Hero integrates Magnum Opus Partners into national offering
Ben Lilley’s Hero has integrated Melbourne creative agency Magnum Opus Partners into its national offering.
As part of the integration, Magnum Opus founder Mike Allen and partners, CEO Erin Lightfoot and creative director Pat Langton, will join the Hero leadership team and their staff will be integrated into Hero’s Melbourne team.
Ben Lilley
Lilley said: “We’re rapt to welcome Mike, Erin and their brilliant clients and team to Hero. Not only are they an awesome bunch of people, their deep expertise in property and government communications in particular is a superb complement to Hero’s national offering of best-in-class services across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.”
Allen commented: “I couldn’t be more proud of what Magnum Opus has achieved over the past 30 years, as an independent leader in the Australian marketing landscape. I’ve known Ben for 20 of those years and am immensely impressed with what he and his team have achieved over the past 2 years. Hero’s full suite of integrated services is unmatched in the independent agency sector and is custom made for future-thinking clients and businesses. This will now be key to the ongoing delivery of our own “Results. Nothing Less.” philosophy which has stood us in such good stead for so long.”
Lightfoot stated: “I’m excited by the immense opportunities we can now offer our clients and team alike at HERO. Our business has steadily built a reputation for strategically driven creativity and support for our clients. Now we can also offer an impressive range of additional market-leading Australian and global integrated services.”
Lilley added: “The unique benefits of our national offering, integrated under our philosophy of Borderless Creativity, have been embraced over the past 12 months by flagship clients like Toyota, Topo Chico, Maybelline and v2food. And have seen Hero rank in the top agencies at the Australian and APAC Effies. We’re excited to be able to now extend these services to Magnum Opus’ client roster, a number of whom we have already begun to work with our media and technology teams.”
When asked several questions about the integration, including the difference between an integration and an acquisition, and Magnus Opus Partners’ clients, Mumbrella was told that the details of the transaction are commercial in confidence.
Back in 2017, Magnum Opus rebranded to Magnum Opus Partners, a move that included the appointment of Langton as creative director. Its website lists the work Magnum Opus Partners has done with brands such as Dulux, Metricon and Phone Names.
Hero was launched by Lilley back in October 2020, with agencies within network currently being McCann, The Red Republic, Smart, JSA Digital and BBE.
The network has since seen a number of staff changes, its hires including James Greet as COO, Andrew Thompson as Brisbane ECD, and Shane Geffen as Melbourne ECD. The group has also seen the departure of chief creative officer Pat Baron and ECD Psembi Kinstan, both occurring late last year.
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