Features
‘They choose us if they want to move forward faster than the competition’: How DEPT is cementing its spot in the Aussie market
Global indie digital agency DEPT is truly unique with a 50/50 focus on technology and marketing, and a boutique agency culture despite its mammoth size. The agency's global CEO, Dimi Albers, sat down with Mumbrella's Lauren McNamara during his recent visit to Australia to discuss its distinctive position in market.
Global independent digital agency DEPT has an admirable story of growth.
Founded in 2015 in the Netherlands, the agency today boasts over 1,000 clients across 30 offices in 20 countries on five continents. Impressive, right?
The last three years alone have seen 230% growth, with 2022 reaching over €500 million (AUD$825 million) in revenue.
While the agency is only nine years old, Dimi Albers, Amsterdam-based global CEO, has been around for nearly 18 years.
Albers
Joining Dutch agency TamTam in 2006 in accounts and strategy, Albers set out to make it the biggest digital agency in the Netherlands.
“I’m a client guy, I still meet at least one client per day,” he tells Mumbrella. “It’s my anchor in trying to figure out where our business needs to go. So I did that for the Dutch agency, mainly focused on platform work, and then built that into marketing.
“Then in 2015, we took that team and founded DEPT. The evolution of the team makeup from being focused on tech to a balance of tech and marketing, it made sense to grow.”
Positioning itself as ‘the only agency that is truly 50% technology and 50% marketing focused’, DEPT is set up for success, according to Albers. He says they could see the momentum in the market, and the need for deep capabilities across the full customer journey – deep into marketing, as well as deep into technology.
“Make it 50/50, and do that on an international scale. That was our goal.”
While many agencies around the world are also building their capabilities, expanding into technology to adapt to the everchanging market, and learning new skills, Albers says DEPT is pioneering, with unique positioning across its many markets.
“Clients don’t choose us because we are cheap or we have huge scale or we keep you in the same place,” he says. “They choose us if they want to move forward faster than the competition.”
As an “agency at scale globally, but with a very boutique and local culture”, Albers says it draws clients in.
“We have the ownership model of a local agency, so we had 120 people in 2015 and we had six partners, or owners, of the business,” he explains. “Now we have close to 4,500 people and we have 200 owners of the business. We have our savings invested in the business, which means that our clients don’t just work with an employee, but with an actual owner.
DEPT’s Sydney team
“And that makes the relationship a lot deeper and more longstanding. And that’s so important to us.”
The ownership model builds relationships on a global scale, as much as it does locally. Albers says the balance of global and local clients is important – and that’s reflected in the agency’s revenue.
“If you look at our revenues, both globally as well as here in Australia, roughly half is with the bigger global clients – the likes of Spotify, Google and Twitch – but the other half is with local clients – like Service Vic, Grill’d and those kinds – and that balance is so important.”
It gives DEPT’s global clients a unique opportunity to understand local work, while letting its DEPTsters have fun working on local clients.
“On a Friday night you want to impress your friends by telling them you’re working for Spotify, but on a Tuesday you love to sit with a local company where the relationship is just so much more personal than it is with some of the bigger brands,” he jokes.
He says DEPT has a great opportunity to bring something unique to clients that global competitors cannot – and it has the capabilities that local competitors do not.
“We can bring them the very best in the world because of the way we work, and the way we are agile, and the way that we understand technology and marketing. It’s all balanced,” he concludes.
Keep an eye on Mumbrella for more with Dimi Albers next week.
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