Watson Phillips Norman – the agency co-founded by self-proclaimed ‘junk mailer’ John Watson – is bolstering its new media offering by forging a partnership with three digital agencies, in a move designed to benefit clients of all those involved.
Partnerships have now been established with mobile marketing specialist, Sponge Group, social media specialist Tamar, and Harvest Digital, which offers a wide range of digital services, with a particular expertise in eCRM.
Managing partner Watson said: ‘Our business is all about getting results. But as the world gets ever more digital, WPN needs to make sure it helps its clients get those results in digital media with the same success we achieve in off-line media as well. We have, of course, produced a lot of digital work over the past 12 months, but we would like to build on our current offering and take it to the next level.
“And while we could have hired in a specialist or two, we didn’t think that really represented the best possible solution going forward. To be honest, most of our clients want joined-up communication strategies but they also want the specialist expertise. So it seemed to us that the best way would be to create partnerships with some of the ‘best in breed’ in the digital world, rather than a ‘jack of all trades’.”
Sponge clients include as Coca-Cola, Audi and Unilever; Tamar works for Peugeot, Miss Selfridge and Age UK, while Harvest works for NatWest, RBS, Auto Trader and Brooke Animal Hospital.
Watson added: “These partnerships mean that WPN’s passion for getting results can now be applied across a wide range of digital media in addition to the more conventional press, insert, TV, direct mail and other off line media. But rest assured, ‘results’ remains as ever the lifeblood of our business.”
