Trimantium GrowthOps has hired Khemistry managing partner Andy Fyffe as its chief marketing officer as the group bets on its “unconventional” model to disrupt the the converging industries of advertising, technology and consulting.
Management firm GrowthOps, which is part of Trimantium, formed last year, acquiring eight companies in the marketing, consultancy, technology and advertising space, including AJF Partnership, 3wks, Digital Moshi, Institute of Executive Coaching and Leadership, jtribe, KDIS, Khemistry and Voodoo Creative.
Most recently, it bought Asia Pacific Digital which added media buying into its arsenal.
Fyffe, who founded full-service agency Khemisty in 2005, is now tasked with take GrowthOps to market and educating businesses about its offering, which he told AdNews is often misunderstood because it differs from other propositions in Asia Pacific.
He described GrowthOps as a “growth partner”, which is how he’ll be positioning the business in his new role.
“The problem we are solving is that in the industry, the category that GrowthOps operates in doesn’t have a label yet,” he said.
GrowthOps listed on the ASX in March this year after several delays, which Fyffe described as “speed bumps”. The company was valued at approximately $143 million on a fully diluted basis, with an estimated $95 million market cap.
CEO Paul Mansfield, who was appointed CEO in May, saidthe IPO was “absolutely a success story”, with the offer fully subscribed and the shares jumping more than 20% at listing.
He remains positive about the outlook of the company having announced in August that it exceeded its earnings forecast by 10%. The group announced revenue of $19.5m for the three and a half months it was listed. It lost $11.1m before EBITDA, compared to the projected $13.5m loss, and a net loss after tax of $13.6m, compared to the projected $16.2m.
There have been similarities drawn between GrowthOps model and the formation of the Photon Group in the early 2000s, which almost collapsed in 2012 as was reborn as Enero after it spend $150m on various acquisitions.
Mansfield dismissed the correlation and said it doesn’t compare to Photon or other advertising holding groups.
Instead of being a holding company with internal agencies that compete with each other, GrowthOps will operate as one single company. Advertising and marketing is approximately 40% of GrowthOps' revenue, where it was over 90% of Photon's revenue.
Since joining, Mansfield’s priority has been bringing the various agencies under one brand. So far, it has merged five brands under the GrowthOps brand name with AJF, Khemistry and Institute of Executive Coaching remaining as individual brands.
Priscilla Jeha will replace Fyffe as general manager of Khemistry, promoted from her role as head of client services.
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