Alan Midgley, FCB’s former joint creative director, and Sue Aitken,
its ex-new business director, are joining forces in a start-up combining
advertising with PR.
They are linking up with the ad consultant, Rupert Hopkins, and Kelly
Walsh, a former PR executive and ex-European marketing director of the
Gap fashion chain, in the new operation, which will be called
Renegade.
The partners are reluctant to discuss detailed plans before the agency’s
official launch later this month. But Hopkins said this week: ’To our
knowledge, this is the first time anything like this has ever been done
in the UK.’
It is believed the agency will aim to attract modest-spending clients
whose advertising is likely to attract a high level of editorial
coverage.
Hopkins added: ’That’s only one aspect of what we will do. We’re going
to be structuring ourselves in a significantly different way.’
He claimed the agency had investors in place with a number of contracts
at pre-signing stage. ’We have bounced the idea off a number of clients
and, with a few exceptions, they want to know more,’ he said.
