Tag: DEPT

Melbourne, Australia – Digital agency DEPT Australia has recently announced a significant partnership with Towcha, an Indigenous-owned technology consultancy. This collaboration presents exciting opportunities for both companies while creating a lasting impact.

This partnership with DEPT Australia greatly supports Towcha Technologies’ mission to foster innovation and technological expertise within the indigenous community.

Through this initiative, Towcha provides technology strategy, application development, and support to Australian corporate and government organisations. Towcha’s commitment to innovation and technology is evident through its work for clients like AWS, Coles, and Wesfarmers.

With this in mind, one of the core aspects of this partnership is uplifting the Indigenous community’s tech capabilities, including Cloud Engineering capabilities, system architecture, AI and web and mobile development. 

DEPT and Towcha share a vision for technological excellence and a deep commitment to lifelong learning embodying a collective dedication to nurturing talent and fostering innovation within the Indigenous community. As they embark on this exciting journey together, both organisations look forward to the positive change they can bring to the Australian technology landscape.

Talking about the partnership, Evan Davey, VP growth APAC at DEPT, said, “We are thrilled to be partnering with Towcha and look forward to a fruitful partnership, one that fosters growth, diversity, and technological empowerment. We’ve collaborated with the Towcha team on previous engagements and were blown away by their expertise and dedication.”

Meanwhile, Alan Holmes, managing director and founder at Towcha, commented, “We can’t wait to see this partnership reach the next level. Creating a sustainable inclusive economy in Australia entails mentoring and elevating Indigenous talent. We’re excited to bring that vision to life with the DEPT team. We’re ready to roll!”

Sydney, Australia – Digital agency DEPT has partnered with SXSW Sydney for the launch of its DEPT Garden House event after its announcement to unite its Australia teams under one brand to elevate clients’ digital experiences.

The new announcements from DEPT come as it continues to expand its presence in Australia.

DEPT will bring together digital product studio Two Bulls and digital marketing team FEED under one brand to bring its disruptive, forward-thinking solutions to new and existing clients, which include eBay, Ancestry, Beyond Blue, Service Victoria, and Meta.

With the union of these teams, the agency aims to deliver pioneering digital experiences for clients, supporting them across the full digital customer journey.

To celebrate this milestone, DEPT Australia has also partnered with the inaugural SXSW Sydney to launch DEPT Garden House, a three-day action-packed activation that will spotlight daily talks and panel discussions from influential industry experts.

The three-day activation event will be held at The Chinese Garden of Friendship and will feature speakers from Canva, Kayo Sports, and B Lab. The programme lineup will touch upon topical industry discussions ranging from pioneering meaningful social impact to building cultural credibility through content.

SXSW attendees will be able to access DEPT Garden House by signing up for a wristband on the official event website.

Eva Kane, head of marketing for APAC at DEPT, said, “We are very excited to partner with SXSW Sydney to launch DEPT® Garden House, a vibrant space for industry friends to connect and learn. SXSW is without a doubt the most anticipated event of the year, and our partnership is also a way of celebrating not only the successes of DEPT® Australia but also the wider industry.”

Sydney, Australia – DEPT has appointed a raft of new hires including four executives in specialist roles as part of its strategy to expand its offering. The new appointments will support the transformation into a full-service offering for the global digital agency in Australia. The Sydney team will be working on key clients including eBay, Ancestry, and Twitch, as well as continuing its growth across the region with the Melbourne-based Two Bulls/DEPT®. 

Two Bulls/DEPT®, a digital product studio based in Melbourne, joined the global digital agency in September last year. With clients including Beyond Blue, Service Victoria, Hasbro and MailChimp, Two Bulls/DEPT® specialises in solving complex challenges with simple digital solutions by converging innovative engineering, creative perspective and thoughtful design.

Joining the company are Antonio Castiglia as strategy director, Sam McGraw as account director, Michelle Krikowam as social media manager, and Michelle Ramsay as senior copywriter.

Castigilia joins after strategy consulting gigs with global luxury media company Highsnobiety and DDB, bringing his knowledge of the content and brand space to build a new strategy offering for DEPT®. Meanwhile, McGraw brings over ten years of account management and business development experience working with some of Australia’s most well-known brands, most recently CommBank, where he helped build the account service offerings within the bank’s internal creative team.

