MSQ Launches The Gate San Francisco

MSQ Partners, the UK’s fastest-growing multi-disciplinary marketing group, has today officially launched The Gate San Francisco, promising to provide small and medium-sized business with energy and ideas that help fuel-inject commercial growth.

Known as The Gate SFO, the office will be led by chairman and chief creative officer Beri Cheetham, the previous chief creative officer of The Gate London.

Beri will be supported by Ed Davis, director and head of client services. The agency will work in close collaboration with the multi-disciplinary resource from across the MSQ network, including the Stein IAS team that’s also located in San Francisco.

The Gate SFO will work with brands to remove the barriers that prevent them from getting head turning and effective work to market at speed, by simplifying and demystifying the creative process. It will provide both B2C and B2B thinking, using The Gate’s pioneering creative + media model.

As part of The Gate SFO’s commitment to change, the agency is also committing to continuously devote 10% of all resources to work pro-bono on projects that help ‘unfuck our planet’.

The Gate SFO is the fourth office in The Gate Worldwide micro-network. Other offices already exist in London, Edinburgh and New York.

The agency will be based at 149 Natoma Street, next door to San Francisco’s iconic Museum of Modern Art, but will simultaneously offer fluid working processes that allow it to plug directly into a client’s workspace, as part of an in-house team.

Discussions are also already in place to establish links with local production companies, and work is underway with two undisclosed tech-based clients.

Beri says: “The world is full of nimble, forward-thinking businesses that, when it comes to marketing, don’t have the creative firepower to match. We’re here to galvanise those brands who can’t afford either big agency fees or in-housing, so they can unlock the creative and strategic opportunities available to them.”

Beri first joined The Gate London in December 2016, following four years as executive creative director of Leo Burnett. Under his leadership, The Gate London completely reshaped its creative department, creating award-winning work for The Gay Times, Electoral Commission and Chiltern Railways. The agency went on to be named Oystercatchers’ Small Agency of the Year and won its first ever D&AD Pencil.

Beri relocated to the US in 2019, being replaced at The Gate London by Wunderman Thompson executive creative director Lucas Peon.

Peter Reid, chief executive of MSQ Partners, says: “We’re delighted to add another exciting office to The Gate’s worldwide network. When Beri opened discussions around relocating to San Francisco, we saw it as a really exciting opportunity. It shows our commitment to keep great talent within the group, and it allows us to provide creative and strategic thinking in another vibrant, forward-thinking market.”