Tag: Enero Group

Australia – Enero Group, a global marketing and technology agency network, has named Ian Ball as its first chief operating officer (COO), effective February 17.

In this newly established role, Ball will report to Enero Chair Ian Rowden and succeed outgoing CEO Brent Scrimshaw. He will be responsible for the company’s operational and financial leadership and will also lead the strategic review of OBMedia.

Enero Group’s operating company CEOs—Heather Kernahan, Steve McArdle, Wai Kwok, and Raja Gupta—along with the Group’s functional heads, will now report to Ball.

Ball has more than 40 years of experience in consulting, technology, professional services, and private equity. He previously served as EY Oceania’s deputy CEO and head of markets, overseeing a $1.4b business with responsibilities spanning revenue generation, client management, business development, marketing, communications, and strategic acquisitions. He has also held leadership roles in major professional services firms and worked across key markets, including Asia, the UK, Europe, Australia, and the U.S.

Before joining Enero Group, Ball served as TEG’s COO and head of strategy and M&A. He previously held roles as an operating partner at Silver Lake and as CEO and managing director of Cardno, an ASX-listed global professional services firm.

Speaking on his appointment, Ball shared, “I am excited to be joining Australia’s only listed marketing and communications business to lead the business through its next phase of growth. In particular, the quality of the individual business units, their talented staff, global reach and exposure to growth markets provide a very strong platform for value creation. I am looking forward to working with the board, the leadership team, and meeting our people to unlock this potential.”

Ball’s appointment comes shortly after Enero introduced its refreshed brand positioning, ‘Free Thinkers United.’ The new positioning underscores the Group’s focus on independent thinking and its approach to blending strategic precision with creativity to address key challenges for high-growth clients worldwide.

Enero Group chair Rowden commented, “Ian is a highly accomplished executive with a proven track record of success in leading and growing substantial businesses. His deep understanding of the marketing and technology landscape, coupled with his experience in driving operational excellence, makes him ideally suited to lead Enero’s next phase of growth and innovation.

“I am particularly glad we have attracted someone with the qualifications and background to coordinate and fast-track our efforts to harness AI on behalf of our agencies and clients,” added Rowden.

Just recently, Enero Group, the boutique network of marketing and communications agencies headquartered in Australia, has announced that it has acquired GetIT, the marketing agency in APAC that specialises in B2B technology. This is the newest acquisition by Enero Group where last year, the network was seen buying McDonald Butler Associates (MBA), a UK-based B2B sales agency.

The current move by the network is aimed at accelerating the growth of Hotwire in APAC, Enero’s leading global technology communications consultancy. In an exclusive interview with GetIT’s CEO Anol Bhattacharya, he shares with us how the team plans to seamlessly fulfil the integration now that the agency is moving onto a next stage of growth with new offerings and an expanded value proposition at hand. 

GetIT now a Hotwire company

When the news first broke out, we similarly spoke with Anol for a comment, and in a prosaic but spot-on answer, he said, “We liked the Hotwire/Enero leadership team.” 

Anol said that Hotwire’s decision to acquire GetIT goes beyond expanding the global footprint in Asia, but primarily to strengthen the vision of Hotwire’s leadership team to accelerate Hotwire’s reputation, relationship, and revenue services globally and provide a unique marketplace offering.

The acquisition enables Hotwire to support clients with long-term brand awareness and near-term sales result.

Anol Bhattacharya, GetIT’s CEO

Alongside GetIT, Enero Group, in fact, simultaneously accomplished its acquisition of North America-focused B2B digital marketing agency, RIO-DNA. Anol said that the two acquisitions will allow the teams to rapidly scale services to innovative technology companies in North America and APAC in order to navigate “complex reputation issues, building business-impacting stakeholder relationships, and delivering revenue growth on a larger scale.” 

The challenge that comes with expanded capabilities

In the interview, Anol bared that in beefing up its services following the buy-out, one of the challenges is attracting and putting good talent in place for these practices. Through the acquisition, GetIT is now adding reputation management, brand strategy, and public relations to its capabilities.

There will be some challenges ahead of us…as finding and attracting good talent is getting more complex everywhere in the world.

