BrandPie consultancy signs up 118 118 and L’Occitane

Brand Union founder Dave Allen and former Safeway and Rowntree marketing chief Roger Partington are consulting on cosmetics brand L’Occitane and directory firm 118 118 following the launch of their new agency BrandPie.

The pair launched the agency with former Sampson Tyrrell creative director Peter Widdup, whose agency Watershed Design has been folded into the consultancy.

Allen was formerly chief executive of Enterprise IG, now Brand Union, which he founded under the WPP umbrella in the Nineties. He says there is a gap in the market for a new brand consultancy because “most of the well-known, established competitors” have been acquired by integrated marketing services companies.

Partington says the economic downturn is ideal for the launch as “weak brands will not survive this recessionary period so it is essential brand owners actively manage rather than just administer their brand assets”.