PLTFMR is a new consultancy set up by McDonald’s and TBWA global execs

Chris Garbutt, former global CCO of TBWA Worldwide, and Colin Mitchell, McDonald’s global SVP marketing, are the latest senior leaders to set up shop on their own, backed up by what they call a “talent cloud” of freelancers.

With ad agencies expected to announce a pretty savage round of redundancies at the end of this year, Pltfmr (pronounced platformer) is likely to have a growing pool of talent to tap into. The idea is that they can match the right people to the right jobs.

Mitchell said: “Even five years ago, brands did similar sorts of things in similar sorts of ways. Now some brands are all about community, some are about entertainment, some utility. So they each require a different blend of talent.”

Pltfmr is billed as a creative consultancy, dedicated to helping companies define, discover and develop their brand platforms. Its first client is Ultimate Medical Academy, a nonprofit healthcare training school.

The start-up will charge a fee for agreed-upon deliverables rather than bill by time or expect retainers.

Garbutt started out at TBWA in South Africa, then moved to TBWA Paris. In 2008 he jumped ship to Ogilvy Paris then back to TBWA in New York to become global CCO in 2014.

Mitchell has spent most of his career in brand strategy, starting at BMP DDB in London before moving to New York. He spent 16 years as global head of planning at Ogilvy, moving to McDonald’s marketing department in 2016.