Alex Carr and Jon Kelly launch new brand consultancy, Queen Charles
After 11 months of working away quietly since departing their respective positions as agency executives in 2021, former Bastion Creative CEO Alex Carr, and M&C Saatchi Sports and Entertainment (S&E) ECD Jon Kelly have brought their brand and experience consultancy, Queen Charles, to market.
The pair launched the Sydney based consultancy last week with the promise to help brands ‘consistently stand out’, also with a nimble production offering, Queen Charles Productions.
Formerly the managing director of BWM Dentsu (now BWM Isobar) for five years, Carr joined Bastion Banjo (now Bastion Creative) as managing partner in October 2020, with his role later transitioning to CEO of the agency’s New South Wales office in April 2021.
The news of Carr’s departure landed in March this year, however according to LinkedIn Carr cut ties with the agency in August 2021, prior to its rebrand to Bastion Creative in October, leading to Melbourne CEO Mike Godwin taking on a national CEO remit. Carr has also held executive roles at Havas Worldwide and Saatchi & Saatchi.
According to LinkedIn, Kelly stepped down from his role as executive creative director at M&C Saatchi S&E in February last year, having been appointed to the then newly created role in 2017. Previously, he had held creative director roles at Iris Sydney and Momentum Worldwide.
Of the launch, Carr said: “Jon and I started this business with a common frustration. A strengthening sales led culture of instant results has challenged the vital role of brand and threatened to stymie its effectiveness. We, maybe foolishly, aim to reverse this and create a shift in behaviour where businesses put as much value on brand, creativity and marketing as they do on operations and technology. We have been fortunate enough to be incredibly busy from the outset, helping a number of businesses shape or re-shape their brand. We see our role as not only creating the foundational brand strategy but driving that strategy into key experiences, assets and behaviours in order to create stronger, more distinct brands moving forward.”
Kelly added: “What we aim to do at Queen Charles is find a corridor with just enough constraint. A space narrow enough to help businesses be a hell of a lot more consistent across all their key experiences. But a space wide enough to allow them to be creative and express themselves over time in order to stand out from the pack. It’s a balancing act and one we are thoroughly enjoying”.
Good luck to Jon and all the team.
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Good luck Jon.
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