Academy Agency becomes New Zealand’s first dedicated Hybrid Marketing Agency of its size, as Zoë Gibbs is appointed Head of Brand Communications.
With a mission to innovate the agency model to better fit the marketing needs and budgets of SMEs in New Zealand and Australia, Academy Agency is building an agency that specialises in Digital Marketing and PR, from the ground up.
Since launching the Digital Marketing agency in early 2021, Academy Agency founder, Harry Dalton recognised an opportunity to challenge the existing agency format.
“What we’re seeing today is that SMEs have to choose between either a Digital Agency or a PR Agency. They simply cannot afford both. Often the agency will attempt to tack on the digital or the PR and make it up as they go. Resulting in digital agencies offering poor PR, and PR agencies offering poor digital,” says Dalton.
Dalton launched Academy Agency after his time as Digital Lead at Motion Sickness.
“As well as creating new touchpoints for customer acquisition, PR provides our digital campaigns with more depth through validation by media and tastemakers. In order to alleviate the need to pay for two sets of agency overheads, we’ve combined specialised PR and digital marketing into one tidy package that makes it easy for businesses’ budgets and allows them to focus on their everyday operations,” says Dalton.
Gibbs joins the team with a hoard of experience leading PR accounts across the NZ fashion and lifestyle space, working on campaigns for the likes of Allbirds and Boring Oat Milk. Now based in Byron Bay, Australia, Gibbs has her eyes set on developing relationships with Australian media while also taking notes from the social media mecca.
“I’m proud to be building a PR division of the agency and to be able to offer our clients a more holistic approach to marketing. Seeing PR and Digital Marketing support each other in this new format will guarantee a cohesive brand strategy, which is every marketer’s mission,” says Gibbs
