Dave Dye, Hugh Baillie and Rachel Hatton team to form new London creative agency Hello People

Former Campbell Doyle Dye founder Dave Dye is teaming with Hugh Baillie and Rachel Hatton to form a new agency called Hello People.

Dye (seated left), who previously worked with planner Hatton at BMP (now DDB), says: “We’re called ‘Hello People’ to remind ourselves that while technology has transformed people’s lives, it hasn’t transformed their psychology.”

Baillie and Hatton were brought in by Ogilvy UK from BBH in 2009 as CEO and group planning director, leaving last year. Although WPP-owned Ogilvy won a number of new accounts in their period there the two were frustrated by the agency’s overriding focus on its key global accounts: BP, American Express, Ford and Unilever which still account for about 90 per cent of its business.

The new agency will be based in Soho Square in the heart of London’s traditional advertising area and is promising ideas based on customers rather than technology. Baillie says: “People are more time pressured than at any point in history. We need to recognize this and create intuitive ideas that help consumers short-cut the buying decision.”

Creative Dye has won numerous awards at agencies including BMP and AMV/BBDO while Baillie was new business boss at BBH as well as working with Hatton on flagship accounts including Audi and Johnnie Walker. BBH founder John Bartle, who retired officially over a decade ago but still plays a key role in adland as everyone’s favourite business uncle, was instrumental in bringing the three together.