LONDON--Clive Armitage is leaving his role as Bite Communications CEO to launch a new digital marketing firm within parent company Next Fifteen.

Andy Cunningham, who joined Bite earlier this year to head North America, will succeed Armitage as Bite's global CEO at the start of 2013.

Armitage told the Holmes Report that the new firm will focus on combining data and human insight to help companies build more compelling campaigns.

"PR agencies certainly haven't cracked insight," said Armitage. "It's a mixture of using rich data and analytics, and also some traditional research to get some first-hand insight into how audiences view companies."

Armitage will be joined in the new venture by senior Bite veterans Paul Mackender and Dan Sands. He will remain on the Bite board, after co-founding the agency in 1995, and serving as CEO since 1998.

"Much as I love Bite, it feels like the right time to do something different," said Armitage. "Bite is going to continue to evolve to be more digital and more marketing focused and Andy is a great leader to drive that evolution."

Armitage added that the new operation would aim to "buy technology and buy other companies." It will launch in London before expanding to North America. 

Next Fifteen has a history of spinning off new agencies. Two years ago, for example, the holding group launched digital firm Beyond.