Jaywing re-brands Australian agencies in official launch down under
UK data science marketing company Jaywing has officially launched its Australian office, re-branding its latest acquisition, Digital Massive.
Jaywing acquired the independent agency in July last year after it had acquired UK agency Epiphany in 2014, which had an Australian branch Epiphany Digital.
Epiphany Digital was integrated with Digital Massive in July 2016.
The official launch will see Digital Massive re-branded to Jaywing.
As part of the Australian launch, Jaywing’s agency Digital Massive, led by Chris Pittham, and Tom Geekie will be re-branded as Jaywing, with Pittham and Geekie to work as managing directors of the newly branded business.
Commenting on the decision to launch the brand in the Australian market, Rob Shaw, CEO of Jaywing UK and Australia, told Mumbrella it had been always been the plan.
“This has always been in planning since the acquisition of Digital Massive but now is the time we have all our ducks in a row in terms of branding, a new website, integration of our teams, integration of Tom and Chris into our wider business,” he said.
Pittham added: “When the conservation started with Rob and Andy from Jaywing, what really drew us to it was the chance to fast track our growth.
“We were a relatively small boutique agency at the time and what we saw was the ability to tap into a lot of tools and technology and the lot of data science skills from the UK.”
While Jaywing has proved a success in the UK, Shaw said it was important to have an Australian team deliver the brand in their market.
“What we’ve made the most of with Tom and Chris and the Digital Massive team, is to have the local knowledge to understand whether it’s the right time to take technology to market, how to phrase things and make sure we do things to address the local market,” Shaw said.
Shaw: “We have all our ducks in a row”
“As a UK business we could come out and launch services that don’t fit your market sector and so having that local knowledge has been absolutely invaluable.”
Geekie added: “It’s a mainly a collaborative approach and we can work with them around what we want and what we think is going to fit best for the Australian market.”
Commenting on making the new integration work, Shaw said pulling the cultures of Digital Massive and Jaywing together will be a focus.
Although he said he will make visits to Australia at least a couple of times a year, Shaw said Pittham and Geekie would be entirely “responsible” for the Australian office.
“The important thing for any agency which is part of Jaywing, is it’s run by its MDs. Those guys are responsible. One of the reasons we wanted to work with Digital Massive is the skill and approach of Tom and Chris and we back them to be able to do this.”
Managing directors, Jaywing Australia (L-R): Tom Geekie and Chris Pittham
“What we have now is a fantastic base for Jaywing, what we would class as aggressive organic growth with the services we’ve got,” he said.
Shaw said the main focus for the Australian office will be growth of the brand while long term the agency will be considering how it can utilise all services from the UK in Australia.
The London Stock Exchange listed company, which currently has more than 700 employees across marketing, customer management and credit and fraud risk management, will offer new tools to Australian clients, including Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), pay per click advertising (PPC), programmatic advertising, analytics, design and web development.
“We’ve got a great business already that’s growing, adding clients rapidly and it’s going to leverage all of the strengths of the UK can,” he said.
Shaw also said the brand had recently acquired more technology businesses, including Bloom, which will help develop their offering and technological products so the agency can globally license products for clients.
While digital marketing is not new to Australia, Shaw believes having one in 10 employees as a data scientist is a point of differentiation.
“Obviously digital marketing as a sector has always prided itself on data and the wider Jaywing is very much like a digital consultancy and one in ten of our employee is a data scientist,” he said.
“Our proposition always starts with the analysis and understanding and that’s something that’s been in our heritage for nearly two decades.”
Shaw added: “There is 700 people in Jaywing, we have a number of different propositions, each proposition is led by a different MD, and those MDs can work together to come up with solutions for clients that small agencies couldn’t.”
Jaywing’s Australian clients include Wedgwood, Waterford Crystal, Tatts, Century 21, Creditcardcompare and Campos.
topics
Advertising
Chris Pittham
data science marketing
Digital Massive
Epiphany Digital
JayWing
Rob Shaw
Tom Geekie
