FRAME, the Glasgow-based creative marketing agency, has embarked on a joint venture that will see it move into consumer public relations for the first time.
The company has joined forces with Edinburgh corporate communications and strategy specialist Charlotte Street Partners and experienced PR operator Stephen McCranor to develop the business.
Mr McCranor, formerly director of communications at Greaves Sports, heads the company.
The new agency satisfies a long-held ambition by Frame to offer consumer PR services, and follows its successful diversification into digital marketing.
Frame Digital, also a joint venture, was born shortly after Frame was acquired by Gary O'Donnell and Angus Walker in a management buyout in 2009.
Meanwhile, Charlotte Street Partners has identified opportunities to move into consumer PR as it has grown rapidly since its launch by Malcolm Robertson and Andrew Wilson in January.
The two companies struck up a commercial relationship when Frame was appointed to create and run the Charlotte Street Partners' website, which led to talks about working together.
Mr McCranor, who worked alongside Mr Robertson at Beattie Media in the 1990s, was invited to join those discussions.
Mr McCranor said: "The result is a joint venture between us all. The management team of the five people have got varying complementary skill sets and about 93 years' experience between them in promoting major businesses and brands.
"It was a no-brainer for me - when people like this ask you to a party, believe me, you party with them. For me it is too exciting an opportunity and the time was right."
Frame is the majority shareholder in Frame Creative, with Charlotte Street Partners and Mr McCranor holding stakes in descending order of size.
The new agency has begun life with two major clients, Greaves Sports and Finsbury Foods, on board, with planning for Greaves's Christmas campaign currently the main item in its in-tray. Work with Finsbury is expected to ramp up early next year.
Mr McCranor said the opportunity had also come at the right time for him personally. Having built up significant experience on the agency side of communications over 11 years with Beattie and The Big Partnership, he switched to work in-house at Greaves in 2009.
He said: "Growing up in the agency environment, and that being all you know, leaving that world to spend time client side is crucial if you want to fully understand the client-supplier relationship from both sides. The next natural step for me was to take that experience into a new agency, but doing that with Frame and Charlotte Street is a huge advantage."
Below the five-strong management team, Frame Creative will be supported by the team at the Edinburgh office of Charlotte Street Partners, as well the "shared infrastructure" of Frame's office in Glasgow. That includes back-up in administration, finance and creative resources, provided by a team of more than 50 staff.
Mr McCranor said: "We will be hiring throughout the first year of the operation and we will be sensible about it. We'll be putting in place the right people for the right clients."
Asked how he thought Frame Creative would differ from other PR agencies, Mr McCranor said: "The world of consumer PR can be a bit fluffy, and this will not be fluffy. For me it's about talking the same language as our clients, and helping them speak the same language as their customers. The end product of that are ideas and communication that helps a client promote and sell their offering."
Mr O'Donnell said: "It has been a long-standing goal of ours to expand into PR. The time is right now because we have the right partners in place."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article