Former Weber Shandwick exec Ian Rumsby launches communications consultancy Aeio
Former Weber Shandwick Chairman and CSO Ian Rumsby, along with partners Drew Klonsky and Jye Smith, founded the communications and social innovation consultancy Aeio.
Aeio will help clients simplify the links between corporate communications, cultural transformation and social innovation.
Klonsky, Rumsby, and Smith
Rumsby said, “We developed Aeio to help organizations make the complex simple. manage changes in market needs and expectations; and – as we like to say – do good, make better.
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“It is a direct response to the growing need for brands to better connect communication, culture and retail.”
Rumsby and Smith are linked by their backgrounds at Weber Shandwick. Smith is the agency’s former APAC head of digital after leaving the company in 2016. Rumsby announced his retirement last July after 19 years with Weber Shandwick.
Klonsky was previously Head of Strategy and Business Transformation at R / GA Australia. He has client-side experience at Nike and has worked for a number of innovation and design firms in the US, including his own Citizen, which he sold to EY.
Klonsky said, “We set out to found a consultancy that puts our shared belief in a more coherent future at the center of our own decision-making. That means working with partners and customers to rethink the brand’s purpose and narrative, and then bring that proposition to life across the company.
“Purpose and profit cannot be two different workflows. They have to be fundamentally aligned. “
Aeio will be based in Sydney and serve clients across Australia and Southeast Asia.
Aeio will complement the design services of Doublestar, Smith’s design studio that he founded with Baptiste David last year, but will operate as a standalone company. Smith will continue to be involved in the studio.
