LONDON — Weber Shandwick’s former EMEA consumer chair, Louise Watson, has launched her own consultancy to help strengthen in-house communications teams.

The new agency, Idea Scout, will work inside client teams on areas such as upscaling capability, sourcing senior or agency support, or helping them to think differently.

Watson left Weber Shandwick in April 2018 and has been consulting for Ogilvy in London on global clients while developing the Idea Scout offer.

She told the Holmes Report: “I’ve spent 25 years working in big agencies, building diverse teams. Agencies are really good at looking around the corner at how the world is changing, but not necessarily at getting under the skin of a client’s business.

“In-house teams are, of course, all over the business, but because of pressure of time, resource and budgets don’t always see what innovation looks like and how to prove the impact they are making. I saw an opportunity to facilitate all that within client teams.”

Watson is already working with Kellogg’s EMEA communications team and the in-house function at Euronews.

As part of her offer, she is partnering with data and analytics firm Independent Marketing Services to help clients establish the status and drivers of conversations around their brand, and identify the areas where they need to move forward.