J Walter Thompson bolsters digital capabilities with majority stake in Webling Interactive
Nalbantoglu, Gutteridge and Clarke
Creative agency J Walter Thompson (JWT) has taken a majority stake in Australian digital agency Webling Interactive for an undisclosed amount.
Webling, which had been independently owned, will co-locate with JWT in Sydney, and it does not expect any job losses.
In the statement JWT Australia CEO John Gutteridge flagged the reason for the acquisition was to beef up the digital offering for the agency, which boasts Kellogg’s, Kimberley Clarke, Unilever and Mondelez among its clients in Sydney and Melbourne.
Webling founders Deniz Nalbantoglu and Darren Clark will stay with the agency as managing director and technical director respectively.
Its clients include Coca-Cola Amatil, NSW Government, Mirvac and NRMA, and the agency handles digital strategy, design and development with a strong focus on mobile. Its work has included the Tic Tac Shake and Share app, and Fanta’s Play Zone app which won at the AIMIA and IAB awards.
Gutteridge said in a statement: “Deniz and Darren, along with the team have much to be proud of. They have created and sustained a terrific business over the years driven by an instinctive and inquisitive appreciation for technology and its application for marketing and advertising.
“We have worked with the team at Webling across multiple projects for a few years now. Our collective skills will help broaden and deepen our offering and importantly enable us to realise some exciting plans in the near future.”
Nalbantoglu added: “Darren and I knew that this was the right opportunity for us as soon as we experienced the incredibly strong alignment between JWT and Webling.
“The two agencies complement each other perfectly from a skills and services point of view, but even more importantly our cultures are so similar, with key values being almost identical. We both strongly advocate collaboration, passion and curiosity, and truly stand behind these values.”
Alex Hayes
So STW told investors it will rationalise its businesses from 50-80… now it’s acquiring new ones. What happened to “we need fewer, bigger businesses”?
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Well done Deniz, good bloke, does good work, and has kept the faith as a digital independent for a long time.
Hope it works out well for both parties!
cheers
M
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Congratulations Darren and the webling team, I have known Darren and the amazing team at Webling for a long time and I can confirm they are one of the most technical agency teams you will find. They harness technology for their clients campaigns and are always on the bleeding edge of new emerging trends. Great work guys!
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JWT is not built to be digital, it’s built to make standaradised ads from the clients global hand them.
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