Page 22 - ADNews magazine March-April 2022

Feature
been plagued with weak perfor- mance and lack of transparency. Also, the holding groups’ model doesn’t really support client con- trol and ownership.
“Alley has successfully filled this gap in the market by building a hybrid in-house agency model that combined all the advantages of agencies (i.e. specialists, deep talent pools, etc.) while limiting the inherent downfalls of the tra- ditional agency-client relationship (i.e. complacency, lack of transpar- ency, slow response times, etc.). In other words, it gives our clients the best talent possible that feels like their in-house team but is backed by the power of an agency.
“However, Alley's unique model had been missing more tra- ditional above-the-line media channels (TV, OOH, Radio, etc.) and this limited us to some enter- prise clients who wanted to have all their media with one partner.
“By combining powers with Nunn and expanding our media capabilities, we instantly catapult ourselves into a league where we can continue to disrupt the out- dated agency model while more aggressively competing with the large holding groups.
“Additionally, Nunn’s vision of building a full-service group includ- ing best in market eCommerce capa- bilities aligned with our vision at Alley. We’re excited to greatly accel- erate our business units, such as Cohort (our data led digital creative offering) as well as our global pres- ence, such as in the United States with the help of Nunn.
“And most importantly, Nunn has an excellent culture and puts as much value on developing their team as we do. Alley authentically cares about our staff both in and out of the office, a dedication that Nunn has shared for decades.
“I was really impressed with their approach to culture during due diligence and I’m further impressed now working in the organisation. As we rapidly scale, culture will continue to be the backbone of success for both Alley and Nunn.”
The Alley mission statement: "When you spend money on mar- keting, you need to make money on marketing."
“Most of the large agencies I worked with gave me
more headaches than results and I noticed countless inefficiencies in the ways they worked.”
Alley CEO, Nick Lavidge
Nick Lavidge: “We feel that we've authentically lived this mission having built an engine that gets consistent results time and time again. As we looked towards the future and our vision of making this effective marketing acces- sible for businesses around the world, we knew we needed to grow at expo- nential rate in order to capitalise on the current industry landscape.
“In other words, we needed to attach our fine-tuned engine to a bigger rocket. That rocket is Nunn.”
Nunn has a precise group vision, which is to enable a client's audi- ence and brand to be connected throughout the entire communica- tions experience in order to generate business growth. organic devel- opment, alliances, talent, product, and acquisition strategy are all guided by this goal.
Matt Nunn sees four mid-term growth areas in which he has been investing for some time and will continue to do so as part of a three-year strategy: Ecommerce and e-comm brands' preferred agency, digital cre- ative & content, user experience & conversion, and data and identity.
“We're also considering geographic and capability expansion in Australia but have a particular focus on the United States, where we want to maintain our strong growth and momentum,” he says. “We hope to accomplish this while maintaining our position as Australia's most suc- cessful independent media and digital performance agency.
“We will always consider acquisitions as a potential growth path as part of our strategic plan, with the Alley acquisition being the first in about five years. As a result, our success and development have largely been the product of our persistent focus on organic growth year after year.”
Nunn has grown to 135 from 95 employees in the last two years as a result of organic growth and the Alley purchase. Clients include Bendigo Bank, JB HiFi, Haval,13CABS, American Tourister, Godfreys, Amcal and Smile Direct Club.
“Both organic and total growth have exceeded the media market each year for the past three years,” says Nunn. “It's something we're quite proud of.”
Nick Lavidge (l) and Matt Nunn.
www.adnews.com.au | March - April 2022 22