LONDON — UK financial communications agency Teamspirit, part of the global VCCP Business group of agencies, has made its first international expansion move, opening a satellite office in New York.

The new operation will be led by Sophie Klein, business director of the 84-strong agency, who has moved to the US from London. Klein (pictured) takes on management of the New York office, supporting financial services clients in the UK and North America with strategic and creative marketing and communications.

Teamspirit CEO Kirsty Maxey told PRovoke Media the initial ambition was to have a team of around 10 in the US: “Everyone has been experiencing a volatile year, so having something exciting for everyone to look forward to is great. More and more clients are asking for global solutions – we’ve been growing our international influence for a long time now and for the past five years we’ve been using the VCCP offices to support us, but now we’re putting our own teams on the ground.

“We’re going where clients need us to be. Really understanding clients’ markets and being able to help them deliver efficiently is more important now than ever; they see that having a global view and local understanding makes a difference. We’ve built a really good base in the UK and Sophie has strong relationships in New York with global clients, so it’s a really good international starting point for us.”

Maxey said Teamspirit’s next international move would be to Asia, with a likely opening in Singapore in 2024, and the agency was also eyeing expansion to Australia: “Singapore is an obvious location for us as a financial services specialist – some of our clients including M&G and Fidelity are already there – plus VCCP already have an office there so it would be an easy one for us to grow into.”

VCCP’s three technology PR firms — Method, Harvard and Sling & Stone — recently formalized their global offering by launching a collective called Outleap.