'AI-powered' agency collective launches with quartet of creative businesses

Stakked, which is described as an ‘AI-powered collective’, consists of four specialist creative businesses across earned, paid, social and digital media. 

According to today’s (20 March) announcement, the four Stakked companies will use the “latest AI tools to reduce inefficiencies, deliver creative excellence and drive impactful ROI, offering start-ups and scale-ups through to global brands a complete 360 marketing solution."

Supported by Bloch, who takes the role of non-executive chairman, Earl has been named as chief executive of the group. She founded her own creative PR agency Munch in 2016. Munch won New Consultancy of the Year at the PRWeek UK Awards in 2018, as well as several other industry accolades.

In January 2020, comms agency Munch ceased operations to allow founder and managing director Earl, to explore new ventures and opportunities. Together with creative director and founder of Play, Rowan Adams, she will reopen the agency as part of Stakked. The agency relaunches with Patch Plants and Arena Flowers as clients. 

Bloch said: “New agencies launch every month, and the world is definitely not waiting for another agency, so we knew if we were going to do this and be successful, we needed to truly innovate how creativity is harnessed and delivered. With Stakked I believe we have achieved that. The power of the collective will mean brands have the choice to work with one of our specialist companies directly or stack us up to deliver all their marketing requirements in one place, from creative PR through to social, content and best-in-class digital marketing. 

“Lizzie is arguably the best marketeer I have ever worked with. We first met when she worked with me in one of her first PR roles and I went on to mentor her for over ten years. It’s great to come together to launch Stakked and I have no doubt she will continue to be a force to be reckoned with. Watch this space!”

Munch will be joined in the group by the three other businesses, which are all newly launched companies. 

The first is Nibble—a SaaS platform connecting brands with a network of PR freelancers, headed up by Natasha Doroshenko, who started out in her career at PRP, a Weber Shandwick affiliate company. 

The second business in the collective is social media agency Flabbergast, which is spearheaded by creative marketer Faye Williams, formerly of Island Records, Universal and Printworks. Flabbergast launches with clients including British producer Toddla T and BBC Radio 1 presenter Jaguar.

The final creative business is Another Blank Page, described as a full-suite digital agency that specialises in creative digital product development, UX, custom websites and mobile apps, from branding to design and build. It is led by managing director Marc Herman, who has more than 20 years of digital brand experience. 

PRWeek UK understands Another Blank Page is already trading in Canada and this is the launch of a UK-based agency. 

Another Blank Page launches in the UK with superfood-infused coffee brand Not Your Average in its portfolio. The agency has also led the rebrand, brand identity and website for The AFO Group (formerly Markettiers4DC) and its group of companies as well as implementing projects for Ronald McDonald House, Task Human and Skoda. 

Stakked, which offers brands the option to work with each company individually or ‘stack up’ to deliver all their marketing requirements in one place, opens with 10 full-time staff across the group. 

Earl said: “After many successful years growing Munch 1.0, I knew I wanted to help more businesses deliver world-class marketing on a larger scale. I’ve spent the last four years assembling a tech team and building our AI-powered Nibble platform from scratch. Integrating tech and AI into Stakked’s boutiques was a no-brainer and we’re ready to show how top creative talent can collaborate with AI to generate best-in-class, efficient marketing with a bigger impact. 

“Traditionally at agencies, a significant chunk of time is spent behind the scenes on non-client related work, as well as time-consuming manual tasks that technology can simply do quicker, and better. With Stakked, brands of all sizes no longer face the dilemma of choosing between depth of service and breadth of expertise, and we can provide a holistic birds-eye view of their marketing needs, advising which specialist agency to activate at the right time for maximum cost-efficiency. Our goal is to pass on better value to clients by investing their budgets into the work that gets the results.” 

Bloch said: “I’m genuinely excited by what Stakked can offer. It’s the agency solution that so many modern brands are looking for - big agency muscle with boutique hustle - all powered by the latest technological innovations that will allow top creative talent to collaborate with AI tools at scale. AI will change the game for the better, and Stakked will be at the forefront of this change."

A version of this article first appeared on Campaign sister title PRWeek.