T3 Opens N.Y. Office

T3 opens a New York office tomorrow to handle interactive creative and media business.

The branch will initially manage online media planning and buying, strategy and analytics for clients of the Austin, Texas-based agency, including Dell, Sprint and Samsung.

T3 (The Think Tank) previously outsourced its online media functions. The New York team is ex-pected to pursue creative and e-mail marketing op-portunities in the future, said T3 founder and president Gay Gaddis.

“We think being close to the top media reps is key,” said Gaddis. “And it gives us a real opportunity to seek clients that have more of an East Coast base or presence.”

Joining the new outpost are managing director John McGarry, media director Leslie North, creative director Brandon Griffin and production director Ted Villa. The four come directly from the digital marketing agency Euro RSCG Circle in New York, where they collaborated on the shop’s Intel account. Dan Isaacs joins the office from Austin as executive director.

The group, which met Gaddis through a mutual acquaintance, was in-trigued with the idea of working on digital advertising for an independent shop rather than “larger traditional agencies that have to deal with a different holding company and different revenue channels rather than client business,” said McGarry.

McGarry said his team brings to T3 “a deeper knowledge base and more experience in digital advertising and media.”

The new office will compete for business with independent shops like Avenue A and itraffic, as well as larger agencies with interactive departments.