Anol Bhattacharya, GetIT’s CEO

But Anol said that all’s good in the hood as the Hotwire leadership, specifically Global CEO Heather Kernahan, and Australia MD Jamie Nelson is behind them in ramping up the hiring process “as fast as they can.”

Furthermore, Anol implied that the fusion such as that of GetIT and Hotwire’s is basically ‘written in the stars’ in the midst of an accelerated need for integrated services. 

“One of the key areas of expertise of GetIT is content, [and] content is the central and common differentiator for marketing and communication services.” 

“The rationale for integrating GetIT into Hotwire Group is easily explainable to the internal and external audience, following the narrative of integrated reputation to revenue.” 

He revealed that the process of offering this unique and integrated service offering is already underway, where the leadership team of Hotwire, Enero, ROI DNA and GetIT has kick-started the process in a face-to-face, rigorous workshop in San Francisco. 

The roadmap for cross-pollinating the unique attributes from every location of Hotwire, ROI-DNA and GetIT is mapped out, and we have a clear path ahead of us.

Anol Bhattacharya, GetIT’s CEO

When asked about what he thinks are the pain points of brands today when it comes to performance marketing, he jovially says, “Everything is performance marketing. Because the opposite of that will be non-performance marketing, and nobody wants that.”

But on a more serious note, Anol thinks the real issue of B2B organisations today is the siloed organisational structure where there are disconnected goals and KPIs for brand marketing, corporate communications, performance marketing, and sales.

He said that many companies now started the integration process to bring all marketing, communications and sales functions and even creating a new role of chief commercial officer or chief revenue officer. 

“Even if I don’t take that broad perspective, we need to realign all the silos in the marketing and comms department in one direction.” 

For Anol, if he were to classify B2B marketing and comms in two sections, it would be Brand and Reputation Marketing and Communication, and Field marketing or Revenue Pipeline Marketing. 

For the former, Anol said it must include brand strategy, awareness, reputation and brand association. With the efficiency of digital surveys and focus groups containing a large sample size, he said that both dimensions can be measured in the short term. 

While in the long term, he said “performance in profit and loss, market share, and the secondary market are irrefutable proof points of the effectiveness of brand strategy and communication.” 

Meanwhile, for field marketing, this would include lead generation, qualification, nurturing and contribution to the revenue pipeline.

“It’s mind-boggling that marketers and agencies still get away with presenting some vanity metrics instead of showing any real value for field marketing in the era of marketing automation and analytics dashboards.”

The fusion of Hotwire and GetIT

For reputation management, he says that the biggest challenge is that everyone has become a publisher, and that social media proliferation has changed the perspective of brand reputation management completely. 

Moreover, both B2B and B2C customers are now evaluating based on the sustainability and ethical values of the suppliers. On the other hand, public relations is becoming true to the taxonomy with time

Anol Bhattacharya, GetIT’s CEO

Meanwhile, the second biggest challenge, according to Anol, is to prove the ROI of brand reputation management initiative as many companies are struggling to connect the dots between their top-line growth and reputation.

Ultimately, Anol says that where the fusion of Hotwire and GetIT fits in is providing a unique, integrated platform to clients. 

“The goal of joining forces between Hotwire, GetIT and ROI-DNA is to provide a unique, integrated platform to our clients where they can not only serve as a one-stop solution for Reputation-Revenue-Relationship service.” 

In addition, at the heart of the upcoming new synergy is the aim to help clients align their aspirations and workflow beyond departmental silos.

Sydney, Australia – Enero Group, a boutique network of marketing and communications businesses headquartered in Australia, has today announced its acquisition of GetIT, the marketing agency in APAC that specialises in B2B technology. The acquisition is aimed at accelerating the growth of the group’s leading global technology communications consultancy Hotwire.

The group said the inclusion of GetIT in the group will help extend Hotwire’s client services towards digital marketing, brand strategy, reputation management, and public relations through its offices in Singapore, India, Malaysia, and Japan.

In April last year, Enero, via Hotwire, also made an acquisition through the buy-out of McDonald Butler Associates (MBA), a UK-based B2B sales agency. 

GetIT, as part of the Hotwire Group, will be advancing the consultancy’s network of global businesses with a combined team of more than 500 employees and 14 offices around the world. 

