Marketing communications group Core is investing €7.5 million this year in a restructure of the business and its relocation to a new 24,000 sq ft custom-built premises at 1 Windmill Lane (1WML). The investment follows a strategic review, which resulted in developing a five-year plan to both transform its business and the industry in which it operates.
CEO Alan Cox said the focus of the new strategy is collaboration, which will enhance the creativity of work developed by the group across all disciplines and provide a structure that will meet the global trend of clients demanding full solution services. The plan will be officially launched at an event attended by British music producer Steve Lillywhite.
Lillywhite will talk about his experiences with U2, Morrissey, The Pogues and Talking Heads and explain how true collaboration can create magic. Core employs a team of 310 people and, until recently, operated as a group of nine separate companies. Now, to facilitate enhanced collaboration, the business has been transformed into one company of nine practices:
- Core Creative
- Core Data
- Core Investment
- Core Media – consisting of four teams branded Mediaworks, Spark Foundry, Starcom and Zenith
- Core Recruitment
- Core Research
- Core Sponsorship
- Core Strategy
- Core Learning
Cox said that for the last 30 years, adland has been obsessed with specialisation, requiring clients to hire various agencies to produce one marketing campaign. “Working in silos stifles creativity and results, no matter how talented the individual teams are. Research has consistently shown that collaboration produces better results,” Cox added.
Bringing people together from different disciplines to work on a problem produces a higher level of creativity and innovation. Cox insists that Core is not moving away from specialisation – far from it. Collaboration is a powerful and essential element of world-class marketing campaigns. Marketing is a complex business and deep specialism is crucial.
“By demolishing our walls, both figuratively and physically, to become one company,” Cox said. “We’re advocating that specialists must be brought together and not kept apart. Core’s purpose is to expand the possibilities of what brands can achieve. We are really excited about our new strategy and new, integrated model, and where it will take our business.”
Joining Core’s existing premises on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, the 1WML address widens Core’s property footprint in Dublin’s SOBO District (South Of Beckett O’Casey) – at the point where the Docklands connects with the city centre and IFSC. Google, Facebook, Twitter, Airbnb and other multinationals and creative SMEs are located in the area.
Core’s director of transformation Geoff McGrath said everything in the group’s new space offers a tangible statement of our intent to “create a better way to create better work”.
