Now opens its doors for business this week from offices in London’s Fitzrovia and with the promise of being "an agency for the accelerated world".
The founding trio will be joined by two other directors, the former PHD media strategist Louise Jones and the former group finance director of Bartle Bogle Hegarty Nigel Maile, who will be non-executives and work with the new agency on specific client projects.
Townshend, who has been working on the architecture of the business since quitting Rapier almost a year ago, said that Now will be based around the principle of offering clients "immediate measurable results that build brand and business simultaneously". He added: "Our meetings will be brief, our processes will be collapsed and measurement of our work’s success will be built into the planning."
Townshend was a partner at Rapier for 16 years, leading the agency’s creative product and helping drive its integrated positioning. Lund was a founder of Delaney Lund Knox Warren in 2000 and is a past chairman of the Advertising Association. He joined COI as its chief executive two years ago but resigned earlier this month ahead of the abolition of the government marketing agency, which was confirmed last week.
Waters is a former head of planning at Euro RSCG and Partners Andrews Aldridge and was strategy director at Engine before joining the PR agency Blue Rubicon.
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