Adam & Eve opens for business

By Noel Bussey, Campaign, Friday, 18 January 2008 12:00AM

Naked's Jon Forsyth joins James Murphy, David Golding and Ben Priest as start-up's fourth partner.

The hotly anticipated start-up from the former management team of Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R launches this week, with four new staff and the name Adam & Eve.

James Murphy, Ben Priest and David Golding, the new agency's three original founding partners, will be joined by Naked's head of strategy, Jon Forsyth, who will take a joint share in the business as a fourth founding partner.

Three others, none of whom will take an equity stake, have also joined. These are Ben Harris, a digital creative from Agency Republic, Nicholas Tasker, a creative from the brand entertainment agency Cake, and Catherine Kennedy, the business director and content director from Shop.

The agency officially opens its doors on 21 January, without a founding client. How-ever, it is already involved in a number of pitches, including the ongoing £8 million Daily Telegraph review.

Rather than relying on traditional creative teams, Adam & Eve plans to use a "pool" of digital, content, media, advertising and design staff, which it will pair up to work on specific briefs.

Forsyth said: "We have talent and experience from a host of different backgrounds. We can pick and choose who works together."

Golding said: "Clients are getting fed up with refereeing battles that break out between their different agencies. The way we work lets us think in an unbiased way.

"We didn't come into this thinking 'how are we going to be different?', but more like 'how can we give the clients what they want?'"

The founders decided on the name Adam & Eve because it encompasses the agency's founding principle.

Murphy said: "Our name reflects the belief that when you bring different talents together, amazing things happen."

Perspective, page 23.

This article was first published on Campaign