Brainlabs acquires Sparro – Australia’s largest independent digital media agency
Brainlabs has announced its acquisition of Sparro, the largest independent digital media agency in Australia, expanding our footprint in APAC and continuing our mission to become the world’s largest independent media agency. Social-first content and creative agency Jack Nimble, which has been part of Sparro since November 2021, will also be part of the deal, further strengthening our creative and social offering to clients.
Sparro, founded in 2013 by brothers Morris and Cameron Bryant, is a team of over 110, handling AUD$200m of annual media spend for clients including Estée Lauder Companies, Catch, Temple & Webster, Petbarn, Webjet and Destination NSW. The winner of more Google Premier Partner awards than any other agency across Australia, Sparro is also the largest spender on Google Ads in the country.
Much like Brainlabs, Sparro offers tech and data-driven strategies around marketing automation, conversion optimisation, search engine optimisation and programmatic media. Both companies offer the full remit of digital marketing services from Search and Social through to Programmatic and Creative.
Since its inception, Sparro has had a focus on culture and wellbeing. They take pride in initiatives such as Australia’s only in-house agency development coach, a revenue share model for all staff, and an annual offsite retreat. In 2023, this focus led to the agency being named as the 6th Best Place to Work (100-999 employees) in Australia’s Best Workplaces List, and the only marketing agency to feature in the list.
In 2021, Sparro acquired Jack Nimble, founded by Adam Wise and Angus Mullane in 2017. Jack Nimble was founded as a social-first creative and production agency, but have since expanded to deliver full-funnel creative across TV, radio and DOOH and more. Their core clients include Spotify, eBay and American Express. Adam and Angus will continue to report into Morris and Cameron, but will also become a key part of the growing global creative team at Brainlabs.
Brainlabs has seen exponential growth in recent years as the agency has transformed from a PPC agency into one of the fastest growing independent media agencies in the world. Clients include Estée Lauder Companies, adidas and WeTransfer. In September 2023, we announced the news of its new investment partner, private equity firm Falfurrias Capital Partners (FCP), which will further support the agency’s global expansion. Most recently, we’ve opened the doors of our new Poland operations.
Daniel Gilbert, Brainlabs Global CEO, said: “I LOVE Sparro and as we ramp up our global expansion plans I couldn’t be happier to officially welcome them to Brainlabs. Morris and Cameron are outstanding leaders who have built a remarkable business!
This union signals a new era for media agencies and offers something ground-breaking for the Australian market. Like us, Sparro is fiercely independent and laser-focused on High-Performance media solutions, consistently delivering top and bottom line gains for their clients. Our combined power of the smartest minds, and tech and data-driven methodology is truly unbeatable.”
Cameron Bryant, co-founder and Partner at Sparro, said: “The indies have been scaling to levels of staff, service and capabilities where we’re able to genuinely challenge the traditional holding groups.
Brands are crying out for proactive, smart, hands-on marketing partners. More and more, they want those partners to be operating to business-level objectives and not just digital KPIs.
This acquisition plays perfectly into that. It extends Brainlabs’ significant international presence to further strengthen its appeal to global advertisers, and it enables us to offer clients international coverage, not to mention the incredible career opportunities for our people. We already know we’re the market leader in performance, and together, we can provide greater depth, services and technology that sets us even further apart.”
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