Agency round-up: The Fire Dept.; Cartwright Communications; The Partners Group

Nottingham-based creative production company The Media Group (TMG) has joined forces with senior creative duo Chris Duffy and Martin Davis to launch a new creative company, Fire Dept.

The new venture brings together The Media Group’s Jon Gordon and Ash Matthews with fellow founding partners Chris Duffy and Martin Davis, to “create an offering that specialises in big ideas brought boldly to life” through brand strategy, design and advertising.

Duffy said: “While big data and ad tech have their place in the mix, their misuse has led to an abundance of lazy, prescriptive work, resulting in ads nobody notices and bland brands that get lost in the fog. We believe data and technology should serve creativity, not replace it.

“It’s not enough to just get in front of the right eyeballs. Building a brand is about lighting a fire in the minds of your audience that keeps burning long after they’ve seen your ad, watched your film or visited your site. In the age-old fight for attention, you’ve still got to earn it.”

“We want to build an environment where creativity thrives. A place that sees the brief as a challenge to make an impact, not just an order form to complete. Where bold thinking is used to give real competitive advantage to businesses who can’t afford to outspend their competition, but aren’t content treading water.”

Gordon added: “We’ve all worked with clients who’ve had strategic work done that they don’t know what to do with. Overblown, ambiguous and unusable.

“Brand strategy takes hard work, but done well, what you serve to the client should be simple. Too often clients are given a ton of tactics to go at with no real strategic direction – a wish list, not a plan of how to win. We help brands increase their odds of success with strategies they can actually use.

“Our aim as a company is really simple – to create work that makes a distinctive impact in the market, and has a positive impact on our client’s bottom line. We’re not interested in being the biggest, we want to be the most effective.”

Based in Nottingham, Fire Dept. is currently working with clients in the Midlands, London, and the US.

Property management firm Pinnacle Group has appointed PR, digital and marketing agency Cartwright Communications, to deliver multi-channel communications and raise Pinnacle’s profile within property, infrastructure and facilities management markets across public and private sectors.

Liz Cartwright, managing director at Cartwright Communications, said: “Pinnacle Group is renowned in the management of assets and infrastructure in the UK, and is continuing to go from strength to strength. To support this success and Pinnacle’s expansion, we are looking forward to applying our extensive experience in property and infrastructure, combined with our expertise as a full-service agency.

“At Cartwright, our mix of content specialists, marketing team, digital consultants, and experienced media handlers will be used to strategically communicate Pinnacle’s value-added service proposition to customers, partners and clients.”

Jim Saunders, group business development director at Pinnacle Group, said: “Working alongside Cartwright, we will bolster the Pinnacle Group name and reputation amongst our core sectors by fully utilising the complete mix of comms channels we need to achieve meaningful awareness. The knowledge and experience possessed by the Cartwright team, combined with a proven track record of achieving for their clients, meant that Cartwright stood out as the perfect choice for our business.”

Nottingham engineering company Micro-Mesh has appointed The Partners Group to help build brand awareness of its online FilterFinder division, launched during the pandemic.

Founded in 1968, Micro-Mesh is a family-run business specialising in the manufacture of hydraulic and air filters.

Karen Tinkler and Elliot Underwood

The PR brief is to build the FilterFinder brand among maintenance engineers and purchasing teams, areas that the Partners team is familiar with through their 20-year working history with industrial lubricants manufacturer ROCOL, their work with tooling supplier Cutwel, and with other businesses in the engineering and manufacturing industries.

Elliott Underwood, who led the development of FilterFinder, said: “FilterFinder draws on the 50-year Micro-Mesh heritage and expertise but we are starting from scratch when it comes to brand awareness. The e-commerce platform has got off to a great start, but we recognise the importance of building the brand to support its continued growth.

“We were looking for PR support from an agency that understands our sector, and Partners fits the bill perfectly. The team came highly recommended, and we were instantly impressed by their understanding of our industry and customer base, and their track record of work with manufacturing businesses. We’re excited to be working together and looking forward to a long and successful partnership.”

Partners Group director Karen Tinkler added: “Micro-Mesh has built an enviable reputation for quality products, technical expertise and innovation. Our job is to help them build that same trust in FilterFinder. There’s a lot happening across both businesses, and this is a fantastic opportunity for us to help tell the story of Micro-Mesh’s continued success, evolution and innovation through the FilterFinder brand.”