brand Strategy Firm of the Year - USA & Award for Excellence in CEO Branding - USA Ascendant Group is the global leader in the field of CEO branding. We invited CEO Raoul Davis to share additional details about this award winning company. Company: Ascendant Group Name: Raoul A. Davis Email: [email protected] Web Address: http://ascendantstrategy.net/ Address: 2035 Sunset Lake Rd, Suite B-2, Newark, DE 19702 Telephone: 302.450.4494 ext 202 Established in 2004, Ascendant Group have worked with CEOs for more than a decade, helping leaders develop a strong CEO brand. Raoul explains the niche that the company has carved for itself in this market. “While other agencies only focus solely on media strategy, at Ascendant we interweave six subcategories; brand strategy, public relations, social media, book deals, brand management and awards, into our strategy to accelerate a CEOs brand and help them grow their firm’s top line revenue. “We specialize in CEOs of mid-size companies, executives at Fortune 500 companies and retired athletes interested in launching business ventures. We are a founding member of the Forbes Agency Council, an honor designed for the top PR and advertising agencies in the world.” With offices in Newark, Delaware and Cairo, Egypt, the firm has a truly global reach, and draws upon its vast experience to offer a great service, which is backed by professional, dedicated staff and an internal culture which revolves around client support, as Raoul describes. “Ascendant Group blends an innovative approach with an old-traditional focus on caring about the clients. We have a company encouragement officer who works hard at maintaining a culture that demonstrates empathy and engagement among our staff members, freelancers and clients. We continually emphasize fresh perspectives too. While we are very professional in our delivery to the client, we also maintain an optimistic atmosphere among our staff. This is a great combination that works well for our company environment.” “The real differentiating factor for our business is that we offer a fully integrated model, which includes brand strategy, brand design, brand management, PR, social media, book deals and award procurement. We also think in terms of building business models that further monetize brand exposure and we offer our clients metrics because we realize that many people are distrusting of PR and branding firms. We have created a more tangible model where people have more predictable results and this increases their level of comfort. We also offer a guarantee that if we have not hit the metrics we laid out at the beginning of an engagement we will work on our dime until we do.” Ultimately, as one of the first entries into CEO branding the space Ascendant Group has seen the industry flourish since its inception, with new entrants making an appearance as clients saw the benefits of creating their own unique CEO brand. As such the firm has to work hard to remain the market leader, a challenge which it relishes, as Raoul concludes. “Moving forward, the future looks bright for our firm as we unveil a number of new developments which will help us as we focus on remaining at the forefront of our industry. We will be prominently featured, with our CEO speaking at the Sports and Business Synergy Conference at the New York Stock Exchange in spring 2017. “In addition, we have plans to formally launch new offices in Rotterdam, Amsterdam and a middle eastern country in 2017, because we recognise the importance of remaining ahead of the curve. When we first moved into the CEO branding space we were one of the first two entries into the category. When we opened an office in Cairo we became one of the first global players in the space. When we began working with Chinese companies, we became one of the first companies to offer CEO branding in that part of the world. By 2018 we anticipate having locations in South Africa and a Latin American country as well, in order to retain our status as the leading industry innovator.” BU160010