Contacts:
Roger Darnell
DWA for ATTIK
1.828.264.8898

For Immediate Release

NEW YORK – (Mar. 29, 2005) – Global creative agency ATTIK (www.attik.com) today announced the firm’s momentous return to New York City.  ATTIK partners Simon Needham, James Sommerville and William Travis made the announcement, which details the company’s evolution and the major developments behind its unique and powerful new offerings.

A Colorful History of Extraordinary Design Success
Started by celebrated British artists and entrepreneurs Sommerville and Needham in northern England in 1987, by the mid-nineties, ATTIK's great successes in pioneering groundbreaking strategic design, leveraging the best strengths of all forms of media and building vibrant connections between clients and target audiences, positioned them among the world's top design and branding firms here in the U.S.  ATTIK’s first New York studio, which Travis opened in 1997, quickly became the city’s hottest design resource; over a five-year period, the studio facilitated work from ATTIK’s global team for virtually every ad agency in the region.  However, two years after Travis’ equally successful launch of ATTIK San Francisco in 1999, the three partners made the decision to step back to refocus their business strategy.  Seeking to apply their renowned British design sensibilities and passions to delivering results directly to high-profile clients, they adopted the form of a fiercely independent, full-service global creative agency.  The successful transition quickly resulted in a new wave of clients.  In 2002, Toyota named ATTIK its creative agency of record to launch Scion, its new youth division, in the U.S. market.  That ongoing, award-winning national branding campaign has broken new ground in the automotive marketing industry, capturing the hearts and minds of the target audience and helping to sell nearly 100,000 vehicles last year, among many other important achievements. 

Though the previous New York office became a casualty of the post-9/11 economic downturn, the success of ATTIK’s full-service approach since 2002 has led to a steady stream of account wins, resulting in global creative billings now estimated at $30 million per year. 

ATTIK’s Second Coming in New York
Since joining Needham and Sommerville in their ATTIK enterprise back in England in 1992, Will Travis has proven to be an extraordinary agent of success.  Within his first few years, his ambitious sales plans drove U.K. billings into the millions, and he is the kingpin in the good fortunes of ATTIK’s U.S. ventures.  As soon as the refocused business approach began showing signs of life, Travis’ inner drive immediately ignited his desire to bring ATTIK back to the Big Apple in grand fashion.

Speaking from ATTIK’s new Lispenard Street studio in downtown Manhattan’s Tribeca district, Travis has the air of a proud parent.  The open, artistically inspiring salon – home to an elite 15-person team including Travis, globally acclaimed Lowes creative director Wayne Hanson and production maverick Mark Bartlett – is designed to function as an organic think-tank that will draw support from ATTIK’s global production operations.  Travis ardently highlights the benefits of his new proximity to longstanding clients AOL, Smith Barney, SoBe and MTV, and his team’s focus on offering these and other clients an exciting new path to cost-effectively generating “massive” results.

“ATTIK's design strengths are the basis for a new ad agency paradigm,” Travis began, “and together with our experience and passions for delivering clients what they really need, in innovative ways, we know we have something unique and powerful to offer.  That’s why we’ve fashioned our new studio as an inspiring living environment where the world’s most brilliant minds can come together to collaborate, and that’s why we’ve sought-out and added world-class talents, like globally acclaimed advertising creative Wayne Hanson and his team of writers.  We can now offer new creative solutions that combine our bold perspective on branding and benefit from the maturity of years of creating groundbreaking design… addressing a global sensibility and driving marketing efforts that are so effective, they set new standards.

“Quite literally,” Travis concluded, “we’ve stopped at nothing to prepare ourselves for a successful return to New York City, where the superb results of our design-driven creative can immediately start making a big difference for today’s volatile brands."

High-Profile Executives Enthusiastic About ATTIK’s New Developments
Upon learning of ATTIK’s latest developments, top executives from many of the companies who dominate the global entertainment landscape have voiced strong support.  “There has been a void in New York that is finally being refilled with the return of ATTIK,” said Sean Mosher-Smith, VP of creative services for Virgin Records.  “Their quality and attention to detail is refreshing and exciting.” 

“I’ve been thrilled to reconnect with Will Travis and ATTIK on a couple of projects recently," added Kevin Mackall, SVP of MTV on air promotions.  “Will’s branding savvy coupled with the immense design aesthetic and bottomless creative lab ethos of ATTIK makes them a formidable partner on any job.  Plus they’ve got stylie digs on Lispenard Street.”

“ATTIK continues to grow their creativity,” said Michael Engleman, creative director of CMT, who recently ignited ATTIK’s talents to a create a high-profile, cross-media advertising campaign integrating broadcast, radio, print and point-of-sale elements to promote CMT’s flagship Music Awards event.  “Their dynamic range and conceptual approach to design and advertising has helped set strategic and creative benchmarks for me on a variety of different projects with different goals.”

“It's great to have ATTIK back in NY, the melting pot of America,” said Malcolm Bird, senior VP and GM of Kids and Teens for America Online, Inc.  “ATTIK can make that melting pot trendy, appeal to a mixed demographic and – after Will Travis has finished with it – sell ten million of them.”

Finally, Rob Gregory, group publisher of Maxim, contributed these thoughts.  “ATTIK's blend of creativity and edginess, combined with their corporate branding sensibilities makes them a perfect partner for a cutting edge lifestyle brand like Maxim. We love the way their collective mind works and believe they are easily poised to take this city by storm.”

About ATTIK
ATTIK (www.attik.com) is a global creative agency committed to designing extraordinary creative experiences that inspire consumers through compelling communications.  ATTIK's strategic planning, design, advertising, production, client service and young-adult research expertise have driven success across an array of consumer product and service categories.  ATTIK articulates corporate brand strategy, designs creative solutions for advertising, below-the-line and online media, ensuring target audiences are vitally connected to every facet of its clients' brands.  For inquiries, please call Ric Peralta (Ric@attik.com) at +1-415-284-2600.