Speaking to MARKETECH APAC, Anol Bhattacharya, GetIT’s CEO, shared that the two primary motivations for the company to go forth with the acquisition are immediate access to the global platform and the opportunity to expand its service range. 

He also said they “liked the Hotwire/Enero leadership team.” 

“By joining Hotwire, GetIT will continue to drive momentum, particularly in the rapidly advancing markets of South East Asia, Japan, and India. Adding reputation management, brand strategy, and public relations to our sophisticated performance marketing capabilities will deepen our partnership with premier technology companies to help them achieve their business goals, particularly in navigating complex reputation issues, building business-impacting stakeholder relationships, and delivering revenue growth on a larger global scale,” commented Bhattacharya.

Alongside GetIT, the group has also announced its major acquisition of ROI DNA, a leading B2B digital marketing agency, which is seen to further extend and transform Hotwire’s capabilities in North America.

Brent Scrimshaw, CEO of Enero Group, said, “Adding sophisticated performance marketing capabilities in North America and APAC will create a global network of performance marketing expertise. This will unlock further opportunities for Hotwire to deepen [its] partnerships with some of the world’s leading technology companies.”

“Combining world-class communication skills to expedite reputation, relationships and revenue, these acquisitions will continue to accelerate Enero’s growth trajectory and positioning as a creative technology company,” Scrimshaw added.

Meanwhile, Heather Kernahan, Global CEO of Hotwire, commented, “The addition of ROI DNA and GetIT to our portfolio allows us to accelerate our reputation, relationship, and revenue services globally while adding performance marketing to provide a unique marketplace offering, which we believe, is the key to success in the current tech landscape. 

Kernahan adds that the acquisitions mean more than just for the benefit of clients. 

“Enero and Hotwire already attract and retain some of the best talent globally and aim to be the best working experience for all our teams – we are excited to bring this level of commitment to the whole employee to the ROI DNA and GetIT teams,” she said. 

The acquisition of GetIT will launch Hotwire’s owned office network across Asia, including Singapore, India, Malaysia, and Japan with a client portfolio that includes high-profile tech brands such as AWS, Oracle, Fortinet, Fujitsu, Cisco, Google Cloud and Trend Micro. 

Effective immediately, GetIT will operate as a Hotwire Company, and Bhattacharya and the extended leadership team will be continuing in their current roles. The same goes for ROI DNA which will immediately start operating as a Hotwire Company.

Australia – Australia-headquartered creative technology company Enero Group has appointed Abigail Dawson, former brand director at creative agency Special Group Australia, to be its new group communications director.

The appointment of Dawson comes after the step down of former communications director Lu Borges, who has been at the helm of BMF’s and the Enero Group’s communications for the past eight years. Borges will now be relocating to the US, where she will take on the role of head of brand and communications for MullenLowe. 

At Special Group, Dawson led the agency’s business development and PR strategy and management. Also most notably, Dawson brings with her an extensive background in journalism where she held multiple senior reporting and content roles at trade publication Mumbrella. 

In her new role, Dawson will be responsible for leading both the internal and external communications and brand marketing for creative agency BMF, digital creative agency Orchard, and Enero Group globally. She will be reporting directly to Steve McArdle, BMF’s CEO, and Wai Kwok, Orchard’s CEO.

Commenting on her appointment, Dawson said “I am absolutely thrilled to be joining the Enero family and working closely with the kind and talented people at BMF, Orchard, and Enero. For 25 years, BMF has been an iconic name in advertising, pushing the boundaries of creativity and delivering some of the most effective work in the world and I can’t wait to contribute to that legacy.”

McArdle commented, “We are over the moon to have Abby join the BMF family. She has fantastic experience building a great agency brand, deep knowledge of the industry, and the natural talent and charisma to help take BMF, Orchard, and the Enero Group to the next level.”

On the other hand, Special Group has announced that its current team lead Tiffany Hunter will be replacing Dawson in leading the agency’s PR in the near term.

“Tiff is a super experienced Team Lead who has worked with Special on and off since we opened the doors. She is wonderful. She knows us and the business inside out. And I have no doubt that you will enjoy working with her,” said Lindsey Evans, partner at Special Group Australia.

