Fluxx & Brand Spanking merge

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Leading experiential agencies Brand Spanking and Fluxx: Ideas in Motion have merged. Continuing under the Brand Spanking banner, the merged agency will form one of the largest players in the NZ brand activation space with a roster including Huawei, Frucor, AMP, L’Oréal, BCITO, ASB, Hancocks, Turners & Growers, and Cottonsoft.

Fluxx founder Mark Pickering, who joins Vivian Bryant and Jeremy Hunt as a shareholder and director of Brand Spanking, says: “We collaborated on the formation of EMANZ (the Experiential Marketing Association) and have worked closely on the CAANZ PRESEC over the years so there has always been a collegial relationship between Vivian, Jeremy and myself.

“This made the merger process, which was sparked over a few cheeky drinks on a chilly Wellington evening, feel very natural.”

Jeremy Hunt said: “The experiential/activation space has matured considerably in the last decade, following trends overseas, and as has happened in larger markets we see a period of industry consolidation ahead. With clients increasing their spend significantly in this area, they are quite rightly demanding the same levels of creativity, service and executional excellence that they expect from their advertising and media agencies. It will become increasingly difficult for smaller agencies with limited resources to meet these expectations.”

With its three directors bringing to bear a combined 50 years of international and local experience in the field, Vivian Bryant feels Brand Spanking is well placed to continue its growth of recent years: “With Mark on board, we’ve enhanced our already strong capability to scale up to meet client requirements at all ends of the spectrum from the ideation and delivery of large-scale experiential activations to rolling out nationwide in-store sampling campaigns utilising our network of 400+ brand ambassadors.”

Pickering made the move to Brand Spanking’s office in Eden Terrace at the start of January and says he is already feeling at home in his new surroundings. “While it may sound like typical sugar-coated marketing speak, it really has been a seamless transition.

“We’ve got an awesome team in the office and it’s great to be able to play the creative strategist role for a larger combined roster of direct clients and agency partners. I’m looking forward to meeting more of those I don’t know already over coming weeks and cracking on with the many projects we already have in motion.”

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