Agency Republic shuts up shop

Agency Republic, the one-time digital darling of Omnicom’s UK DAS network and Campaign magazine, is being scrapped and merged with sister agency Critical Mass, although its senior management team have come out on top.
Omnicom claims the move has been sparked by the need to find a replacement for Critical Mass chief Susanne Jones, as well as the end of the lease of the Agency Republic building in Battersea.
However, with just 20 staff left at Agency Republic – at its peak it employed more than 100 – and Critical Mass growing at over 70% in the past five years, the merger has been on the cards for a while.
Critical Mass’ UK operation – based in Covent Garden – will now be spearheaded by the Agency Republic duo of managing director Matt Kwiecinski (pictured) and executive creative director Alistair Campbell.
Kwiecinski said: “Teaming up with Critical Mass allows us to realise our ambitions to be a digital transformation partner, giving our clients and our team a larger global footprint and greater operational resources,” he said.
“With similarly strong entrepreneurial cultures, we believe Critical Mass is the best partner to realise our vision to be the creatively-driven digital agency partner for our clients across the entire customer brand experience.”
Former Critical Mass UK managing director Susanne Jones has been promoted to senior vice president client partner, a role which will see her work with one of the agency’s largest global clients.
Launched as a joint venture by Claydon Heeley and Agency.com in 2001, Agency Republic witnessed exponential growth in the ensuing decade, and by 2005 had a turnover of more than £20m. Working for the likes of O2, Unilever, Nokia, MTV and Mercedes, it even secured the highly sought after title of Campaign’s Digital Agency of the Year in 2006. However, by 2010, the wheels had come off as the loss of a number of key accounts forced it into major cutbacks.