Brand experts form new team

A NEW brand consultancy has been launched by two of Yorkshire's leading brand strategists.

Grapple is a joint venture between by Simon Malcolm, formally of Otto UK and the Rugby Football League (RFL) and Steve Henry, owner of the Otley-based creative agency prego*.

The new business, which will be headed by Mr Malcom, will offer a variety of services including brand creation and development, brand re-launch and repositioning as well as brand extension, management and protection.

Mr Malcolm, who has spent his career developing and directing brands across the sport, home shopping and leisure industries, said that the opportunity to launch Grapple was one that was too good to pass up.

“I already knew Steve having been a client and I was always impressed by prego's creativity and talent,” he said.

“We both have so much experience of transforming brands – together there is a real prospect of creating a new approach to brand consultancy.”

Mr Henry said he had increasingly seen a need among clients to deliver more than just great campaigns.

“What we are finding is that businesses are looking to better understand what makes them unique,” he added.

“For that reason I have backed Grapple, a business with an unflinching commitment to helping companies identify the one single brand truth that their customers believe to create a credible position in their market that they can own and exploit.”

prego* was formed in 2002 and has annual billings of £2.5m, with clients including BUPA, Littlewoods and William Hill.