Ambitious Zed duo aim for the top 10

"We sit here seeing agencies claiming to put digital at the heart of their agencies," he continues.

"We have been doing digital since 2000 and it's not a separate discipline - it's just one of the things that we have in our armoury."

Meanwhile, Kevin Murphy, the other half of the partnership that was last week appointed to replace outgoing managing director Greg Grimmer, defines Zed as "an integrated agency with a digital soul".

"Digital is our heritage and not our innovation," says Murphy. "Everyone else is trying to say: 'Aren't we clever - look what we're doing with digital', but we're beyond that and we're just trying to concentrate on the work and the planning."

Welcome news
Besides landing the top role at Zed, the duo have more reasons to be cheerful - it's Constantine's 44th birthday and they have just found out that Zed has retained the digital account for BT - the agency's most high-profile client. The mood is made sweeter because the account was widely tipped to be heading to WPP. No wonder they are bouncing off each other with excitement.

Constantine: "In the two years since we took the BT account over from I-Level, we were confident that we'd done a good job on it."

Murphy: "But we were potentially bracing ourselves for an immediate challenge at the start of our tenure."

Constantine: "If we'd lost it, it would have been Greg's fault, but as we held on to it, obviously we're going to take all the credit."

The light-hearted tone continues as Murphy explains how Zed's expense account will dwindle on Grimmer's departure.

"The only reason that there are two of us is to keep up with Greg's networking - he's known for getting in two lunches a day," he jokes.

An ebullient character, Grimmer brought in BT, Capital One and Tiscali to the agency, more than doubled billings and oversaw the agency's growth from 40 to 120 staff.

Murphy notes: "To look at our new business record before Greg and afterwards and what's been achieved, I think he deserves great credit for how he's motivated the management team.

"Paul and I being asked to take over the reigns is a vote of confidence in the team and the agency. It would have been easy to bring someone in to start shaking things up or make their own mark, but it's a complete vote of confidence that sits across the whole board."

What then, can they do to build on the agency's success achieved under Grimmer?

While acknowledging that he is a tough act to follow, the message from Constantine and Murphy is that Zed ain't broke, so doesn't need fixing and that their job is to upgrade, not repair.

Two things they would like to change, however, are the agency's image as ZenithOptimedia's little sister and the perception that the agency only does digital.

"We often get misreported as ZenithOptimedia's digital agency or digital department or direct department, or direct and digital department," says Murphy. "It's convenient for people to pigeonhole us, but we want to be pigeonholed in the right box.

"We're quite clearly a separate brand - very separate to ZedO (ZenithOptimedia) - although one of the key strengths is us working together closely. But absolutely, fundamentally, we're a separate brand and a separate company with separate goals."

Aiming high
"We've still got some work to do to improve that perception," admits Constantine. "Internally, we know that we work across all media - 60 to 70% of our billings are digital, so only a slight majority."

Longer term, the goal is ambitious: making Zed a top 10 agency while retaining a buzz that is evident on walking through the agency's doors.

"We would like to retain the culture and style of doing things and grow into a top 10 agency," says Constantine. "That's where we've come from and built from - it doesn't mean we stop here."

With 2008 looking like a tough year for the economy and the prospect of following an impressive predecessor, you might think Constantine and Murphy would be nervous.

However, the duo emit a confidence in both the agency and the continuity that Gerry Boyle, chief executive of ZenithOptimedia, has opted for.

"The economy is inevitably going to have an impact - whether you have a US or UK presence, you're going to feel it somewhere," says Constantine.

"We're sitting here now having secured BT for the foreseeable future, the media world is moving towards us in terms of fully integrated digital and we're feeling pretty confident where we sit."

CVs

PAUL CONSTANTINE
2008: Joint MD, Zed Media
2005: Board account director, Zed
2000: Head of client services, Global Beach
1996: Travelling
1995-1996: Joint managing director, Media Audits
1992: Board account director, Media Audits 1984 Media Audits, various roles

KEVIN MURPHY
2008: Joint MD, Zed Media
2004: Board planning director, Zed
2002: Account director, Initiative Media
2001: Travelling
1998: Group head, MediaCom Direct
1996: Media executive, The Media Business (later becoming Direct MediaCom)
1993: Marketing executive, Admiral Insurance.