Earlier this week kyu announced that it had bought UK agency, Lexington. Waypoint’s Jim Houghton, who led the team acting on behalf of Lexington, shares some insights on why kyu is one to watch.
Kyu has a very clear and deliberate vision to bring together only the most outstanding businesses and leadership teams in key disciplines into a collective harnessing creativity as a force for positive impact in society and the economy. In the last few years, a number of “collectives” have been announced as counter-points to the networks but Kyu was way ahead of them and remains the only collective with a positive unifying purpose rather than simply being an antidote to the status quo. This remains unique to Kyu and it’s no wonder that Lexington is the ideal addition to bring PR and communications skills, given the remarkable reputation the London-based agency has built for itself.
Many of the members of the Kyu collective are North American-based, but with international operations. There might be some surprise to learn of Kyu’s reach, as it also includes iconic firms like IDEO and Sid Lee and Digital Kitchen alongside a carefully curated range of management consultancy, data, design, content and creative agencies. To date PR and public affairs has not been part of the Kyu offer, but it’s a compelling wrapper that unifies the collective. Lexington joins Public Digital as Kyu’s second UK headquartered member.
Lexington already has a notable presence in the UK, but both its leadership and Kyu’s are highly ambitious so we should expect to see it further accelerating the growth of its disciplines and geographies under Kyu’s auspices. It will likely do this both organically and through M&A, using Kyu firepower to do so.
