Two of Birmingham’s most successful marketing agencies, HDY and Orb, have just announced their merger, resulting in the creation of a new, unified agency called Lunar.
Backed by Elonex, the merger puts Lunar in pole position to scale up and become one of the UK’s largest independent, full-service agencies to offer a seamless service across branding, performance marketing and sales.
HDY launched over five years ago and quickly established itself as a leading player with international, national and regional clients including Sodexo, Severn Trent and Birmingham Airport. Its founder, Ed James, will now serve as Founding Partner at Lunar.
Branding agency, Orb, has been in business for more than two decades during which time it has built up a global portfolio of clients in the healthcare, F&B and real estate sectors including Health Trust Europe, BrewDog, GS Yuasa and Pension Insurance Corporation. In the newly-formed agency, Orb’s founder, Rob Bloxham, will be a Founding Partner. Orb partner and ex-M&C Saatchi planner, Jacqueline Tarry, will become Lunar’s Strategy Director and have partner status.
With strong Birmingham roots and the ability to deliver solutions that serve clients worldwide, it’s no surprise that the new agency’s name was inspired by The Lunar Society of Birmingham – a renowned community of Midlands thinkers whose transformative ideas have had a positive international impact since the 18th century. Commenting on the merger, Ed James said: “Both Orb and HDY are ready to embark on the next stage of growth and doing it together is an opportunity we could not turn down.
“Combined, we have the strength, passion and acumen to become a major player in the UK agency scene. Clients have warmly welcomed this progression and our team looks forward to showing them what we can deliver as Lunar.”
Rob Bloxham explained further: “Lunar will be a full-service brand and marketing agency but we’re going to take that definition up a notch! In addition to helping our clients build their brands and deliver leads, we’ll take responsibility for sales too. Lunar will offer a complete growth engine that today’s clients are looking for from their agency partners.”
CEO of Elonex, Nick Smith, said: “I am thrilled to back these two high-performing, bright and motivated teams. This merger presents a really solid opportunity for Elonex to solidify our portfolio of outstanding marketing, media and sales businesses, and I’m very excited to see what the future holds.”
Lunar will be operated out of headquarters at The Custard Factory in Digbeth and its official launch is scheduled for early 2024.
