Marketing Drive Worldwide changes name to The Reef

Interpublic Group’s Marketing Drive Worldwide in London is changing its name to The Reef and is aligning itself with ad agency Springer & Jacoby, which is part-owned by Interpublic, in a move that the agency believes reflects its clients’ needs.

The rebranding of the agency, which launched in 1989, takes effect from the start of next week. At the beginning of next year The Reef will move its offices across London, from Hammersmith to Clerkenwell, to the same offices as Springer & Jacoby and design agency E-Fact.

Marketing Drive chairman Paul Slaymaker, who was formerly executive vice-president of Bozell Worldwide, will head the new group of agencies.

Slaymaker says: “Clients are not getting cost-effective, accountable solutions to business and consumer issues. They need media-neutral thinking and programmes.”

Marketing Drive’s clients include DaimlerChrysler, Anheuser-Busch, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, TotalFinaElf and Kraft Foods.

Springer & Jacoby is one of Germany’s most successful agencies. It opened the London office nearly four years ago, but has so far failed to attract any significant UK business. Instead, the London division has relied on existing international business, including a small amount of work for DaimlerChrysler. Springer will retain a separate identity, but Slaymaker will chair the group of which it is now a part.

Over the past year, Marketing Drive has bolstered its planning and digital capabilities, and unveiled a range of marketing tools, such as Royal Mail’s DM Online, which allows companies to design their own direct mail campaigns (MW October 24). It is also rolling out a tool called Coral to help clients to use marketing technology more effectively.

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