Chime reshuffle spells end for Roose and WPJ

The restructure marks the end of Chime's Roose and the Will Pond-Jones Collective agencies, which will cease to operate as separate entities.

The decision comes three weeks after Roose lost the key SCA Hygiene business. Will Pond-Jones, meanwhile, has been hit by The Carphone Warehouse's recent decision to move its Talk Talk account into Clemmow Hornby Inge.

Shaun McIlrath, one of the Heresy founders, will combine the creative directorship of the enlarged Heresy group with his existing position as Heresy's creative chief.

Jay Pond-Jones, who helped establish Will Pond-Jones last year to offer non-traditional advertising solutions, will take a floating creative role.

The plan is the result of a two-month review by Sue Farr, the BBC's former head of marketing, who joined Chime as the chairman of its advertising and marketing services division in April.

Her aim is to replicate the kind of synergy that Chime claims already exists among its 18-strong PR division, whose companies regularly co-ordinate their activities.

Besides the Heresy agency, the Heresy group will include Gasoline (sales promotion), Rare (publishing and design), Pure (media planning and buying), Teamspirit (financial services), Ozone (healthcare marketing) and a property marketing specialist. Anne Yeoman-Nagy, the former Claydon Heeley Jones Mason business director, will be the group's managing director.

Farr said: "The MDs of the Heresy group agencies must not only run their own agencies successfully, but make the Heresy group bigger than the sum of its parts."

Chime also hopes the new set-up will lead to more cross-referrals of business between the two divisions. "I don't say it will happen but we can start planning for it," Bell added.

This article was first published on Campaign