A new agency which will build or rebuild brand names has set up operations in Dublin claiming its fee income will reach £10 million within five years. The company, O'Malley Hogan, says advertising firms have become institutionalised in their thinking on branding and have been "specialised into a corner".

One of its founders, Mr Declan Hogan said yesterday that the new firm would help companies build their products from the ground up, or reposition products.

He claimed the company would introduce a new concept to Ireland - international brand architecture.

The company says Ireland is missing out on a whole industry and holds less than half of one percent of the $40 billion (£26.8 billion) worldwide management consultancy.

If it captured just 5 per cent of this market, this would create a $2 billion opportunity.

The company claimed this would create more than 5,000 new jobs.

Mr Hogan and his business partner Mr Damien O'Malley have worked on several well known advertising and brand identity projects.

Mr Hogan was formerly creative director of Peter Owens DDB in Dublin and accounts he worked on included Aer Lingus, Carlsberg, ESB and Cadbury.

Mr O'Malley was executive vice-president and strategic planning director of DDB Needham in New York. He has worked on campaigns for Mobil, Digital and Holstein among others.

The two men met when they worked together on the Tourism Brand Ireland project, a campaign to bring high-spending tourists to Ireland.

Manchester United manager, Mr Alex Ferguson, who was on hand to launch the new company, told an invited audience that Manchester United is probably the one brand in the world which did not depend on advertising.