The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 2020–2023
Fashion PR's agency of the future lasted three years
A 25-year London firm was rebuilt in 2020 as ScienceMagic.Inc around data and hype — it lost £2M in year one and was liquidated October 2023.
ScienceMagic.Inc · The Communications Store · 2023-10-30
What happened
In 2020, The Communications Store — a London fashion PR firm 25 years old, whose clients had included Versace, Victoria Beckham Beauty and Goop — was rebuilt and renamed ScienceMagic.Inc by founders Daniel Marks and Julietta Dexter, with David Pemsel joining as CEO. The pitch was an agency built on data science, storytelling and digital technology: the future of fashion PR. Pemsel now chairs the British Fashion Council.
The money never followed the pitch. The company registered losses of more than £2M in 2020 and £250K in 2021, and filed no accounts for 2022. It leaned on furlough support, tax time-to-pay arrangements and pandemic loans. Marks left in July 2023 to start his own consultancy; on the morning of October 30, 2023, staff were told the agency was closing, effective immediately.
The directors blamed the failure to secure investment in a hostile economic environment; rivals said the agency had stopped doing bread-and-butter work, with clients complaining that coverage never landed. Shareholders approved a voluntary liquidation. First the brands collapsed — then, as BoF put it, the fashion PR companies.
Why it happened
- The rebrand ran on investment that never arrived; losses from year one were funded by pandemic support schemes instead of profit.
- Inherited clients kept the logo wall full, but PR sells results — and rivals were taking accounts that said their coverage never landed.
- When fashion brand budgets collapsed in 2023, an agency built to scale on outside money had neither money nor scale.
The lesson
A rebrand that promises the future still pays for itself in the present — without investment or margin, three years of losses liquidate even the most fashionable story in the room.
Aftermath
Staff were terminated on October 30, 2023 and shareholders approved a voluntary liquidation. Marks had already launched Townhouse Consultancy; Pemsel went on to chair the British Fashion Council. The 25-year TCS name went with it.
Sources
- ScienceMagic.Inc Closes After Three Years — WWD (Oct 31, 2023)
- PR Firm Science Magic Inc. Shuts Down — The Business of Fashion (Oct 31, 2023)
- Communications agency ScienceMagic closes — DIARY directory (Oct 31, 2023)
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