Bristol-based independent digital marketing firm Flourish has become a founding member of a new agency group aiming to shake up the way the sector operates.
Called Harbour Group, the new business has also acquired London-based creative services agency Curious as well as Flourish, which supplies customer relationship management (CRM) services to blue-chip clients across the world. 
Flourish and Curious were among 11 agencies in the Harbour Collective, a membership organisation set up in 2017 to enable smaller creative agencies to work together to take on the industry’s major players.
They did this by pooling their skills on multiple share clients across disciplines such as data and insight, media and content creation. Flourish joined the collective in 2022.
Harbour Group has been formed to take the collective to the next level.
Shareholders and the management in Curious and Flourish will take significant equity in the new group, which has been financially backed by US investment manager Beach Point Capital.
Founded in 2004, Flourish built its reputation in CRM and customer journey marketing, working for clients such as Nissan, Twitch and ASOS. Today, it employs more than 50 people and also operates from an office in Dubai.
Following Flourish’s absorption into Harbour Group, two of its three co-founders – Neil Hecquet and Rich Hartson – will depart.
Fellow co-founder Keith Nichol, who will take a position on the Harbour Group board, said: “The last 20 years have been such an incredible personal experience.
“I couldn’t have hoped for better partners than Neil and Rich and both have been instrumental in Flourish’s success.
“The time has come to push on and this opportunity with Harbour enables us to add our strength to a wider group proposition.”
Flourish managing director Ian Reeves, pictured, right, with Curious MD Mark Grosvenor and Harbour Group CEO Paul Hammersley, added: “The Harbour Group vision is clear and offers our clients tangible value through vertically integrated and complimentary services.
“We’re excited to start the journey alongside Curious and believe their offering can help push the creative barriers of what can be achieved within CRM.”
Other Harbour Collective member agencies will be invited to join Harbour Group along with external acquisitions.
Harbour Group will be led by Paul Hammersley, the former chief executive of global agencies DDB and Cheil and founder of Harbour Collective, who will become CEO.
He said: “For some time we have been discussing with a number of our Collective member agencies how to more closely align their shared interests and create a more connected plan for future growth and value creation . . . central to those discussions has been our desire to allow for the continued autonomy of the agency brands.”
