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The communications agency Naked, which was launched last month, has

landed its first account with its appointment to work on the brand

strategy for Associated Newspaper’s Metro freesheet.

Mike Anderson, the managing director of Metro, who has worked with two

of Naked’s founders, John Harlow and Jon Wilkins, when he was head of

new business at New PHD, is keen to extend the Metro brand into other

areas.

One possibility that Anderson is considering is developing Metro from

its existing form as a newspaper product, which targets the 7am to 9am

commuter rush, into a cafe internet brand to capitalise on daytime

audiences. He said: ’I see in time many different day-parts for the

Metro moment. Somewhere down the road we will look at whether we should

create something like Woman’s Hour as a content property which we could

syndicate.’

Referring to Naked’s responsibilities, Anderson said: ’It will act more

like a management consultancy. It will look at whether we should extend

the brand and, if we do, who should be our partner, how much should we

invest, the potential revenue stream and what skills are needed for the

business.’

Naked was set up last month, following the departure of Harlow, the

managing director of New PHD’s strategic communciations agency Rocket,

Wilkins, the joint managing director of New PHD, and Will Collin, the

director of strategic services at New PHD (as reported in ±±¾©Èü³µpk10, 7

July).