Krikowam joins with a diverse range of experience across the gaming space and will be working on the DEPT® social offering as the team’s first social media manager on the newly won Twitch ANZ project. Ramsay, on the other hand, has worked with top brands and agencies, such as the Nine Network, Beyond Productions, Film Australia and most recently with Resolution Digital, part of the Omnicom Media Group. She joins the team specialising in eBay Seller Communications, writing content that resonates with sellers. 

“It’s been an exciting journey for the Sydney team ever since joining DEPT® in 2022. We’ve gone from a small in-house digital team, specialising in personalised content, to a pioneering full-service digital agency, resourcing up to bring the DEPT® ambition to life in Sydney. These hires, combined with the TwoBulls/DEPT® team in Melbourne, allow us to offer end-to-end digital solutions. Watch this space, it’s only the beginning,” says Jessica White, DEPT® Sydney General Manager. 

“We’re very excited to see the Sydney DEPT® team growing at this pace,” says James Kane, CEO of Two Bulls/DEPT®. “Bolstering our creative strength on top of our already very strong digital product expertise ensures a powerful offer for brands in Australia and beyond.”

Since launching in APAC in Dec 2021, DEPT® now has over 700 employees across Melbourne, Sydney, Mumbai, Singapore, and Manila.

Singapore – Global digital agency DEPT has appointed Diphaa Nair as its director of strategic alliances for APAC. As part of her remit, Nair will be working closely with India-based Tekno Point/DEPT team to expand the agency’s Adobe Practice globally. 

Nair comes from a strong technology background and was more recently with Adobe where she spent more than six years as the head of partners for South Asia. Prior to this, she worked with CA Technologies as a channel director and spent four years with MphasiS, an HP company.

Based out of Melbourne, she will report jointly to Vishnu Mohan, partner and chief growth officer at DEPT APAC and Evan Davey, founding partner of Two Bulls/DEPT to drive the commercial development across its set of offerings both in Australia as well as other parts of APAC region.

Commenting on her appointment, Nair said, “I am happy to join DEPT with its pioneering spirit and boutique culture. Both Two Bulls/DEPT and Tekno Point/DEPT have exciting, cutting-edge offerings with great potential in the industry. I look forward to working with Vishnu, James, Evan and the Tekno Point/DEPT leadership team to manage their Strategic Alliance proposition in APAC.”

Mohan also commented, stating, “Diphaa is joining the team at exactly the right time as we’re growing the APAC region and its full-service offering.”

He also added that Nair’s over two decades of experience in digital technologies, customer experience, and business transformation will help the company provide the tools businesses need to deliver pioneering digital solutions.

The appointment follows DEPT’s recent acquisition of the 500-strong Adobe DX specialist firm Tekno Point.

Amsterdam, Netherlands – Global digital agency DEPT has launched DEPT®/AI, its new AI-focused practice that aims to help brands solve complex challenges and increase productivity through turnkey AI solutions and innovative creative experiences.

With a multidisciplinary team of over 400 specialists on five continents, DEPT®/AI enabled 30% of the agency’s revenue in 2022 and boasts a client portfolio that includes Philips, Google, and eBay.

“AI is unlocking limitless possibilities and potential for brands,” said Isabel Perry, VP of Emerging Technology at DEPT. She also explained that one of the main reasons for the launch is that DEPT’s clients are eager to leverage AI but are often daunted by the complex questions surrounding design, ethics, and operations.

“We give them an experienced AI implementation partner to capitalise on today’s opportunities, in a way that goes beyond the hype and makes sense for their business,” she added.

Dimi Albers, global CEO at DEPT also said, “We’ve been pioneering AI technology for over six years, helping brands like Just Eat Takeaway to deliver personalisation at scale, and Philips to analyse its data more effectively. We’ll continue to push the potential of AI, and believe it will power 80% of what we do as a marketing and technology services provider.”

The launch follows DEPT’s AI initiatives such as the AI-powered docking station to steer cargo ships, a machine learning hand tracking system to teach the American Sign Language alphabet, and the generative AI collectible cards for eBay’s MCM Comic Con campaign.

