Path Worldwide, the shopper marketing arm of The House Worldwide led by Philip Slade and Ben Stobart, has scooped its first major account after being appointed to spearhead the marketing strategy for Argos’ own-brand expansion.
The House Worldwide was launched in March last year by former Publicis global chief operating officer Richard Pinder along with ex-DDB Asia chief operating officer Peter Rawlings, former chief strategy officer of Lowe Worldwide Chris Chard, and Stobart, the former senior vice president of Leo Burnett Chicago.
Since leaving Hicklin Slade in 2005, Slade (pictured) has been behind a number of start-ups, including Passion and The Slade Corporation, as well as spending time at Pulse Group and Saatchi X. He joined The House Worldwide in August last year and co-founded The Path three months later.
The House Worldwide will work with a number of other agencies, including Naked Communications in New York, integrated agency Noah London, Madrid-based shop China and Kitchen 8, a brand consultancy based in Singapore and Shanghai.
Argos wants its own brand products to account for a third of all its sales by 2018 and last year it hired its first own brand head Joanne Savage. The company already owns brands such as Bush and Chad Valley, now it is planning to widen the range with House of Heart homewares products.
Argos marketing director Stephen Vowles said: “One of our major strategic aims is to make Argos universally appealing across customer groups. Developing our own brands portfolio is a key part of this.
“We already have some very strong household names at Argos such as Chad Valley. We’re looking forward to working with The House to develop exciting campaigns which engage our customers.”
Slade added: “We’re really chuffed to be leading this project. The unique nature of The House Worldwide has enabled us to put together a bespoke team of experts to answer what is a challenging set of briefs.”
Argos’ other marketing agencies – CHI & Partners, MindShare and The Communications Agency – are unaffected by the appointment.
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Will we see the return of the gold lamé suit? Philip Slade aka @piehead to spearhead Argos marketing at The Path http://t.co/oMAg6v6xCE