Former Engine Group chief operating officer Phil Andrews – the co-founder of Partners Andrews Aldridge – has taken up his first major role since leaving the company some 18 months ago.
Andrews is to become chairman of search specialist The ATO Co, which specialises in advertising text optimisation.
Set up three years ago, it now has a staff of 30 in the UK, comprising experienced direct response copywriters who write ads for brands using Google Adwords.
Before ATO started offering the service, Google Adwords ads were mainly written by clients themselves or Adwords account managers in media agencies.
Andrews will work alongside ATO co-founder Paul Booth, devising a growth strategy for its UK office and overseas. Although he has other interests, Andrews maintains the ATO post would be his main focus for the time being.
The agency is looking to expand to between 60 and 100 people within two years and is looking to the US, among others, for its growth opportunities.
Having started his career at EHS in 1986, where he eventually became client services director, Andrews became chief executive of Tomahawk Communications, where he stayed for five years.
He then joined forces with Steve Aldridge, as well as new business head Nina Jasinski to launch Partners. The agency was eventually sold to Engine in 2008, netting the duo in excess of £5m each. Jasinski missed out, however, having quit the business just months before.
In June 2007, CMW managing director Martin Nieri was hired as the new chief executive of Partners; a role Andrews had been doing as well as being chief operating officer at Engine. By December of the same year, Andrews had resigned.
Andrews said: “The ATO Co has proved that ATO copywriting works in delivering performance and ROI. But perhaps the real test that has been passed is that clients are valuing this approach highly.”
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Phil Andrews re-emerges at Google Adwords specialist agency http://t.co/VCkqIm0jDU #directmarketing #digitalmarketing
RT @DM_editor: Phil Andrews re-emerges at Google Adwords specialist agency http://t.co/VCkqIm0jDU #directmarketing #digitalmarketing