Former Dentsu and Alpha Digital head partners with Type + Pixel to launch Luster agency

Luster, a new marketing consultancy and agency founded by Tobey Bower (above right), the former Alpha Digital general manager and Darren Walls (above left), co-founder of Type + Pixel, has launched today.

The modern marketing agency which sits alongside Type + Pixel’s brand agency aims to bring  “uncommon sense” back to marketing practice, seeing past digital distractions to enable the creation of more effective, impactful work for brands and for humans.

Luster founder Tobey Bower says that the new shop was created in response to changing winds in the industry: “Cookies are on the way out, digital targeting has lost its fidelity, convoluted tech stacks are being slashed, and media optimisation is increasingly automated. Clients are developing a healthy scepticism of some of the metrics that’ve been over-valued, and investment is coming back to brand building.

“It felt like the time was right for a consulting agency that better balances digital with core marketing principles. It’s been born out of the idea that marketing should be more effective and less complex than it’s been.

“Luster brings clients the reverence for creativity of an ad agency, the zoomed out perspective and commercial nous of a consultancy, the technical background of a digital marketing agency, and the curiosity and playfulness of a kid. We’re pretty keen to do the whole thing with a lot more humanity.

“We’re stubbornly strategy-before-anything. If you properly work through the underlying human problem at the outset, we all get to spend less time doing everything else later. The value prop for our clients and agency partners is simple, effective marketing strategy with fewer points of failure.”

Luster will operate alongside Type + Pixel providing clients with expanded expertise and simpler ways of working across strategy, brand, comms, CX, media and digital projects.

About the tie-up, Bower says: “I’ve been lucky to work with Darren while I’ve been in a number of roles at a number of agencies. We’ve always done a weird amount of vigorous nodding at each other about how we see the craft and what needs to be better about the industry. So the concept of a new partnership felt like a really natural evolution to me.”

Says Darren Walls, co-founder and Type + Pixel director: “Our partnership is built on our shared belief in the power and value of creativity. In today’s digital world, where everything can be tracked and attributed, there’s an unhealthy focus on the short term, on platforms and placements, refining tactical executions to deliver incremental optimisation. We think there’s an opportunity to bridge the gap, to think a little bigger, to blend brand-led creative thinking with digital nous, and serve our clients in both the short and long term.”

Luster is co-located with Type + Pixel in Fortitude Valley and is underway with CX and advertising projects with clients in the health and arts sectors.

For more information visit luster.au.