Cath Offord, currently managing director activation and delivery for Dentsu, is joining Notorious Communications, where she will launch the agency’s buying offer and support the co-founders to accelerate the agency’s sharp growth curve.
Offord will take on the newly created role of Chief Notorious Officer, with two key areas of responsibility: Delivering a notorious Investment proposition for clients – built on the principles of independence, integrity and ability to deliver a more motivating repertoire of benefits, and translating vision into tangible actions – driving the next iteration of a notorious agency product built around passion for media craft, ambition for business outcomes and client experience.
The role has been created on the back of rapid business growth over the last two years and changing needs, with Notorious now taking on their own buying commitments, after five years trading through Goodstuff’s G-Force, having launched as part of The Startstuff initiative in 2019.
Across 2023 Notorious made significant hires, bolstering capability focussed on digital disciplines, with key hires such as former Zenith digital transformation director Jennie Geagea and Assembly Digital client director Robin Wooller, alongside significant recruits from The Hut Group, to establish an offer that could differentiate against the wider media agency cohort without distraction from real client needs. Further significant hires in this space are planned.
In a fast-evolving media market, with changing demands on client businesses, the Notorious leadership is focused on building a disruptor proposition, that retains the best of inventive media craft, while taking inspiration from some of the more entrepreneurial digital commerce businesses Manchester’s economy has cultivated in recent years.
Combined with increasing appetite for innovation in creating and realising trading benefits, collaboratively with media partners, there is clear opportunity to step the indie model on a notch without losing sight of what still matters to clients. Offord will be tasked with applying her knowledge and experience to make these benefits tangible and real for clients.
Offord said ‘‘20 years after joining an entrepreneurial business that grew to become one of the country’s largest buying points, I am beyond excited to go back to my roots and bring benefit of deep experience to building the next generation challenger in the agency marketplace. The ambition Nik and Jess have for the Notorious project makes this a rare opportunity and with a mandate to make my experience count, leading a hungry team to notoriety, made this simply too good to miss.”
Co-founder Jessica Scott added: “We’re not here to make up the numbers. Cath is one of the most respected and loved practitioners in media but she’s also a fabulously fierce force to be reckoned with. After a year of significant change and incredible growth, Cath has the brief to take us up to the next level. Everyone knows her reputation as leader in the Investment space but she is going to wow people given freedom to show what else she can bring to the table.”
The appointment further cements Notorious as a natural home to outstanding female talent, with four out of the five leadership positions now held by women, as well as two thirds of the director team.
