MIAMI \u2013 When full-service ad agencies started unbundling their media departments in the 1990\u2019s, the media landscape was a whole lot simpler\u2014as in no digital. This is reflective of why when GroupM unveiled<\/a> Team Arrow Partners for its client Target about 18 months ago, the announcement declared “Analytics and creativity are no longer opposing forces”<\/p>\n Agency units dedicated to specific clients were also more the norm a couple of decades ago. But it\u2019s probably going to happen more often now given the enormous complexity of what marketing has become, according to Jason Harrison, CEO of Team Arrow Partners.<\/p>\n Target not only runs 1,800 stores but also sells online and has a \u201cpublisher-side business where they leverage their vast guest database for the benefit of other advertisers,\u201d Harrison<\/a> explains in this interview at the recent Beet Retreat Miami 2017<\/a>. \u201cWe needed an agency model to be able to manage across the breadth of everything that Target needed.\u201d<\/p>\n Following a pitch by GroupM global CEO Kelly Clark to Kristi Argyilan, SVP of Media & Guest Engagement at Target, the foundation was laid for Team Arrow Partners. GroupM\u2019s Gain Theory consultancy, of which Harrison was the founding CEO, had worked with Target on measurement and would provide talent to Team Arrow, along with assets from other GroupM entities and an integrated planning team built from scratch.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd all that came together as one team physically sitting together working for Target,\u201d Harrison says.<\/p>\n