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Engine Group's James Pais joins Frame as new operations director

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By Richard Draycott, Managing Director

November 25, 2014 | 4 min read

Former Engine Group creative services director James Pais has joined Glasgow-based creative marketing agency Frame to support the agency’s continued commercial and creative development.

Pais has worked in the advertising industry for almost three decades and during that time has held senior positions at a host of agencies including Publicis, Elvis, Weapon 7 as well as the Serbian digital production company, Fabrika.

He joins Frame as the agency enjoys its most successful year of growth since the agency was acquired as part of an MBO by managing director Gary O’Donnell and creative director Angus Walker in 2009, with turnover growing to more than £4m this year, a 28% increase on 2013.

Speaking of the appointment of Pais, O’Donnell said: “James is a first rate operator and his joining Frame says a lot about both how far we have come, and where we see the agency going. He has been tasked with helping us to improve creatively and commercially, and to help with integration having done much the same job with great success at Engine Group.”

In the last 12 months Frame has attracted new clients including the Tennent’s owned premium Italian beer brand Menabrea, Celtic Football Club, Scottish Rugby Union, University of Dundee, s1jobs.com, and the clothing retailer M&Co.

Business south of the border has also grown with recent client wins in the South East of England including the shopping centre group Intu Properties PLC, Harlequins Rugby Club, Network Rail and the pan-European online gaming brand, Roxy Palace.

O’Donnell said: “This is clearly a good set of results for us, but we can definitely do better – we’re growing according to plan, particularly south of the border where we now derive about 30% of our income. We are a small UK agency rather than a big Scottish one, we just happen to be in Glasgow. Our 50-plus strong team is like a family, they work so hard and I’m delighted for them.”

Frame’s staff numbers have reached an all-time high since the agency began trading in 1989 with 52 people now based at the firm’s Glasgow offices, a 200% increase since O’Donnell and Walker took charge.

The agency has also opened a second office to accommodate the growth of its digital marketing arm, Frame Digital, which launched in 2008, while the agency announced last month its entry to the consumer PR market in a joint venture with Edinburgh and London-based Charlotte Street Partners and former Big Partnership account director, Stephen McCranor.

Gary O’Donnell continued: “We’re expanding carefully, it’s about having the right people and being able to not just compete but excel in any new area we enter and Frame Digital has been a great example of this. Clients naturally want a joined-up approach to the various marketing disciplines but they also want the best in class within each area, we’ve got ourselves in a position to provide this and our business is growing as a result.”

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