Paul Hammersley has signed up four more agencies for his Harbour collective, which aims to be a new-style network of independent agencies.
They are digital creative agency Dare, owned by Oliver which is already a member; creative content agency Digital Natives, CRM agency Live and Breathe and brand owner and agency TCO which aims to connect brands with hard-to-reach audiences.
Hammersley (left), former boss of The Red Brick Road in its Tesco days among others, has proved a pretty good recruiting officer for Harbour whose members also include the aforementioned Oliver, George & Dragon, media agency Goodstuff and out of home specialist Talon.
Hammersley says: “These are all great agencies who add important digital and content capabilities to the Harbour Collective. We look forward to adding more members and capabilities in the coming months.”
The acid test for Hammersley, of course, is putting together credible teams to win big pitches and then orchestrating these diverse talents. Sir Martin Sorrell’s fabled “horizontality” in a way. But, as SMS has sometimes found, that isn’t so easy even if you own them all.