Evidence-based marketing agency launched

Lode will be based around a three-dimensional view of the customer and brand, using data analytics, customer workshops, online tracking and process mapping to define propositions and media mix.

The agency is run by Andy Perillo, Peter Rivett-Jones and Fran Perillow, previously partners of MWL which was acquired by Chemistry in 2003. It marks their return to the agency world where they believe a gap exists for a new type of marketing entity.

Andy Perillo says: “We’ve witnessed fundamental changes in the agency landscape.

The past five years have been hard on marketing agencies. Clients want more for less, but this often results in a dumbing down in the way agencies produce work, less thinking time, less creative time and rarely insight-led. The results are that neither the client nor the agency is happy. We’ve created Lode to thrive on these changes. Lode combines the energy and creativity of an agency with the intimacy and upstream thinking of a consultancy.”

Rivett-Jones adds: “All too often, marketing decisions are being based on obsolete knowledge or just past experience. However, sometimes that experience isn’t applicable to a new situation. We advocate using business and customer intelligence to pinpoint the most profitable marketing strategies, using hard evidence to reassess old assumptions and ideas, instead of just going on intuition.”

Perillo concludes: “Another key change has obviously been the role digital now plays in our lives. We believe in a balance between the traditional agency skill-sets and the new demands of the digital marketplace. Digital is transforming the way people interact with brands and each other but, psychologically, the buttons pushing their needs, fears and desires are right where they’ve always been.”