Australia’s largest full-service regional advertising agency Dutch Media and Melbourne-headquartered marketing consultancy First Move Digital have joined forces this month to become a new full-service creative consultancy on a mission to further expand locally and overseas.
The merger will see the formation of a new agency, named OtherBirds, which will offer traditional and digital marketing, branding and advertising services across Australia and globally. Drawing on the extensive resources, people and locations of the two merged agencies, OtherBirds is in a strong position to scale further globally and expand its already formidable portfolio of clients to include even larger blue-chip organisations.
Founded in 2017 by serial entrepreneur Daniel Copsey (pictured, left), First Move Digital – part of the JRJD Consulting Group – was an innovative digital marketing agency with a team of 132 that serviced clients across Australia and New Zealand. It opened offices in New York in February this year and in Auckland in May last year.
A full-service advertising agency, Albury-headquartered Dutch Media was founded by former AFL Richmond player Ben Hollands in 2010. Its team of 11 has serviced clients Australia-wide – but particularly in regional Victoria and NSW – for 12 years. Clients include Albury and Wodonga Councils, VicHealth, Steeline, and The Personnel Group.
As part of the agencies’ integration into OtherBirds, every team member will be retained. In fact, the integration will drive the expansion of the teams further across Sydney, Albury, Melbourne, Auckland, and New York City – as well as new locations, to be announced – providing opportunities for promotions and new roles for many of its employees. For current clients, it will be business as usual, with existing creative and account management teams retained across each account.
Daniel Copsey, Group CEO at JRJD Consulting, said: “We are thrilled to combine our strengths and expertise with Dutch Media to create a global agency that will be a one-stop-shop for current and future clients. Bringing together Dutch Media’s traditional advertising and branding expertise with our digital skillset will allow us to not only offer a more comprehensive suite of services but extend our reach to new international locations, positioning OtherBirds as a truly global agency.”
Head of sales, partnerships and technology at OtherBirds – and, previously, First Move Digital – Alex Roberts (pictured, right), said: “First Move Digital was an attractive opportunity for Dutch Media, having delivered campaigns for prominent brands across the eCommerce, FMCG, logistics and education sectors. In five years, it has grown exponentially to the point that it accounted for half of the revenue of JRJD Consulting, which owns three other brands, and doubled the JRJD revenue in the 2021 and 2022 financial years.
“We built a strong team culture with the goals of long-term stability among our people and growth and expansion into new markets. We recently launched in Sydney, a market that is now a strong focus for OtherBirds. Sydney has the potential to increase OtherBirds’ revenue by 50 per cent, and we’ll be looking to expand our team there.”
Ben Hollands (pictured, centre) established Dutch Media more than a decade ago after an extensive career in the television and radio broadcasting industry, with stints at Channel 9 and Southern Cross Austereo – following his AFL career. The company has delivered national campaigns for regional brands such as Riverview Farms, Enzed, Mahindra Automotive and Kyvalley Dairy Group.
Hollands said: “Integrating into OtherBirds has been a year in the making. I first worked with Daniel through Agency Stack, another JRJD business, where we quickly saw an alignment in our agencies’ values and growth plans. Our companies also share a similar culture that focuses on nurturing and growing people, which is reflected in how we have approached our merger to become OtherBirds.
“We are proud to have integrated in a way that is not sacrificing talent but embracing it by retaining our full teams. We are planning to increase our staff numbers as well as grow current team members into new and promoted roles.”
Copsey added: “We are excited to see what the future holds for OtherBirds and to continue the healthy growth trajectory we experienced at First Move Digital and Dutch Media. The next year will see our team continue to grow and OtherBirds expand into new markets. We will also continue to nurture our homegrown clients while also onboarding larger, overseas and global organisations and focus on recruiting more C-suite executives.”
