Just 12 days ago, on June 17th, we launched.
As expected, the launch itself was fairly manic. We had a pitch the day before and we’ve been fairly flat out since, but I thought I’d talk about it here briefly because I’m excited about it… It’s a new agency, with new opportunities. And it’s going to be something quite different.
Yes, it’s a start-up. Yes, it’s communications. Probably the easiest thing to call it would be an advertising agency, since we’ll be producing advertising (just not limited to broadcast media or digital media). And, yes, the focus is on great planning, great creative and genuinely innovative ways to connect with consumers. But we’re aiming to create a new model of agency. We’re calling it ‘hybrid’ agency for want of a better word, because there’s a few twists that make us different (or ‘hybrid’)…
Not hybrid just because we’re fusing digital and advertising. We are, but that’s not enough. You’ve got to do things differently if you want to be genuinely relevant to your audience. Today, consumers know more, share more and listen less. We’re leveraging a set of new and unique tools that allow us to get closer to the customer through their digital behaviour. The difference for clients is better insight and less guesswork through understanding what people do, not what they say they do. The difference for a planner is that you’re building insights and strategy on a more solid foundation.
We started this from a clean sheet of paper and struck the right balance of senior people from the outset – uniting the worlds of advertising, digital and technology. We did this because, in our opinion, clients need the ability to connect with their audience without media bias or boundary. There’s got to be an equality of opinion and input if you’re going to get something out that isn’t biased or constrained in some way.
Finally, we should mention WPP. We’re still a start-up, majority owned by the founders, but their support adds resources and scale. That’s a massive helping of “best of both worlds” for clients. And it gives us access to some very knowledgeable individuals and some very deep data stores.
We think communications need to grab an unfair share of attention and sales. And we think this set up can do just that.
It’s early days – there’s a lot to do and a lot to learn. But it’s got purpose.
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Here’s our press release, with a bit more info on who’s involved and where they came from. It’s the first release – there’s more news to come.
“Miller, Perry, McTear and Law launch hybrid creative agency”
Neil Miller and Chris Perry, the former Joint CEOs of Razorfish London, have teamed up with Tony McTear, the ex-Creative Director of Fallon, and TBWA’s Head of Planning, Simon Law. Together, they’re launching a new hybrid creative agency, called True Worldwide.
The agency sets out to unite the worlds of advertising, digital and technology in equal measure. The technology part is a set of new tools, built by an expert team in Seattle, that provide a unique insight into customer behaviour at every stage of campaign development and measurement.
Chris Perry and Neil Miller originally founded one of the first digital shops in London in 1995, called DNA, which sold to Avenue A/Razorfish in 2005. Following that, they were joint CEOs of Razorfish London, winning numerous digital awards and working on major brands like Audi, O2, NSPCC, Oxfam and McDonald’s. McTear’s pedigree is AMV, BBH, TBWA and Fallon, producing award-winning campaigns like Levi’s Twisted, Sony Playstation Mountain, Orange, Lynx and Club Med. Simon Law was Head of Planning at TBWA and previously spent five years out in San Francisco at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, where he led the planning team on HP globally.
Chris Perry said “We set out with a blank sheet of paper to create an agency that helps clients get closer to their consumers and to deliver an unfair share of attention for their brands.”
McTear observed: “It’s interesting to see how agencies are trying to battle each other for ownership of both advertising and digital spend. The smart money has to be on finding ideas that transcend both channels and the right balance of people from the start to make it all work together.”
Owned by the founders and WPP, the agency launches in London, with plans to create a network for global clients.
