Former Water’s Edge creative partner Andy Lee and client services director Michelle Tee partner to from new agency, W/E + Partners

After last weeks announcement that Singaporean creative agency Water’s Edge will close after 28 years in operations, its former creative partner, Andy Lee (pictured right) and its client services director, Michelle Tee (pictured left) decided to team up together to establish W/E + Partners.

Between them, having the collective experience of 30 years managing clients that had been on the books of Water’s Edge for a long time, some for more than 10 years, Lee and Tee’s main purpose of starting W/E + Partners was to leverage the company ethos and culture that had been a legacy of Water’s Edge, while maintaining the close relationships they had fostered with their clients over the years.

When contacted, one of their long-term clients, Tan Hau Keat, Head, Customer Value Management at AIA Singapore, said: “I am so happy for Andy and Michelle and congratulate them for establishing W/E + Partners. Having been their long-term client, I know that they will continue to provide that excellent service and great ideas that we recognise are signature to the ethos of Water’s Edge.”

10 former team members of Water’s Edge like its Creative Director, Julius Sim, also remains within the team as the agency operates under the banner of W/E + Partners. As the former team members had been working together at Water’s Edge for almost 10 years, the close-knitted and familial culture of the agency ensures continuity in building the long-term relationships and value that their clients are familiar with.

Together with a wider collective of diverse partnerships that W/E + Partners had formed, the agency aims to provide a more holistic offering to their clients beyond creative marketing services, by lending more specialised expertise ranging from public relations to digital strategy.

Lee said: “It had been a privilege to have worked at Water’s Edge for the past 20 years as it was at the agency that I had forged very good long-term relationships with clients who had also become friends over the years. I am humbled by the support from clients and colleagues that enabled me to continue this journey to create meaningful work together.”

Tee said: “With W/E + Partners, we are excited to continue the same legacy with a fresher perspective. We are turning the leaf to this new chapter in a bid to create even more impactful work with our clients, because we acknowledge that we need to be doing things differently in this challenging economic climate, but with the same passion and commitment that we had been delivering over the years.”

W/E + Partners is a fully integrated creative agency that provides branding, advertising and digital solutions across touch points that are relevant to the consumer journey and are currently serving a wide spectrum of client accounts from financial services to real estate.