Grey Group former chairman Paul Gardner has emerged at the helm of a new Melbourne-based brand experience agency called Dig&Fish. It is the result of a merger of Dig Marketing Group and 2Fish Management.
The new shop will offer brand strategy,
public relations, experiential marketing and digital communication.
It already boasts an impressive client list including Qantas, Fiat
Chrysler Group, Dan Murphy's, Unilever and Rolex; thanks to many of
the companies' former clients joining the new venture.
Gardner will act as executive chairman. The industry veteran was chairman of Grey for 20 years before resigning in March last year. He then assumed the role as non-executive chairman for 12 months, which ended last month.
Dig&Fish will also be lead by the founders of the former companies, Dig Marketing Group and 2Fish Management, Angie Bradbury and Caroline Ryan. Bradbury will become founder and managing director, with Ryan as founder and vision director. 2Fish creative director Glen Ryan will assume the same role at Dig&Fish.
Gardner told AdNews his vision for the start-up was to "bring brands to life". "When a person encounters a brand, they want to experience it, touch it and be emotionally attached to it," he said. "There's a real need for a real-time connection. I didn't think that was happening in traditional advertising. It had become a sort of passive entertainment."
And what about its name? "I like verbs in a name," he laughs. "We are a doing company with a doing name".
Dig&Fish will be head quartered in Melbourne supported by 2Fish's Sydney office, which will rebrand.
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