Adhesive founder launches new creative comms agency
The founder of comms agency Adhesive, Mike Maurice, has announced his latest venture – a new creative comms agency specialising in the “intersection of brand and status”.
Teaming up with former Adhesive colleague Mia Hardman, the new agency – gum – is described as the “antidote to a flattening culture” in that it puts a spin on traditional comms disciplines including PR, events, influencer, content, and digital.
Maurice will continue his position as managing director at Adhesive, and assumes the position of director and co-founder at gum. Meanwhile Hardman takes on the managing director and co-founder title at the new agency.
The agency believes that the human desire for status is the driving force of authentic culture, and uses that belief to help brands keep up with trends and be relevant, whilst remaining authentic.
It will be underscored by six principles for status – storytelling, cultural alignment, fandom culture, thought leadership, exclusivity and authenticity.
gum co-founders Mike Maurice and Mia Hardman
Gum will operate independently but is backed by the creative and financial strength of Adhesive Group.
“Mia and I have complemented each other’s skill set at Adhesive for the last couple of years. She is one of the most well-connected people I know and her passion for her craft meant this was a no brainer for me,” Maurice said.
“Gum has been in the making for quite some time so it’s a relief to finally be able to announce it – this is going to be a lot of fun.”
While Hardman acknowledged that there is a oversaturated PR agency landscape in Australia, she stressed that gum will bring something different to the table and give brands more authentic opportunities.
“Audiences are much savvier now and it’s harder than ever to capture their attention – we see it every day,” she said.
“Our approach drills down to being the custodian for brands looking to build true status in today’s fast moving landscape.”
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Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the agency beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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