Sydney, Australia – Hotwire, the global technology communications consultancy, has appointed Samsung Electronics’ Nick Healy to the position of client services director. The role is a newly created one and will have Healy operate within the local Australian leadership team and strengthen the consultancy’s growth with existing clients and new business opportunities. 

Healy has had eight years with Samsung Electronics where he held various leadership roles within the communications and corporate affairs team across mobile and consumer electronics divisions. He brings a wealth of experience working with some of the world’s largest technology brands, as well as start-ups in consumer electronics, enterprise technology, IoT, networks, and gaming. 

Healy joins Managing Director Jaime Nelson, Creative Director Jen Dobbie, and Strategy Director Drew Usher, to continue the momentum of the consultancy’s accelerated growth in Australia. In the role, Healy will also lead a communications team to support end-to-end storytelling capabilities offered to enterprise technology and innovation-led clients. 

Healy commented, “Hotwire has a strong history of consulting with the most innovative technology brands in Australia and in key global markets. With the technology sector evolving to become one of the biggest contributors to Australia’s economy, it’s an incredibly exciting time to join the team and open opportunities for clients through integrated communications services and experiences.” 

Nelson said Healy’s scope of strategic communications and technology experience make him an incredibly valuable addition as the consultancy strengthens its offering moving beyond traditional PR and communications roots into connected storytelling, marketing, and branding. 

“By bolstering not only our senior leadership team but our client services team, we’re building on our strong foundations to deliver a more integrated service that aligns to the needs of the brands we partner with,” said Nelson. 

The team has also hired new Program Managers Olivia Jarman and Allan Hunt. Jarman joins from The PR Hub where she was a senior account manager, while Hunt has moved across from Weber Shandwick where he’s been for the past two and a half years, most recently as a Senior Associate. 

The consultancy said the appointments follow stellar financial results from parent company Enero Group, reporting a net revenue year-on-year increase of 22.6% and operating EBITDA up 50% on the previous corresponding period. 

Sydney, Australia – Enero, a boutique network of marketing and communication businesses, has recently acquired McDonald Butler Associates (MBA), a UK-based business-to-business (B2B) sales agency, through its global technology communications agency Hotwire.

Aligned with the Group’s global strategy to scale and expand the digital capabilities of its core agency brands, including Hotwire, BMF, and Orchard, the acquisition of MBA will add account-based marketing and channel marketing expertise and experience to Hotwire’s communications pedigree in the UK and globally. 

The acquisition will see MBA and Hotwire’s UK offices operate under the Hotwire brand led by Global Hotwire CEO Barbara Bates. Maeve McDonald and Mike Butler, founders of MBA, will take on the UK roles of managing consultant account-based marketing and marketing managing consultant respectively, 

They will be reporting to UK managing director and global leadership team member, Tara O’Donnell. This brings Hotwire UK’s headcount to more than 100 and more than 300 globally.

Barbara Bates, global CEO at Hotwire, said, “By adding MBA’s extensive account-based marketing and channel marketing experience, Hotwire will deliver a new level of communications programs designed to build brand reputation, strengthen stakeholder relationships and deliver revenue growth.”

McDonald Butler supports a strong client roster of technology clients including: Accenture, Adobe, AWS, Citrix, Dell Technologies, Deloitte, DXC Technology, Honeywell, IBM, Pegasystems, and PWC, which compliments Hotwire’s existing tech clients.

Maeve McDonald, CEO at MBA, said, “This is an extremely exciting opportunity for both MBA’s clients and our team. Both MBA and Hotwire have been dedicated to helping technology companies solve their most pressing business and communications challenges. Now we have a great opportunity to offer a wider range of communications, lead generation, and digital marketing services to our clients globally.”

Meanwhile, Brent Scrimshaw, CEO at Enero Group, commented that their acquisition of MBA reflects not only the group’s strong momentum and ambition, but their commitment to delivering on their global strategy of building scale and additional digital capabilities of their core agency brands.

“Hotwire is already one of the world’s most highly-regarded enterprise tech specialist communication businesses and we have no doubt that adding MBA’s specific sales and marketing expertise and complimentary client roster will unlock new possibilities of growth in a priority market like the UK,” Scrimshaw stated.

He added, “Enero’s investment will give Hotwire clients access to new capabilities and provide MBA’s clients access to a progressive global network, offering an even wider set of communications disciplines.”