Trinidad companies merge to form marketing group

The new company says it will revolutionise the way the agency business is done in Trinidad and Tobago and create “a lot of firsts” in the country.

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad,  – Two Trinidadian companies have come together to create a new marketing company – Abovegroup Ogilvy – that they say represents “a seismic shift in the local creative industries”.

Abovegroup, a leading branding consultancy, and Inglefield/Ogilvy & Mather Caribbean (IOM), a long-standing advertising and media services company, recently announced the merger that “brings together two distinct but complementary groups of skills and experience - offering the most comprehensive range of services available under one roof anywhere in the Caribbean”.

The new company says it will revolutionise the way the agency business is done in Trinidad and Tobago and create “a lot of firsts” in the country.

Among them, it said, would be: the first truly full-service communications company in the country; the first to have an environmental policy, which includes dedicating five percent of annual resources to improving the social and physical environments in Trinidad and Tobago and beyond; the first carbon-neutral company in the country by the end of this year; and the first to publish free white papers on trends and changes in the region, developed by an in-house strategy team.

“Our mission as a company is simple - to make the world a brighter place,” says Director Tony Inglefield. “We mean it, and we’re going to do it in a way that benefits everyone - our clients, their customers, the public, the countries in which we operate, our peers and ourselves.”

“People are tired of the old way of doing things. There is no point pretending that nothing has changed when everything has and is already busy changing again. Of course there will be some who prefer the status quo. For everyone else, let’s get started,” he added.

The other directors in Abovegroup Ogilvy are Russ Jarman Price, Alex Smailes and Gareth Jenkins.

Founded in 2005, Abovegroup offers branding and identity, graphic design, photography, digital development and guerrilla marketing services. It is also actively involved in the local creative industry. Clients include Atlantic, The Beacon, The Carlton Savannah and the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival.

IOM was born in 1993 and is an affiliate of the Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, one of the world’s largest communications companies. It is affiliated with a range of agencies throughout the Caribbean providing a full range of services to local, regional and international clients including Coca-Cola, Unilever, Nestlé, Kimberly-Clark, Carib Brewery, Digicel, Caribbean Airlines, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.