What’s in an agency name? Next 15 has rebranded Engine Creative as House 337 following the merger with its ODD fashion agency. Back in the day Engine was Wight Collins Rutherford Scott which, bizarrely, once owned Carat. Better let them ...
Read More »All change in London adland: Billy Faithfull leaves Engine, Ben Bilboul departs Karmarama
Must be the Great Resignation. Engine Creative (formerly WCRS) stalwart Billy Faithfull (below) is to leave the agency after 15 years. Engine being sold to Next 15’s ODD. CCO Faithfull says: “Since mid 2021, I have been discussing with the ...
Read More »Peter Scott returns to the fray as boss of ad tech start-up Playcart
Peter Scott (below), the Scott in Wight Collins Rutherford Scott (later WCRS and then Engine Group) and latterly boss of Be Heard Group, which succumbed to rival MSQ a couple of years ago, has a Tigger-like quality. The serial entrepreneur, ...
Read More »Engine puts itself up for sale (again) – will the ghost of WCRS finally find a home?
Engine owner Lake Capital is reportedly trying to sell the mini-marcoms business, including Engine Creative, formerly WCRS, for £100m through Lazards – a quarter of its original mooted sale price a few years ago. Lake Capital, a big Silicon Valley ...
Read More »WCRS founder Wight to step down from Engine, media pioneer Gilbert Gross dies
I see that Robin Wight is stepping down from his role at what’s now Engine after 40 years. Also that, and there’s a link, Carat founder Gilbert Gross has died at 87. It’s no sruprise that Wight (below) is departing ...
Read More »Untold Studios and Artefact launch new-style UK agencies
While there’s much hand-wringing in UK adland over the demise of WCRS (and fears over whatever grisly fate WPP CEO Mark Read has in store for his creative networks) hope springs eternal among creatives. In particular the hope that they ...
Read More »Now Engine joins the rush to scrap agency brands
London agency WCRS is having its best year for decades but, it emerges, owner Engine is planning to consign it to history in another one of those mystifying agency shake-ups aimed at persuading clients they’re getting more from less. Engine, ...
Read More »WCRS wins for Women’s Aid with clever use of cinema
WCRS is having an outstanding year – business wins, good work – and here’s another winner for Women’s Aid, this time focussing on the 160,000 children mistreated each year by one or more parents. Digital Cinema Media has donated the ...
Read More »WCRS goes gritty in new Royal Marines campaign
Didn’t know we still had Royal Marines Commandos but we do it seems and they star in WCRS’ latest recruitment campaign for the Royal Navy. And here they are heading determinedly into Apocalypse Now territory. Think I’ll pass (probably not ...
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