RUDE Communications launches to target ‘new economy’ brands
Former Edelman Australia PR Eve Laird and journalist Elle Tucker have launched RUDE Communications, which they say is the UK’s first comms agency to exclusively focus on the ‘new economy’.
RUDE Communications founders Elle Tucker and Eve Laird
The ‘new’ or ‘sharing economy’ – sometimes called the ‘circular economy’ – is a socio-economic ecosystem built around the sharing of human, physical and intellectual resources. It includes peer-to-peer initiatives, such as crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, lending, renting and sharing.*
Laird said: “We have launched RUDE to help businesses who are, or want to, embrace this ‘new economy’ of sharing and collaboration. Because, at its heart is people. And effective collaboration comes from effective communication.”
RUDE cites Uber and Airbnb as examples of brands embracing this ‘new economy’, as well as children’s bike brand Islabikes, which is working to adopt a rental model rather than purchase.
Based in Edinburgh, the agency launches with gadget brand Phytl Signs as a client. To coincide with the launch, RUDE has also partnered with People Who Share, a social enterprise and consultancy founded by global sharing economy thought leader Benita Matofska. The agency will join People Who Share’s Global Innovator Network.
With more than 10 years’ experience, Laird has held leadership roles in PR and advertising agencies in London and Sydney, including Edelman, Grey and Havas Life Medicom, and has worked in-house as director of comms for an online health and medicines information company.
Tucker has spent half a decade as a journalist, writing for broadsheets and glossy magazines, and, before that, worked at advertising agencies including Navigator, Tangible and Leith.
Tucker said: “The rise of this new economy is a significant cultural and economic shift – and one that businesses who are looking to the future – are embracing. We are inspired by imagination and innovative enterprise, rooted in sustainability. And how we can all share and work collaboratively to ensure our world remains a beautiful and interesting place.”
