Now former Kinetic direct client specialist James Copley joins Eric Newnham’s Talon as number two

Former Kinetic chief operating officer James Copley (left) has rejoined his long-time colleague Eric Newnham at new outdoor media buying contender Talon. Copley will be managing partner, effectively number two to majority shareholder Newnham.

At Kinetic Copley was noted for his close relationships with the WPP-owned agency’s direct (as opposed to agency) clients. These included Bacardi, British Airways and Warner Brothers, all of whom had contracts with Kinetic that took precedence over those with their media agencies as far as out of home was concerned.

Under the terms of his contract with WPP Copley will be precluded from poaching clients or staff until the end of the summer.

Talon has already reeled in £150m agency client Omnicom Media Group and Havas Media (the new name for the old Havas-owned MPG), Walker Media (majority-owned by M&C Saatchi) and independent the7stars are all expected to follow.

Publicis Groupe-owned Starcom and Zenith are also likely to be reviewing their options, Zenith is currently with Aegis-owned Posterscope while Starcom is with Kinetic.

Posterscope boss Annie Rickard is already having to deal with a number of defections including OMG while new Kinetic UK CEO Stuart Taylor, who joined recently from Guardian Media Group, will be working hard to bed down his clients – particularly the likes of Bacardi, British Airways and Warner.

Newnham and Talon have built up a considerable head of steam – the agency is set to be billing £200m plus with the business it’s already won. It has the attraction to agency groups of being independent (Posterscope is about to be owned by Japanese giant Dentsu which is buying Aegis for £3.2bn, Kinetic is part of WPP ) and, perhaps, of being able to offer better deals as it doesn’t have to pay substantial management fees to an agency owner.