Former AKQA boss Ajaz Ahmed launches shop to ‘rival slow, bureaucratic agencies’

AKQA’s founder and former chief executive Ajaz Ahmed has founded a new shop to “rival” existing agencies.

Called Studio.One, the shop will launch on Thursday May 1 with other former AKQA employees, including Ron Peterson and Johnny Budden. Others are yet to be announced, because they are under non-competes since leaving the WPP shop. 

Aiming to be different from current agency models, Ahmed said the marketing agency will have no timesheets, no annual reviews, no “fancy job titles” and no return-to-office mandates “because we trust our employees”.  

He admitted that the comment was a dig at WPP, which this month began mandating all staff had to be in for four days a week, and two Fridays a month.

Ahmed, whose new job title is partner, left WPP in October last year, having founded AKQA 30 years ago. Subsequently, AKQA suffered a mass exodus of more than 11 executives, including chief marketing officer Sam Kelly, Peterson, managing partner of EMEA, and Budden, global chief creative officer, as well as others around the world. 

Studio.One, an independent brand innovation agency, will be global from the start, with staff based in the US, Europe, the Middle East and the UK. Ahmed hopes that, by the end of the year, the agency will have 50 employees. 

Ahmed said he still has much “love” for AKQA, but has made no secret of his belief that its future would be best served as an independent agency, because then it could “stay true to its founding values”. 

He told Campaign that the industry is in a “new era for independent agencies”, which is reflected in how many clients prefer working with independents because of their “entrepreneurial and creative spirit”, as well as access to talent without going through “layers of bureaucracy”. He said clients also prefer to work with independents, because holding companies “seem to be constantly restructuring”.  

Ahmed's new agency works on the premise that AI tools give a level of power to smaller teams once “reserved for massive conglomerates”. The technology has “democratised the ability for agile teams to work in ways that clients prefer without the significant number of layers”, he said.

The problem with holding companies, Ahmed argued, is the high number of senior people who have been promoted out of being practitioners. He described them as  "just managers now doing administration”, rather than focusing on why they entered the industry to produce great work and make a difference. 

Studio.One has been launched with backing from private investment firm Atrum Group, founded by Brandon Green, son of Sir Philip Green. 

Ahmed said that the new venture comprises three strands.

First, it will operate as a brand innovation studio to "rival slow, bloated agencies". He said: “The great thing about starting from scratch... [is that] we can collaborate with clients to shape much better business models that are relevant to them.”

Second, it will offer a research and development experimentation lab, called The Lab, which will collaborate with artists, musicians and philanthropists to test ideas that challenge convention.  

Third, the agency will act as a growth partner to investment management firms, with which it will co-invest, working with their portfolio of companies to apply brand and technology innovation, while also taking an equity stake.

At launch, Studio.One will work from the Soho office of Hollywood director Sir Matthew Vaughn, boss of Marv Studios. 

A spokesperson for Atrum Group said: “Ajaz [Ahmed] epitomises the sort of visionary founder we back. He has already re-imagined brand storytelling once, and with this new agency, built on world-class talent and perfectly timed for the next wave of independent creativity, we believe he’ll do it again.”

Studio.One's launch video, shared with Campaign by Ahmed, features the line 'Reincarnation begins.'