Last December, DEPT also launched a 300-person team called WEB3/DEPT to aid clients in experimenting with blockchain technology and building immersive experiences in the metaverse.

London – Global digital agency DEPT has announced its expansion in India with the acquisition of Indian Digital Experience Platform (DXP) services provider Tekno Point. The latter’s 500-strong team of Adobe specialists is expected to accelerate DEPT’s DXP service offering for its global client base.

The team will also be augmenting DEPT’s current engineering capabilities, with plans to double the size of the team within the next 18 months.

As part of the agency, Tekno Point will also be rebranded as Tekno Point/DEPT and will continue to operate under the leadership of Himanshu Mody, founder and CEO, and Yash Mody as CTO.

“Tekno Point’s proven Experience Engineering approach combined with deep Adobe DX expertise empowers enterprise customers to realise faster time-to-market and deliver hyper-personalised experiences across channels,” said Himanshu. 

Philip Cronin, senior director at Adobe Partner Sales APAC, also added that they are looking forward to working closely with the team from DEPT to drive even more success in India.

“India holds enormous potential as a domestic market and is host to a truly world-class talent pool. Our culture is ‘big enough to cope, small enough to care’, and we felt that same connection with Tekno Point when working together on several European and US clients,” Dimi Albers, DEPT’s CEO also explained.

Founded in 2000, Tekno Point has been offering an in-depth understanding of Adobe technology across several industries for clients including IDFC Bank, Tata Capital, Bajaj Allianz, Asian Paints, Rosewood Hotels, and Tata AIA.

On December 2022, DEPT has also launched its 300-person team called WEB3/DEPT targeted at optimising Web3 experiences for its clients.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands – DEPT®, a global digital agency, today announced that Matt Lynch will take on the role of chief executive officer for the EMEA region to accelerate growth across Europe. He will support global CEO Dimi Albers, and work alongside DEPT®’s other regional leaders including Missy Foristall for the Americas and Vishnu Mohan for Asia-Pacific. 

Lynch was previously CEO of FEED/DEPT®, an agency under DEPT that specialises in delivering hyper-personalised content at scale for brands such as eBay, Gumtree, and Ancestry. While based in the UK, he will be responsible for driving growth across EMEA, expanding the agency’s service lines, and growing the teams in each market. 

His appointment comes off the back of a year of growth for DEPT® globally. The agency won several competitive pitches for clients like BMW, Diageo, Cisco, Constellation Brands, Gucci, Samsung, Inter Milan, and Reckitt Benckiser, and added a number of new agencies including Hello Monday, Dogstudio, 3Q and Two Bulls to the family.

Furthermore, DEPT®’s operations in Europe has reportedly registered exponential growth working with brands such as Philips, Amazon Prime, H&M, and the Eurovision Song Contest.

Speaking on his appointment, Lynch said, “In addition to being true pioneers of marketing and technology, DEPT® boasts an incredible team and client roster across Europe. I’m incredibly excited to work more closely with the talented and diverse people we have across the region, bringing my experience in running a global business to help DEPT® reach its ambitions.” 

Meanwhile, Albers commented, “Europe is historically our home market and has been key to making DEPT® the best and most innovative digital native agency in the world. So we created this role to drive collaboration, efficiency and ultimately growth across the region.”

He added, “Since Matt and his team joined us, he has played a significant part in further elevating operations and in continuing to grow relationships with existing clients, such as eBay. He’s also been involved in the launch of our creative automation practice and serving as interim managing director in Germany. I’m stoked to see what he achieves next in this new position.”

Amsterdam, Netherlands – Global digital agency DEPT has launched its 300-person team WEB3/DEPT to support the fastest-growing segment of its business.

The team will be helping the agency’s clients experiment with blockchain technology, build immersive experiences in the metaverse, and deliver multi-layer strategies for launching NFTs.

The team will also introduce a new Web3 Labs platform to help both clients and employees better understand web3 fundamentals, including the difference between crypto coins and crypto tech, why decentralised tech is here to stay, and primers on wallets, NFTs, DAOs, marketplaces, and stablecoins, amongst others.

According to Isabel Perry, vice president at WEB3/DEPT, the launch will redefine how companies interact with their customers through Web3 and the metaverse. 

