You need to know:

• PwC CMO Advisory’s Genevieve Reynolds and Nicky Bryson join Russel Howcroft, Justin Papps in challenger consulting firm Sayers

• Sayers Brand Momentum will stitch organisational and market strategy with creative execution, CX and more using a hub and spoke model of outside partners

• Deloitte Digital appoints former Clemenger BBDO boss Nick Garret as a Creative Partner

• PwC’s CMO Advisory folds into Customer and Experience team

The co-architects of PwC’s CMO Advisory practice, Russel Howcroft and Justin Papps, officially launched their new firm this week, Sayers Brand Momentum, with clear intentions to take on the traditional agency business with a new “hub and spoke” structure that they say will blend brand and customer strategy with executional capabilities in creative, CX and beyond using a network of specialist external partners.

Part of the core team at PwC CMO Advisory, including Genevieve Reynolds and Nicky Bryson, have joined their former bosses at Sayers, a challenger consulting firm to the global big four led by PwC’s former CEO Luke Sayers and backed by Melbourne establishment billionaires, Lindsay Fox and Andrew Bassat. 

Sayers Partner Justin Papps told Mi3 yesterday that Sayers Brand Momentum will retain corporate strategy capabilities but add a network of specialist partners in a hub and spoke model, shortcutting the need for the start-up to invest broadly in executional capabilities across research, creative, CX, UX and beyond.

Papps and Howcroft were known to be frustrated by the inability to execute on the strategic work they were doing at PwC – although they did back PwC taking a 10 per cent stake in creative and media agency Thinkerbell. The new unit at Sayers gives Papps and his team equity in the venture.  

In contrast to the hub and spoke model at Sayers, Deloitte Digital, which has made a series of acquisitions in recent years to build internal creative and executional firepower, yesterday announced former Clemenger BBDO boss Nick Garrett would join the firm as a Partner. Suzuki Australia's GM Michael Pachota told Mi3 recently that he attributed the company’s 30 per cent rise in sales through last year to the “creative geniuses” at Deloitte Digital.

Papps said Sayers Brand Momentum sits between organisational strategy and “go-to market strategy. It’s the piece in the middle that connects the two.”

“It’s bringing together the best of consulting, the best of advisory into one offer under Sayers,” he said. “That gives us a lot more flexibility to do the full gamut from strategy through to execution if we want to."

Papps said taking a 'hub and spoke model' means the firm plays "at the top end of town on strategy but gives us the opportunity to go all the way through. The point of the model is we can do whatever the client needs, and we've got enough good relationships and alliances where we can go right through the line if we need to. And what we've found really interesting, even just in the last 24, 48 hours is the number of people in this space coming forward saying, ‘We know the model needs to be done differently. Is there something we can do with you to do it differently?’," said Papps. "They’re are sort of conversations we want to have. We’re not tying ourselves to any specific agency, network or group.”

The firm's strategic and executional capabilities would cover anything that connects customers or drives customer strategy, added Papps. “And if it needs to be CX and UX, we can do that. But it all comes back to the organisational strategy. How do we grow, retain or acquire customers? And then we fill the gap in the middle.”

Papps said Sayers Brand Momentum has already started work on clients in government and packaged goods. 

But what now for PwC’s CMO Advisory practice?

PwC’s Consulting Leader, David McKeering, said it has become part of the firm’s Customer and Experience team under Partner Diane Rutter, which joins up customer strategy, brand, marketing, sales, service and digital teams.

“There’s been strong momentum in the last six months and we’re doing some tremendous work that is really different from other agencies in the market and investing in alliances in the marcomms tech space,” McKeering said.

“I am enormously proud of the impactful work the team is doing and excited about the new prospects for the practice now that it is a part of our Customer and Experience and broader Consulting team.”