Black Cat founding partners quit as DM agency merges

The founders of direct marketing agency Black Cat, Stephen Callender, Charles Lauber and Diana Tombs, are all leaving following the merger of the agency with relationship marketing specialist RMG Connect. It is not known if any of the partners have a job to go to.

The two agencies form part of WPP Group-owned J Walter Thompson (JWT).

The merged agency will be called RMG Black Cat, and will be launched formally in January. It will be headed by RMG Connect managing director Tal Adams.

RMG Connect Europe chief executive Nelly Andersen says: “The move fits strategically into JWT’s goal of strengthening the group’s integrated offering. We are looking forward to building a highly regarded, strategically and creatively driven relationship management agency on the back of the achievements of both Black Cat and RMG Connect.”

RMG Connect was formed last January, as a result of a merger between RMG and JWT Connect.

Earlier this year, JWT’s proposed acquisition of “media neutral” planning agency Unity collapsed (MW June 26).

In August, Unity was snapped up by Charles Ingram’s the Ingram Partnership. The move to acquire Unity was seen as an industry-wide trend towards reintegrating media strategy with creative disciplines.

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