Anomaly launches UK office

carl%20johnsonAnomaly, the New York based independent agency, is setting up a UK office. The agency has poached Paul Graham, managing partner of RKCR/Y&R’s digital arm Saint, to set up Anomaly UK.

Graham is the only confirmed staff member for the agency and will operate from London. He will join in February.

It will be the third outpost of the New York-based independent. Carl Johnson, a former chief operating officer of TBWA, launched Anomaly in 2004 as a “new” agency model. It develops its own intellectual property which it can licence to clients in return for share in revenues.

Graham says the office will open with a number of undisclosed clients, including several joint venture IP projects and a government innovation brief.

He joined Saint as managing partner in 2007 after working for RKCR/Y&R as global business director for Bacardi and laterly head of account management.

The launch of a London office has been rumoured for a number of years. Johnson is understood to have wanted to open an office in the UK by the end of 2007 but the move was delayed.

Duncan Bird, who is leaving Another Anomaly in New York to return to London, is also expected to continue working for Anomoly, but in a separate venture. Bird launched Another Anomaly in July 2007 after the initial Anomaly agency decided its headcount had grown too big to manage.

He joined the company from Sony BMG Entertainment, where he was vice-president, brand partnerships, and was co-founder of Soul, which was later acquired by Nitro and rebranded.