Media Merchants opens Melbourne office to focus on ‘neglected’ retail clients
Full service independent advertising agency Media Merchants has expanded into Melbourne, with the agency to focus on growing its roster of retail clients.
“We already have quite a bit of business in Melbourne,” said James Fitzgerald, managing director of Media Merchants. “We saw a niche in the market for retail accounts that may not be looked after so well with the bigger agencies.”
Fitzgerald denied the move had been sparked by client API which owns the Priceline chemist chain, who recently decided to review its $13m media account.
“No — the decision was made mid last year to open a Melbourne office and Priceline’s review only came up in November,” said Fitzgerald.
“We have had a successful business in Brisbane for 15 years, moved to Sydney seven years ago and are look ing to expand our offering in the Melbourne market as part of our growth strategy.”
Media Merchants, which claims around $60m in billings, already has a number of Melbourne clients including Priceline, Shavershop and Williams & Mather Shoes.
The independent’s Melbourne office will be headed by Woody Reid who will be the Melbourne general manager. Reid has worked at Channel 10 and more recently Fox Footy where he was in charge of sponsorship sales.
“You have to be passionate about retail and obsessive about driving sales for clients to succeed in this category,” said Reid. “This is something that struck me immediately about James and the team at Media Merchants and made the opportunity to join all the more exciting.”
Nic Christensen
