Third City makes two hires and wins Confused.com brief

Third City has made two senior hires and won a PR brief from Confused.com. The agency has brought in former designer and menswear blogger Nick Bain as a senior creative and Roche Communications’ Robyn Percy as an account director.

Bain joins Third City from Bacchus, where he was head of social media. He has worked with brands including Diageo, Harvey Nichols and Morgans Hotel group.

Reporting to Third City’s creative director, Henry Warrington, Bain has been briefed to push the agency further into lifestyle markets and build its paid social media offering.

Percy joins Third City from Roche Communications, where she oversaw its Carluccios and Youngs accounts.

In her new role at Third City, Percy will look after the agency’s long-standing Tefal business and assist in building a strong strategic offer across the service sector.

Mark Lowe, Third City founder, said: “The two key attributes we look for are creativity and critical thinking, something which Robyn and Nick offer in abundance. It’s great to have two such talented communicators join Third City.”

At the same time, Confused.com has handed a consumer and personal finance PR brief to Third City, as it becomes the first company in the UK to offer a comparison service on car finance.

According to Confused.com, consumers spent £30 billion on finance last year, buying 3,000 vehicles a day using some form of credit.

Confused.com has set its sights on disrupting this market by allowing consumers to compare deals across a range of providers. The company has a large in-house PR team and hasn’t used a PR agency since 2014, but is currently repositioning to focus just on car savings.

Third City will work alongside Confused.com’s media agency, PHD, and creative agency Karmarama.

Laura Piccirilli, head of PR at Confused.com, said: “We have big ambitions for this service. We want to revolutionise car finance in the same way the price comparison industry did for insurance 15 years ago.

“In terms of the PR brief, there is of course a finance message to land regarding the savings, but beyond this it’s about changing a hugely embedded consumer habit. A challenge perfectly suited to Third City.”

Chris Blackwood, partner at Third City, who will head up the account alongside creative director Henry Warrington, said: “The comparison site’s refocus to be number one for car savings has given the brand real focus and this new service is a fantastic demonstration of this ambition.

“This is about disrupting the market – shaking up an antiquated system riddled with special interests that is certainly not serving the customer as best it could.”