McCann Worldgroup unit T.A.G., which played a pivotal role in the global Halo 3 campaign among other things, is ceasing operations after almost three years. In its place, partners Scott Duchon (pictured), Mike Harris, and John Patroulis are launching a new full-service IPG-owned agency and strategic think tank called agencytwofifteen.
Named after their San Francisco street address, the group’s new firm will develop media-agnostic ideas for brands and marketing programs. In a statement, the agencytwofifteen partners say: “With this new venture, we are able to preserve the unique creative culture that has been so important for us and our clients, while gaining a flat, nimble structure that can adjust to client needs by utilizing an open architecture of partners throughout the network. Since we joined forces in 2007, it’s been a whirlwind of substantial growth, work we are proud of, and clients we love working with–and we are excited to take this next step with the formation of agencytwofifteen.”
According to sources familiar with the matter, one of the main reasons for agencytwofifteen’s creation is that it now allows the partners to have financial and operational autonomy, which they didn’t have at T.A.G. since it was a McCann unit and the former was fully integrated into the latter on many levels.
McCann isn’t totally out of the picture, though, as its network will be utilized by agencytwofifteen for any work that takes on an international scope. The new agency meanwhile is already getting to work and launching a campaign for Microsoft’s new product Kin this week.