Partners Andrews Aldridge Opens First Overseas Office in New York

Engine is delighted to announce that Partners Andrews Aldridge, its award-winning customer engagement agency, is opening its first US office.

The office officially opens today (24th September) in New York. George Pace, the former Ogilvy and Arc Worldwide chief, has been appointed as chief executive of the new offering. Pace was most recently the SVP and Client Partnership Director of Ansira, the St. Louis-based CRM specialists.

Partners Andrews Aldridge New York will offer clients cutting-edge data strategy, digital and creative thinking. As the world of engagement changes, global brands face new challenges and opportunities, and Partners’ suite of products and services provides creative and innovative solutions to ensure that the customer is kept at the heart of a brand’s marketing communications.

The New York outfit will build on Partners Andrews Aldridge’s reputation in the UK as one of the industry’s leading customer engagement specialists. Overseen by Chief Executive Martin Nieri and Chairman and Founder Steve Aldridge, Partners Andrews Aldridge London works with brands including E.ON, Santander, Nestlé, Rolls-Royce, Times Education Supplement nd the British Army, creating digital content, customer experiences, website, apps, products and CRM programmes.

In the new set up, Pace will report to Rick Eiserman, the US Chief Executive of Partners Andrews Aldridge’s parent company Engine. He will also work closely alongside Nieri, who will be responsible for further growing the global Partners brand.

During his career Pace has worked at some of the industry’s largest communications agencies. He was EMEA Regional Managing Director at Ogilvy Paris, European Managing Director and Global Digital Lead at Arc Worldwide, EVP and Managing Director of International Clients at Universal McCann and co-Managing Director of Havas and Arnold Worldwide’s Global Technology Practice. He is also a Board Member of the Center of Creative Arts, and an Adjunct Professor of Business for Washington University in St. Louis.

Pace says: “I look forward to drawing upon Partners’ rich success and heritage to build out a new type of agency in New York where data and creative co-exist.  As our management team forms we all have one shared vision that today’s market place is changing and we will be using technology and data to power more impactful and precise creative engagements on behalf of our clients.”

Partners New York will be based in Engine’s New York office on Park Avenue South. Engine also has US offices in Los Angeles, St Louis, Cincinnati, San Francisco and New Jersey. The group is growing rapidly following its acquisition by Lake Capital in August 2014, with more than 2,000 employees working in over 30 locations across four continents. Partners is the first UK-based agency to open an office abroad since the Lake Capital deal, with more expected to follow later this year.

The move also marks the first time that Partners Andrews Aldridge has opened an office outside of London. The agency was first formed in 1998 and has since become one of the most awarded in the UK, winning Campaign Agency of the Year on two occasions, Marketing’s Agency of the Year, Precision Marketing’s Agency of the Decade, the DMA Grand Prix and various D&AD, IPA Effectiveness and Campaign BIG Awards.

Nieri says: “This is a hugely exciting time for Partners. We’re an agency that puts the customer at the heart of everything, and never before has that been more important and relevant to clients. There’s a huge opportunity to bring our mix of creativity, digital and data expertise and customer-centric thinking to the US, and now feels like exactly the right time to do so.”