Grayling has announced the launch of Ignite, a nationwide creative services division that champions and fosters on-the-ground creative talent in nine different cities around the UK.

The move is the culmination of a 12-month investment programme, which has seen the agency establish a 10-strong team of planners, creatives and designers in London, supported by creative pairs in each of its offices around the country.

Talent on the team has been recruited externally as well as being drawn from a number of internal moves. In addition to the agency’s internal creative resource, Grayling has also signed a partnership with the Brixton-based award-winning advertising school – the School of Communication Arts – enabling the Ignite team to collaborate with up to 40 up and coming creatives.

Newest to the Ignite team is PR Week creative mentor, Julian Cirrone, who joins as creative director. Based in London, he will work alongside newly appointed strategy director, Alex Martin, who was previously in the agency’s consumer division.

Prior to joining Ignite, Cirrone was at M&C Saatchi PR, where he led the agency’s creative output across its UK and global accounts including EE, the FCA, the Co-Op and Footlocker. 

Head of creative and planning, Nathan Kemp says, “Cultures differ by city; behaviours by borough; and people by postcode. Our creative thinking needs to reflect that. Our clients want true local knowledge, and not just perspectives from a London bubble. By setting up a team that draws on creative talent based in multiple locations, we are able to mine our local networks for powerful insight, which leads to ideas and campaigns that truly resonate with different audiences, be they political stakeholders, businesses or consumers, wherever they may be.”

As well as boosting the agency’s creative resource, the Ignite team has also set up a countrywide panel to test ideas and gather insight on a rolling basis. Called 4Points, the panel includes a wide variety of people, from farmers to football fans and publicans to politicians.

The Ignite team will be responsible for strategic planning, creative development and content creation, with an in-house studio providing a full suite of design and production services. Other services accessible to clients include strategy and creative workshops, focus groups, trends analysis and stakeholder mapping.

Grayling UK & Europe CEO Sarah Scholefield adds, “We truly believe in building and fostering a creative culture across all of the Grayling UK offices. We are committed to investing in this across the UK because it genuinely creates greater advantage for our clients. The launch of the Ignite team and the creative infrastructure we’ve established continues to drive that. We’re already seeing positive results, with a number of competitive new business and organic wins under our belts.”

The Ignite team will also work across Grayling’s existing clients served from its London HQ – including PokerStars, Molson Coors, Visa and Amadeus – as well M&S, HSBC and the Ivy Collection restaurants, which are serviced from the agency’s eight offices outside of London. The team will also be heavily involved on new business, with recent wins including easyJet Holidays.