Govier, who left Unity ten months ago, has already hired two other founding partners: Katy Stolliday, previously deputy MD, consumer at Brands2Life, and formerly at Unity; and Stuart Lambert, who was strategy and creative director at Weber Shandwick, who will join Blurred in November.
Also part of the core team from launch is Nick Porter, formerly a partner at integrated agency Iris. At Blurred, Porter will operate as non-executive director.
Govier left Unity, the agency she co-founded with Gerry Hopkinson in 2005, somewhat acrimoniously earlier this year. Hopkinson continues to run Unity.
She told PRWeek that Blurred would be a very different proposition from the typical agency model. "We’re an agency for a blurred world, where traditional audience distinctions are no longer as clear as they once were. We’re not defined as a ‘corporate’ or ‘consumer’ agency, nor an ‘internal’ nor ‘external’ agency – we’re built to do all of these things, creating work that’s focused on engaging with people as human beings."
The concept behind the new shop is to establish a core team and then build around it a cohort of deep specialists, which the team can draw upon as clients need them. The specialists, who Govier has not yet named, will come from "both Downing Street and FTSE boardrooms; from the worlds of photography and music and digital culture. We believe the best corporate work should be deeply creative, and that the best creative work helps build corporate reputation."
"We’re not going to be for everyone," admitted Govier. "But we’re confident we’ll appeal to like-minded comms and marketing directors who want to adapt positively to the way the world is now."
So far, Blurred has announced one client. Last week it helped launch StockX – the world’s first 'stock market of things' – in Europe. The two-year-old, billion-dollar business counts musician Eminem, model and entrepreneur, Karlie Kloss and actor Mark Wahlberg among its investors. The retained account was won following a five-way competitive pitch.
Blurred will work a brief spanning corporate comms, mainstream consumer PR, as well as targeted the specialist ‘sneakerhead’ community.
Stolliday added: "We exist to bring depth to an industry characterised by the superficial. The typical agency offer to clients in an uncertain world is to help them ‘navigate’ it. It’s a somewhat defensive posture. Actually, we believe an uncertain, blurred world is packed with opportunity for companies to grow and genuinely innovate."
Earlier this year, Govier and Gerry Hopkinson sold their stake in Tin Man to founder and CEO Mandy Sharp, who became sole owner of the consumer PR agency.
