STW Group blends specialist talent from STW companies including The Brand Shop into SHIFT

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Screen shot 2011-03-11 at 8.31.13 AM.jpgSTW Group has today launched Shift, with a staff of 40, which blends specialist talent from existing STW companies including The Brand Shop, and a blue-chip client list. The company will be led by industry veteran, Iain Good.

The Shift management team comprises: Iain Good – Managing Director; Monty Noble – Creative – Executive Director; Raj Rabrindath – Creative – Director Art; Richard Sauerman – Strategy – Executive Director; Justine Marino – Strategy -Technology Director; Sally Harper – Business – DM & Analytics; and Kate Meyer – General Manager.

Says Monty Noble, Creative – Executive Director (bottom row, second from right): “Shift presents the creative problem-solving opportunity that I’d always hoped for and that only STW would be able to put together in this market. Rather than just solve marketing problems via communications, we now have the chance to make a more powerful positive impact on a client’s brand by bringing creativity to the core of their business strategy.”

“Shift is genuinely unique,” says Good. “It is a bespoke strategic communications company perfect for the challenges clients face today. It’s not an existing agency trying to evolve to meet rapidly changing client needs. It’s a brand new change expert, which from day one has the intellectual grunt, scale and a proven track record through its outstanding team to be trusted by clients with critical brand and growth challenges.”

Shift will offer expertise across the fields of strategy, creative, digital, and direct, in what Good describes as “a true hybrid of analytical and creative minds brought together to help drive change and build market share”.

“We now live in a world of exponential change, where technology, economics and demographics has driven dramatic shifts in the way we think, feel and behave, both as consumers and employees,” he said.

“We know that the biggest issue keeping CEOs up at night is this exponential change. Their greatest need is creativity in leadership and strategy development. Shift has been purpose-built to respond to this challenge.”

“Our expertise lies in translating these global and local cultural shifts to help businesses to allow for, and importantly, optimise, these changes from the earliest stage of business strategy development to maximise profitable growth.”

STW CEO Michael Connaghan said Shift would be a “unique company that lies somewhere between a strategy consultancy and a traditional communications agency.

“In creating Shift, STW has assembled a group of strategic and creative thinkers who are among some of the most outstanding in the industry. By pooling these skills, we have created a new type of company that is bound to be a formidable force. It starts with a substantial team, intellectual property and client base.”

Connaghan said Shift’s business model allows it to harness the full capabilities of the STW Group by utilising the sharpest minds across the STW stable as and where required, “to help bring brands alive both on the inside, and outside of an organisation”. The company is 100% owned by STW.

Through the STW Group, Shift will offer clients the full suite of communication delivery, from identifying business issues and developing strategy, through to executing required tactics ranging from creative, direct, branding, design, media and PR. “Our primary focus however, will be working with organisations seeking a business partner to assist with a change agenda,” Good said.

As part of Shift’s creation, all of the existing business of The Brand Shop’s clients and staff will join the new company, as will some talent from STW direct marketing agency Punch and a carefully selected group of new executives.

“With an expertise that lies in the marriage between business strategy and brand strategy, Shift will offer organisations something not currently found in any other single agency in Australia,” Good said.

Shift’s foundation clients include Kimberley Clarke, Valvoline, University of Wollongong, Moet Hennessey, Budget, Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce, AutoDesk, Fantastic Furniture and Anglican Retirement Villages.

New branding and positioning has been developed as part of Shift’s launch, which can be viewed at shift.com.au.

Back Row: Jane Conway, Iain Good, Sally Harper, Kate Meyer, Raj Rabrindath, Colin Sevitt

Front Row: Richard Sauerman, Justine Marino, Monty Noble, Alex Baker