MediaCom North to serve as 'an extension' of Pentland Brands as lead media agency

Earlier this year, Pentland Brands global marketing director Sean Hastings talked The Drum through the group's consolidation efforts as it looks to reduce massive retainer fees by bringing creative talent in-house and working with a few specially selected partners.

On hiring MediaCom North, Hastings, said: "This is a significant appointment in building Pentland’s group agency roster. It’s an important partnership that will help our brands better understand and reach their consumers, in order to grow our business.

“Beyond their technical capability, a big reason we selected MediaCom North was their people first approach being a good fit with the Pentland’s culture. Our account team has already been set up for us covering specialist expertise in a variety of areas from digital paid media to research and analytics.”

Paul Cooper, group managing director of MediaCom North, added: "We aim to be more than just an external resource, we will be an extension of the Pentland team. Our agency prides itself on providing genuinely collaborative ways of working.

"The opportunity to work on such a wide range of global brands, devising and delivering creative marketing campaigns across paid, owned and earned channels is extremely exciting for everyone involved. This is a great example of another global client, coming to Manchester because the skillsets we have are the best in the UK, to deliver the business objectives.”