Global advertising agency veterans launch a new agency that truly benefits clients, and talent.
Vinyl is a return to a purer time in music. Round is a return to a purer time in advertising, where the work is great and the clients and creatives are happy.
Agency veterans Paul Riss (creative director) and Mike Davidson (business director) are launching a new agency model called ROUND, a more flexible and collaborative partnership that is focused on solving business challenges through creative thinking. The goal of the model is to deliver the absolute best talent and work for clients at a fair price.
“The world is changing and our industry isn’t changing fast enough. The fact is, a lot of the top talent in North America are not working for traditional agencies these days. We’re tapping into that larger talent pool. We’re not restricted by just the resources available in our office”, said Davidson.
The campaign arrives as PayBright expands its leadership position in the Canadian market, with recent and expanded merchant partners including Sephora Canada, Samsung, Dynamite, and Wayfair. Merchants offering PayBright payment plans typically have seen +10%-25% increase in traffic, +30% growth in average order values, and +25% increase in conversions.
“Buy now pay later is increasingly popular amongst Canadians, who appreciate how PayBright's payment plans make their purchases more accessible through a seamless checkout experience," said Wayne Pommen, President and CEO of PayBright. Canadians are actively working to avoid paying higher interest rates or extra fees for credit cards and other payment methods. 'Break Up the Cost' options at low- to no-interest offers consumers increased financial flexibility, especially at a time when they may need it the most..”
Riss added, “Talented creative minds want to do great work for great clients. Whether they’re full-time or freelance, the industry is not always letting them do that. They also want personal freedom and fair compensation and they’re not always getting that either.”
Riss and Davidson are well aware of how traditional agencies work. They’ve spent many years with agencies like DDB (Omnicom), Arnold Worldwide and Publicis. Davidson started his career on the client side at Unilever and Kraft, before moving to Arnold Worldwide and most recently DDB where he ran new business and multiple integrated client-service groups for over 10 years. As for Riss, after more then 15 years as a designer, art director and creative director at various agencies including DDB, Cundari and Publicis, he started freelancing 6 years ago and hasn’t looked back. This has given him a unique perspective on the industry, having worked with multiple global and independent agencies in recent years.
Davidson and Riss originally partnered together at DDB where they helped generate significant business results for Subaru, autoTRADER, Cialis and many more. They’ve won at every advertising award show in the world, including Cannes Lions, CMA’s Best of the Best and the Cassie Grand Prix. They know what it takes to deliver world-class work for clients. ROUND has strategic partnerships with a core group of the very best talent in the industry across North America, hand-selected based on their reputation and personal experience working with them. They are digital experts, writers, art directors, illustrators, designers, strategists, web developers, producers and directors, along with post production and media experts. These ‘Friends of ROUND’, as they call them, actually see the work from ideas through production and receive a fair share of the revenue from client projects. As a result, they’re very committed to doing great work.
“Our model is project based, flexible and collaborative. We work with fixed deliverables and timelines, at an agreed price. We’ve done away with most of the overhead that make traditional agencies overly reliant on the same static resources. We have access to the best talent across North America, giving us much deeper bench strength then traditional agencies, and at a fraction of the cost”, said Davidson.
“Our approach takes not only the client’s best interests to heart, but also that of the talent”, added Riss.
Although ROUND was officially launched to the industry just this month, Riss and Davidson have been quietly working with a range of clients in Canada and the U.S. over the last several months. Their client list includes start-ups, large brands, in-house creative departments and even traditional agencies that need more bench strength. They work primarily with senior client decision makers that want increased flexibility, top talent and great work, at a fair price. Clients get hands on attention from a core team and the Founders at ROUND. Always. Everyday.
About Round
ROUND is a creative and strategic partnership founded by two experienced agency leaders, Paul Riss, Creative Director and Mike Davidson, Managing Director. ROUND works with the top talent in the industry to solve business challenges through creative thinking. ROUND works primarily on a project basis with an agreed set of deliverables over a set period of time. Clients get (and only pay for) what they need. For more information, please visit WeAreRound.com. Follow ROUND on Instagram @round_advertising.
Contacts
Mike Davidson
Round, Founding Partner & Managing Director
Mike@WeAreRound.com
1.647.554.5248
Paul Riss
Round, Founding Partner & Creative Director
Paul@WeAreRound.com
1.437.990.0052
