VMG have announced its creative agency Yakkazoo has merged with media planning and buying agency Frontier Media to form an integrated, full-service advertising agency within the wider VMG umbrella.
The new integrated agency will be known as Yakkazoo, with the decision to merge driven by an increasing number of projects and clients shared across both agencies.
The two agencies have worked together in the past to launch the highly regarded New Balance campaign with Tash Sultana in December 2021.
VMG Group CEO, Michael Fishwick said the merger was a result of how its multiple brands under one umbrella were working seamlessly across projects and clients.
“VMG’s purpose is to create opportunities for great brands to work more collaboratively. The merger of Frontier and Yakkazoo is an example of both agencies evolving after working successfully together over the past 18 months on projects including New Balance,” he said.
“In the professional services sector, we need to be proactively creating solutions that address the challenges our clients face beyond pure communications briefs. By taking a holistic view of a business, we can become true partners and deliver more cost-effective campaigns and collaborative creative concepts.”
Yakkazoo managing director Mark Barrett, who will continue to head the agency post-merger, said: “As we look to scale the business, it made sense to merge the two companies into the new iteration of Yakkazoo.
“We have seen an increased demand from clients to have one key agency contact with a deep understanding of the brand, the business and budgets, but still have the opportunity to work with multiple subject-matter experts that possess the ability to develop ideas that are both strategic and impactful, while also seamlessly managing the execution.”
Frontier Media head of partnerships Ben Welsh, head of client services Dusanka Dimovski and strategy director Andrew Hardeman will make up part of the new Yakkazoo leadership team, along with Yakkzoo’s executive creative director, Lisa Taylor, and head of resource Irina Dwyer. Frontier Queensland will continue to operate as a separate entity.
Barrett said: “Our solution to merge Frontier Media and Yakkazoo has been incredibly well-received by clients. At Yakkazoo, our mission is to ‘unthink ordinary’. After a collective 31 years in market, we are evolving our direction to provide a fully integrated offering across media buying, planning and creative.”
VMG’s most-recent acquisition, design agency Loulaki Blue, led by general manager Deborah Cox, has also been integrated into Yakkazoo as part of the merger.
Barrett added: “Integrated agencies are becoming increasingly common, with independents in particular seeking to offer clients a simplified ‘one-stop’ solution to ensure a single point of contact with the team, and greater collaboration between buying and creative”.
Clients of both agencies include Mercedes Benz financial services, New Balance and Fresh Markets Australia.