Chris Savage takes stake in Brand New Solutions as it re-launches as The 6AM Agency
Communications agency Brand New Solutions has re-launched as The 6AM Agency with the former COO of STW Communications and founder of Ogilvy PR Australia Chris Savage taking a stake in the business.
Chris Savage joins Gillian Fish to rejuvenate Brand New Solutions into The 6AM Agency
Speaking to Mumbrella, founder and CEO Gillian Fish said the time was right to “rejuvenate” the Brand New Solutions brand.
“Brand New Solutions was originally founded in 2000, it’s established itself well as a leader in well-being communications but with the seismic shift in communications and how focus has shifted to audiences away from brand, we felt it was time to rejuvenate the brand name itself and bring the agency into the new era of communications,” she said.
“The 6AM represents being first, the first cab off the rank, first with the news so we thought it was a fitting evolution from where it started.”
The agency will be looking to expand into the good living space, leveraging its experience in well-being.
“Good-living is a natural extension of well-being but broadening the scope of the clients we work with,” Fish explained.
Savage is taking on the role of partner and chairman of the agency.
“I’ve invested in the business and I’m now a shareholder,” he said.
“Gill absolutely controls the business and is significantly the majority shareholder but once I understood what the business was about and what Gill was about and her ambition and commitment to evolve the business to become a creatively-led, data-driven, content specialist in the new world, I wanted to be part of it.”
Savage, who at this year’s CommsCon warned half of Australia’s small independent PR agencies could close in the next five years, said he is “hugely positive about the value the right independent agencies can bring to growing client brands and reputations during times of change and uncertainty”.
“Rapid change really is the friend of agile independent agencies,” he said.
“That’s why I am taking skin in the game in agencies I am putting my energies behind. I am making investments and taking chairman roles in a small group of brilliant agencies that I know will be at the forefront of the industry.”
Alongside the rebrand comes the appointment of two senior appointments with Kim Feitelberg joining as head of strategy and Amy Friedlander appointed digital strategic advisor.
Feitelberg joins the 6AM Agency after almost three years freelancing for the likes of BMF, The Works, Ogilvy & Mather Sydney and Publicis Sydney. Prior to that she was the executive head of strategy at Ogilvy South Africa.
Friendlander joins the agency from educational app start-up Wasabi Productions and is also a former account director at Mark/M&C Saatchi.
For Savage, taking the stake in The 6AM Agency is just the first investment, with similar announcements to come in the future.
“My initial focus has been to find the right creative agency with a deep, PR-led earned and owned heritage. That’s The 6AM Agency. Its wellbeing specialisation is a brilliant additional edge,” he said.
“My other investments – including in hard-core digital and technology communications, healthcare communications, financial and investor PR, and others – are all well advanced and will all be announced in the next few months.”
Miranda Ward worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2017, eventually becoming deputy editor. Miranda joined Mumbrella in September 2013 from Sky News.
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