Rainger Connect and Rolfe Limited have merged to form a new agency called Rainger & Rolfe.
Managing partners Ant Rainger and Jen Rolfe have each left their respective offices in favour of a new digs in Parnell, which now brings 10 staff members and about a dozen key clients under the same roof.
In addition to several others, the new agency will be servicing the AA, AA SmartFuel, BP, Auckland Zoo, Kiwirail, DotKiwi, NZ Post, Turners and Craigs Investment Partners.
Rainger says that the motivation behind the merger lies in the fact that there have been some key changes in the fields of direct marketing and digital. He points to Woolworths’ recent acquisition of Ezibuy, a direct marketing retailer, and Quantium, a data-mining juggernaut, as evidence of the fact that business owners are placing greater emphasis on the value of good data in the digital age.
“There are a whole lot of people who want advice on bringing data, creativity, digital and direct together,” says Rainger. “And since people weren’t getting the answers they wanted, we decided to respond … There are gaps that we think we can fill.”
But Rainger says that they won’t let this focal point limit the range of the new offering, and he believes that Rolfe’s skill-range will help to push the business forward.
“Jen is smart and she’ll contribute great thinking to the offering. She’s passionate about data, digital, direct, loyalty and CRM. She’ll definitely bring a lot to the table.”
Although Rainger & Rolfe is already up and running, there has been a bit of delay with the launch of the agency’s new website.
“I had an email from my web guy saying ‘come on.’ We also need to update our LinkedIn and so forth. It’s all coming soon,” says Rainger.
Despite these initial teething problems, the managing partner is optimistic about the potential of the new offering.
“We’ve both got an absolute passion for great creative sitting on great data insights. I think when you deliver that, generally everything else falls into place.”
