UTA Opens Branding Division

United Talent Agency is dipping into the branding business, opening a new division called the Brand Studio at UTA.

It will specialize in marketing strategy services including brand architecture, relationships, quantitative and qualitative research, visual development and positioning.

Laurence Vincent, who came to UTA last year, will lead the new division, according to the New York Times, and will be joined there by Michellene DeBonis, former senior VP of business development for Siegal & Gale, the Omnicom Group unit from which Vincent left to join UTA.

The move is considered a “blurring” of distinctions among agencies in marketing services. UTA, according to the Times, had been taking on tasks previously considered not part of an agency’s job such as licensing and endorsements.

UTA also works on “branded entertainment” through joint venture United Entertainment Group, which boasts clients such as the Frito-Lay and Quaker Oats divisions of PepsiCo, Nestle and Proctor & Gamble.

Brand Studio will launch with five employees in addition to Vincent and DeBonis and has three unidentified clients, the Times reports.