The Bridge gets straight to the Point with direct marketing launch

McPherson began his career on the client side, and had stints working at both Lloyds TSB and Standard Life before joining Marketing Advantage in 1998 as client services director. In 2003 he took over as managing director however, in 2004 the agency was merged with WWAV Scotland by parent company Omnicom. McPherson left the merged agency at the end of 2004 and has since been planning the launch of Point with Bridge managing director Brian Crook.

Point is the second sister-agency to be launched by The Bridge, following the creation of Freight Design in 2001.

Speaking to The Drum, Crook commented: “Direct marketing is a service we’ve offered to our clients for a number of years, and is also an area which has shown strong growth, even as the other marketing disciplines have suffered. Much as with Freight Design, however, we thought that launching a direct marketing agency was really up to talking to the right people.

“We’ve known Sandy for a number of years, as both our agencies worked together on Scottish Power, and working with us is something I’ve talked to him about several times in the past.”

Point will initially have a full-time staff of two, consisting of McPherson and Michael Logan, who joined The Bridge from Navigator Responsive Advertising earlier this year. However, the agency will also share staff and resources with The Bridge, which employs a staff of 30, as well as working with freelancers.

McPherson said: “I’ve been keen to set up a new venture for some time and the opportunity of setting up a direct response company that’s also a sister company of The Bridge seemed like the perfect partnership. The Bridge has an unrivalled reputation in its market for producing advertising that works. Point Direct Communications will build the same reputation in the DM market.

“The name reflects our ethos – getting straight to the point.”