Reading Room to open new digital marketing agency
Reading Room has told The Drum of its plans to open a new digital marketing agency in Manchester.
RRDM – Reading Room Digital Marketing – is expected to open on 9 September and will be run by Paul O’Donoghue (pictured) who was previously group director of digital for the PR firm Bell Pottinger Group.
Although Reading Room is already recognised as a digital agency, O’Donoghue said RRDM will be "offering different services".
He said: "RRDM will create pure digital marketing campaigns, allowing Reading Room to act as a strategically-focused communications agency, delivering solutions across the full digital spectrum, including comms planning and metrics.
“Reading Room will create solutions, or our clients will have their own web presences already, and RRDM will devise the marketing strategy to drive people towards these sites. Together, we'll be working to get the client’s message to its desired audience."
RRDM will work with new clients and have a completely separate team from the existing Reading Room Manchester teams – including its own soon-to-be-unveiled creative director, planners and data analysts to manage results.
O'Donoghue is now in the process of putting the team together and is understood to be in discussions with five potential recruits about joining the agency by the time it opens.
Although their identities have not yet been revealed, new staff will be recruited, where possible, from the talent pool in the north west, O’Donoghue said.
The fledgling agency will initially target FMCG, retail and consumer clients, and aims to attract work from professional services businesses and the government in future.
“It is good to be able to launch a start-up within an existing infrastructure, because I don’t have to worry about finance, or legal or the setup costs that other people may have," O’Donoghue added.
O’Donoghue has worked in the industry for 20 years and in 2002 co-founded Green Cathedral Digital Marketing. He was managing director of the agency, which reached revenues of more than £6million per year, until 2007 when he oversaw its sale to Golley Slater.