Direct marketing trio launch Soul

By Sara Kimberley, campaignlive.co.uk, Thursday, 08 November 2012 08:00AM

The former Lida creative director Shaun Moran, the ex-Elvis managing partner Mike Cullis and the former CMW planning director Ben Rachel are teaming up to launch a direct marketing agency called Soul.

Moran, Cullis and Rachel (l-r)...launch clients include Libert, Licx and Superdrug

The founding trio open their doors for business in London’s Soho this week with the promise of "people first, channel second".

The partners, who own an equal share in the start-up, have been plotting its launch since the beginning of the year and will work on projects for clients including Liberty, Licx and Superdrug.

Soul’s focus will be CRM, behavioural influence, content and strategy, but the agency’s founding principle is "creating relationships with customers".

After leaving Lida in 2010, Moran joined The Commu­nications Agency as its ex­ecutive creative director. He takes on the role of creative director at Soul. Cullis, who left Elvis in 2011 after seven years, will be the managing director, while Rachel, who departed CMW in September, will be the planning director.

Cullis said: "Marketing communication needs to achieve two things: engage people emotionally and influence their behaviour. We’ve summed this up in two words: ‘moving people’."

Soul was also the name of a short-lived ad agency at the beginning of the last decade, set up by former Bartle Bogle Hegarty staff. It was eventually subsumed by Nitro.

This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk