Two veterans of the tech marketing community in Saint John have merged their businesses to form Bonfire Communications Inc., which will largely target startups.

Allan Gates’ Redgate Communications has merged with Lise Hansen Design, named for its founder, to form Bonfire, which set up shop in the elegant Red Rose Building in Uptown Saint John.  In an interview, Gates said he and Hansen plan to run a frugal marketing, design and communications business, so that it can offer services that startups can afford.

“Part of our model is to be very lean as an agency,” said Gates, the Senior Strategist for the firm. “We consider ourselves to be a lean startup along with the companies we cover.”

Its services will include content marketing and social media. The principals said Bonfire has a network of creative partners throughout the Maritimes that can provide complementary services, such as market research, video production, media buying, translation and web and app development.

“We have a special place in our hearts for technology start-ups,” said Hansen, the firm’s Creative Director. “We love the passion and intensity of start-ups and we look forward to helping companies in the East Coast start-up community grow and prosper.”

Gates and Hansen actually first met in the startup world, as both worked at Radian6 before it was bought by Salesforce of San Francisco in 2011. By teaming up, they link Gates’ expertise in social media and marketing with Hansen’s prowess in design.

Before establishing Redgate, Gates held a series of leadership and strategy roles in marketing agencies including Colour and Extreme Group in Halifax, Shift Communications in Boston and Revolution Strategy in Saint John. Hansen has developed visual brands for many organizations, including the distinctive look of Radian6, and has been creative lead on TV commercials, national and international events.

Gates said that in the early stages the company will focus on being a pure consultancy, but he will not rule out evolving into an organization that produces its own scalable product.

“We have the startup bug and we’ll be looking for ways to take that further,” he said.