Havas Launches Brand Strategy and Culture Consultancy Firm

Havas Creative U.S. has launched Triptk, a brand strategy and culture consultancy based in New York.

“My partner and I, [Havas Creative U.S. chairman and chief creative officer] Jason Peterson, came to a place in sitting with our clients to understand what they’re looking for in a partner like us, and where we fit into the strategic landscape of what’s happening in our business,” Havas Creative U.S. chairman and CEO Paul Marobella told Adweek. “We landed on a positioning and an ambition around being the most meaningful partner to the modern CMO and their brands.”

Triptk name Sam Hornsby CEO. He was formerly managing partner of Flamingo New York, which was one of the seven Flamingo offices which closed this past April. Hornsby joined Flamingo Group in 2008, following two years as a DAS Omnicom Accelerate Management fellow.

“The name Triptk came about because we were inspired by the ‘rule of three,’ a universal phenomenon that speaks to the hidden patterns of human culture and psychology and is a guiding force in design,” Hornsby said in a statement.

“It’s a rare thing to find a strategic consultant that can live comfortably inside a creative culture,” said Marobella of Hornsby. “His understanding of how brands need to live in a modern world and need to connect with the modern consumer … is different than anybody that we’ve met.”

Triptk’s offerings include brand strategy; consumer, cultural and category market intelligence; trend understanding; innovation and ideation. In addition to working with brands and agencies, Triptk will seek out what the company calls “nontraditional” clients such as entrepreneurs, VC firms, social impact organizations and art institutions.

“Triptk competes with big consultancies, as well as competing with a host of research, innovation and strategy firms,” Hornsby said, adding that while large consultancies can offer business strategy solutions through “a very rigorous process, they don’t have the kind of creativity and cultural selection that marketing teams need to really move forward.” That, he noted, is “rooted in cultural fluency and audience understanding.”

“There are a few things that we think today’s CMOs and today’s brands are looking for in partners like us: creativity, culture and commerce,” Marobella said. “What we’re seeing is getting underneath creativity, culture and commerce in new and interesting ways can drive better creative product, better product design, better innovation for our client partners, and when paired with our capabilities, can differentiate us from what’s happening in our marketplace.”