Blackberry plumps for new ad agency

Blackberry is planning to run a series of global campaigns developed by new agency The Next Door.

Blackberry
Blackberry

The agency has just launched and claims that it has been created to reflect the changing needs of clients and their procurement departments.

The Next Door says that it will offer clients a flexible and transparent approach to remuneration by simply charging creative, planning and account handling fees without mark-ups or additional charges for production or specialist outsourced services.

President of client body ISBA Mark Hunter recently stressed the need for transparency and payment by results in agency dealing in his keynote speech at an annual dinner.

The agency is led by former Lowe creative director Greg Milbourne, former global planning director for IPG Team Nokia, Kieron Monahan and Pete Atherton, former director of Inferno.

They will form an ideas and strategy hub and they will work with a network of “complementary, non-competitive, specialist partner companies” called The Neighbourhood. The network will allow the agency to tap specialist sources of knowledge and develop global work.

Other founding clients include Jamie Oliver Pasta Sauces and Burton’s Foods Maryland Cookies.

Greg Milbourne, creative director at The Next Door, says: “Clients want great ideas and sound advice on how best to maximise the impact of their campaigns. But traditional agency structures, with competing specialist business units each concerned about their own bottom line, often distort thinking across disciplines, meaning great creative ideas lose their potency.

“We believe what was once called the advertising industry has become part of a far wider range of opportunities to connect with people and our industry is gradually waking up to the need to change the way it works to reflect this evolution.”

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