The founding partners of Love Communications have been left shocked and disappointed by the end of the agency, confirmed in B&T Today yesterday.
Siimon Reynolds, co-founder of Love and Photon Group, said he was surprised by the decision by Photon to absorb Love into AdPartners. “When I left two years ago, the company had 25 full time staff and was doing seven figure profits, with some good blue chip clients. It’s perplexing to see what has happened subsequently,” Reynolds told B&T Today.
Reynolds said that since his departure from Love and Photon his only involvement has been as a “dedicated shareholder” and he was not aware of the plan to end the Love name.
Love Communications was launched in April 2000 by four partners, including Reynolds, who held the title of chairman and creative director, Julian Martin who acted as CEO, Monique Haylen, head of PR and Tim Stoke, head of digital.
During his time at the agency, Reynolds said they created a number of stand-out campaigns, including Tourism Tasmania’s ‘Island of Inspiration’, Channel Seven’s ‘Gotta love it’, Australian Financial Review’s ‘The Daily Habit of Successful people’ and RSVP.com’s ‘Where more Australian’s meet’.
Martin, now managing partner at BrandCentral, said Love had had seven years of consecutive revenue growth, when he left, in 2007.
“It’s a pity for the people who worked there that the company will no longer exist in name. Its part of their CV and history and now it is no more.”
He added: “It’s not uncommon for agencies to struggle after the founders leave. Clearly I have not been privy to what’s happened at Love in the last two years since I left, that is a question for current management.”
Haylen, who left in 2005, has since started Mint PR and said the demise of Love is a shock to her.
“I think it’s disappointing, Love was a force in the industry when it opened. A lot of new agencies now have the elements Love opened with such as PR and online.”
Haylen said one of the key aspects of Love was that there were four senior, very experienced people at the helm of each division who worked across all clients.
Some of the PR campaigns Love worked on included Channel Seven, Jetstar and Vodafone.
“We were there as one team, working out the best solution for the client, I still don’t think anyone else has done that.”
