Archibald opens UK 'human experience' business CA.5

Stuart Archibald is returning to the UK agency market, some 25 years after he co-founded Archibald Ingall Stretton, with a “human experience” consultancy, designed as the antidote to today’s automated, templated and algorithmic world of marketing.

Dubbed CA.5 (Customer Accelerator 5), Archibald insists the new venture will be powered by “a hand-picked group of the world’s most experienced and successful HX and CX talent”, although exact details have yet to be revealed.

These experts will be formed into bespoke teams of advisors, practitioners and implementers, who will identify the pain points in the clients’ five key areas of customer marketing – data, brand, customer journeys, content and technology – and implement solutions that deliver short and long-term accelerated growth opportunities.

Archibald maintains AISthe business will offer an alternative to the industry’s “ubiquitous, costly and potentially ruinous reliance on customer experiences” and instead focus on anthropology and technology to deliver solutions based on human experiences at scale.

CA.5 maintains it will then deliver these solutions through best-in-class creativity – bringing together consultancy strategy and agency creativity in an independent hybrid offering.

Highly respected in the industry, Archibald started his career in Australia at Lintas, then came over to the UK in the Eighties, joining first MHA Carlson and then the nascent Evans Hunt Scott (now Havas CX Helia).

He was one of the first people to work on what would eventually become Tesco Clubcard and then worked at BMP under Chris Powell as head of integration before setting up AIS in 1998.

In 2009, Archibald spearheaded the global expansion of AIS, setting up two offices in Spain, in Madrid and Barcelona, and then in New York.

He left the business in 2011 and returned to Australia where he set up Archibald Williams, with fellow Australian Bram Williams, the former head of strategy at Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney. The duo had worked together at AIS in New York. AIS meanwhile was merged with shopper marketing specialist Arnold KLP to create Field Day in 2016

It is understood that Archibald will now divide his time between CA.5 in London and Archibald Williams in Sydney.

Archibald said: “CA.5 brings together the world’s most experienced practitioners and points them precisely at a client’s pain points. We will highlight the ones that need fixing, pull the right team together and get in there and fix it. But the solution won’t be based on customer experience – it will be based in anthropology and human experiences at scale. The essence of our success stories.

“Our world has become more automated, templated and dominated by algorithms, which leads many communications practitioners to view people as lines on a spreadsheet. Humans are nuanced, unpredictable, emotional and complicated. Our experts start off by thinking of them as ‘humans and then we seek to inspire them through creativity – the oft-forgotten element in modern comms. The best of both consultancy and agency expertise working together – but from an independent mindset.”