Purple Joins Together Group, a New Collective of Creative Agencies
LONDON — Purple is no longer a stand-alone agency, but a shareholder in a newly formed collective of marketeers, creatives and strategists called Together Group, which will focus on the luxury and lifestyle sectors worldwide.
Purple is one of five founder-led companies to have sold “significant stakes” to Together Group, which pitches itself as a full-service design, tech, marketing and communications provider for multinational, regional and local clients.
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An announcement is expected Wednesday.
Together Group was founded by Paul Sheehy, a creative-agency entrepreneur, and Brad Fry, managing partner of the venture firm MatCap. Christian Kurtzke is the CEO.
Kurtzke, formerly chief executive officer of Porsche Design and a principal at The Boston Consulting Group, said he wants to leverage Together’s “creativity, scale and reach” to incubate, transform and develop brands.
In an interview, Kurtzke said he sees the group as much greater than the sum of its parts. The founder-led agencies are meant to work in tandem across the globe to provide the myriad services.
Other agencies that have joined the group include King & Partners, which is based in the U.S. and offers strategy, branding, creative, marketing and e-commerce services, and Noë & Associates, a design, content and production agency that focuses on architecture and design, and has offices in London and New York.
There is also Construct, a female-led creative consultancy, and Hot Pot China, which Together has acquired outright. Hot Pot is a digital-marketing specialist with offices in London and Shanghai, and its clients include Liberty, Fortnum & Mason, and La Perla.
The platform is set to expand further this year, adding agencies that have a particular focus on data and technology, content and activation.
Kurtzke said his aim is to have “synergistic agencies working in unison and delivering service excellence on a number of levels. Our model combines the benefits of leading-edge, founder-led agencies with the advantages of a larger, global organization.”
Asked why he’s chosen to work with Together, Kurtzke said he spent 25 years as a client, and while he enjoyed working with boutique, founder-led agencies, they often didn’t have the reach, or resources, he needed for a global business.
“I was always facing the same problem,” said Kurtzke, adding that Together will ideally “create an ecosystem of diverse, differentiated skills,” and that the company founders “will remain in the driver’s seat.”