Home improvement firm Anglian picks chief

Martin Troughton, former managing partner of Sharpen Troughton Owens Response (STO) and one of the best-known names in direct marketing, has been appointed marketing director of home improvement firm Anglian.

He will replace Andrew Pound, who left after just four months in the role. It is thought Troughton will start in November.

Troughton had been discussing his future with WPP Group’s management after the announcement earlier this month that WPP was planning to merge STO with sister agency RMG Connect.

At the time of the announcement, Troughton said he would not join the merged agency, and RMG Connect’s UK chief executive, Jonathan Harman, and its European chief executive, Nelly Andersen, have now also left. WPP has named Linda Jackson, head of the American Express account for OgilvyOne in New York, as RMG’s UK chief executive.

Troughton joined WPP when it acquired the agency he co-founded, Harrison Patten Troughton Brand Response, and merged it with another WPP agency, Impiric, to form Harrison Troughton Wunderman. He left HTW in 2004 to join what was then Red Cell Response, which became STO in November last year.

It is understood that Anglian is holding a four-way strategic marketing and PR review. Incumbent Brahm, Beattie Communications, Golley Slater and Harrison Cowley are pitching for the business. It is not thought to affect Brahm’s hold on the above-the-line advertising account.