Rhodes Wingrove becomes Rhodes Shapter

February 18 2010, 10:53 am | BY Kim Shaw | 8 Comments

Sydney agency Rhodes Wingrove has changed its name to Rhodes Shapter following Anne Shapter becoming a full partner and director. Ian Wingrove is now running an independent design business.

“The change in name reflects our ramped up focus on our key offering ofdelivering big media neutral ideas that change brand conversations,”says founder and creative director Dale Rhodes. “Anne Shapter has beena director of the agency for nearly two years now so in many ways it’sbusiness as usual. But the change has enabled us to bring in morecreative people and helped us fine tune our focus which is great.”

As well as being an agency director and partner, Shapter will take onthe mantel of client services director. “Dale and I have very closeworking relationships with all our clients,” says Shapter. “We fullyunderstand that flawless delivery is just as critical as greatcreative.”

Launched three and a half years ago Rhodes Shapter now has a clientlist that includes The Institute of Chartered Accountants, Scotts, TheNational Portrait Gallery, The Australian Pharmaceutical Guild, SydneyIVF, The National Archives and Panasonic.

“There’s a fair amount of smoke and mirrors around brand”, says Rhodes.”We see brands simply as what people think and feel about our client’sproducts or services. What they say to themselves and others.”

“We have a simple but incredibly effective brand strategy process,”says Shapter. “We pinpoint the existing brand conversation quickly andthen do whatever will most effectively shift that conversation tochange behaviour and drive results for our clients”.

Before joining the agency Shapter amassed over 20 years of industryexperience. Armed with a Bachelor of Business Marketing and Advertisingshe began as a Brand Manager with 3M Healthcare and then Nestle. Shewent on to work with Integrated Options, Voom and Brave and ranaccounts like Mission Australia, Campbells, FerreroRocher, AdvanceFunds Management and Pfizer. “I understand clients and the issues theyface because I’ve been one,” says Shapter.