The Chase co-founder steps back as Squad steps in

Manchester creative consultancy The Chase has new leadership, as it joins forces with two complementary businesses in a move to expand its offer and plan for succession.

Set up in 1986 by Casey and the late Lionel Hatch, The Chase has built a reputation for B2B and public sector work with clients including Royal Mail, AstraZeneca and UCL. Its acquisition of Squad, founded in 2008 by Rob Gray and David Barraclough, brings in a consumer portfolio featuring Eurocamp, JW Lees Brewery, Umbro and ZSL London Zoo.

Squad and The Chase started working together a couple of years ago. ‘Ben approached us about this idea of coming together,’ says Barraclough, ‘and we’ve been collaborating closely by sharing a building, and then that led us to doing the deal, and fully bringing the businesses together.’

In this share exchange acquisition, Barraclough and Gray swapped their shareholding in Squad for shares in The Chase.

Meanwhile, Oscar- and BAFTA-nominated production agency The Chase Films, led by Mark Gill and Alex Roberts, was formed as a joint venture with The Chase around 10 years ago. It has now been fully acquired by The Chase, though The Chase Films will continue working directly with clients and other agencies. Gill and Roberts also become shareholders in The Chase.

Strategic succession

As well as boosting its offer and expanding its potential client base, these changes see a new leadership team taking the reins. Casey and The Chase director Bev Hutchinson now serve as co-chairs.

Hutchinson remains more actively involved, while Casey ‘is a figurehead and a source of counsel and wisdom, but he’s less involved in the day-to-day client and work side of things’, Gray says.

The Chase is now led by Gray as managing and strategy director and Barraclough as creative director.

Multi-touchpoint branding

The vision is that the new-look, 40-strong Chase will be better positioned to work across more elements of any project, as it offers ‘all those things that a modern brand needs’, Barraclough says.

Gray adds: ‘It’s about more variety of work across more disciplines, broadening the breadth of what we do, so we can work with clients to bring creativity in a cohesive way across all the touchpoints they’ve got.’

‘I think one of the things clients really struggle with is how they remain coherent across so many touchpoints, while moving at such pace. How do they build a coherent brand across those, and still be creative?’

To help solve this, there are plans to add further skills, Barraclough says, ranging from motion design and animation to writing, sound design, and potentially environments and interior design.

‘As brands move more, sound more, and are more experiential, there are opportunities to extend what we’re doing to other areas,’ he adds.

The Chase says there will be no redundancies and no client conflicts as a result of the acquisitions. The combined team is already working for clients including BASF, Manchester United, M&S Bank and Smith+Nephew.

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