“But it’s hard for CMOs and CIOs to figure out where to start. Over the last two years, we’ve helped so many brands to redefine the way they interact with their customers that we feel it’s time to combine all this expertise and knowledge under the WEB3/DEPT banner,” she added.

Dimi Albers, CEO at DEPT, also said, “We want to lead the charge and help our clients navigate these transformational technologies for the next decade.”

He also said that what sets the team apart from others is the combination of its strong intellectual property, track record of delivering more than 60 web3 projects, R&D plans across EMEA, the US and Asia Pacific, and its diverse mix of engineers, creatives and strategies who get the web3 vision. 

The new team follows the launch of DEPT’s ‘Creative Automation Practice’, which was targeted at helping brands supercharge their creative output through technology.

Amsterdam, Netherlands – Global digital agency DEPT is continuing its Asia-Pacific expansion with the acquisition of Australian digital product studio Two Bulls. The Melbourne-based agency marks DEPT’s expansion in Australia and the wider APAC region, and will bolster its global digital product services offerings.

Founded in 2009, Two Bulls works across multiple industries, with particular experience in health, family and public sector. Its team of over 120 creative engineers have pioneered the Australian digital products market on a mission to solve complex and meaningful problems in simple ways. Some of their clients include Verizon, Hasbro and MailChimp.

Through the acquisition, Two Bulls will continue to operate under the leadership of James Kane, founder and CEO; and Evan Davey, founding partner.

Vishnu Mohan, partner and chief growth officer at DEPT, said, “Asia-Pacific is an important part of our vision of being the best global digital agency in the world. We are working hard to bring the full DEPT® value proposition to life in the region, and joining forces with such a talented, pioneering team like Two Bulls will be hugely beneficial to our clients.”

Meanwhile, Dimi Albers, CEO and DEPT, commented, “We’ve admired Two Bulls from afar for a while now; they really are Australia’s go-to studio for digital product strategy and design. They know how to effectively combine technology and marketing, have long standing relations with their clients and, most importantly, don’t forget to have a lot of fun along the way. I’m sure that their entrepreneurial spirit will help drive DEPT® forward in Australia, the wider APAC region and beyond.”

Amsterdam, Netherlands – Global digital agency DEPT has launched its new ‘Creative Automation Practice’, aimed at helping brands supercharge their creative output through technology. This practice specialises in three core services, namely delivering creative assets at scale, dynamic advertising, and conversational marketing and chatbots. 

The technology behind the practice is part of ADA by DEPT, the agency’s proprietary marketing technology platform. Lightspeed by ADA is a suite of tools that enables the benefits of creative automation, including content at scale, dynamic creative, data-driven feed generation, and conversation marketing, as well as workflow management.

The team comprises seasoned automation specialists and creatives who work with brands to scale creative assets, distribute them wider, iterate and personalise them faster, and test and learn from the data they generate.

DEPT said that it has been making advancements in the automation space over the past decade, working with global brands to accelerate and supercharge their creativity. For example, producing dynamic advertising campaigns for Just Eat Takeaway, conversational marketing for Ralph Lauren with Instagram and Messenger chatbots, and producing hyper-personalised creative assets at scale for eBay. All made possible with the use of DEPT’s proprietary tech.

Alex Miller, global SVP of creative at DEPT, noted that customers today are looking for more relevant, personalised experiences, and brands are looking for ways to connect more meaningfully with audiences to improve effectiveness.

He further shared that to achieve this at scale, a new approach is needed. An approach that combines creativity and technology to streamline production and augment the creative process so that the best ideas take shape faster.

“Our Creative Automation practice produces repeatable, multilingual, cross-channel campaigns and experiments at scale. We combine the very best of our creative, growth, and engineering capabilities to improve the quality, efficacy, and speed-to-market of our clients’ campaigns,” added Miller.

In March 2022, DEPT has also launched its ‘Metaverse Practice’, which aims to help brands redefine the way they interact with consumers. The agency’s team of around 100 crypto and blockchain developers, games builders, 3D artists and creators, virtual and augmented reality experts and software engineers are pioneering innovative Web3 and metaverse experiences for clients.