Tag launches Tag Collective Arts as creative services try to revive their heritage

Private-equity owned ad production giant Tag is rebranding many of its companies as Tag Collective Arts, bringing under one brand operating companies Smoke & Mirrors, Big Buoy, Rock Hound, THP and World Writers.

Tag says the move has been “accelerated” by Covid-19. It will doubtless result in job losses as ad production must have been well and truly blitzed by the virus and consequent cutbacks in advertising. Tag recently announced a co-production deal with Publicis for GSK.

Tag says its now offers: global post-production and visual effects; production and content creation, digital and social media conten, language services and trans-creation under one roof.

Interesting choice of name: Tag Collective Arts follows pretty hard on the heels of James Murphy and David Golding’s new agency New Commercial Arts and, before that, Nils Leonard’s Uncommon Creative Studio. As creative services come under pressure in the digital revolution it seems that some leading practitioners are re-discovering their arts heritage.

Tag became Tag when tyro young shaver Steve Parish (now chairman and co-owner of Crystal Palace FC) took sleepy old-style press reproduction company The Adplates Group and turned it into a provider of in-house creative services for ad agencies.

Parish (below left) sold it to Deutsche Post-owned printer Williams Lea for around €400m in 2006.

This is an updated version of an earlier story.