Atomic 212° has been appointed to the Darrell Lea media account. The country’s biggest independent media agency will work closely with Darrell Lea’s marketing team across media planning and buying, performance marketing, programmatic, and social media.
“We’ve all grown up with Darrell Lea. It’s an iconic brand and a great business, and we’re very excited about continuing to drive consideration and purchase for the Darrell Lea range in stores across Australia,” Ashleigh Carter, Atomic 212° head of client service, said.
Darrell Lea is one of Australia’s best-known brands, employing more than 500 people in Australia, New Zealand, and the US and producing 1 billion chocolate bullets a year.
Johanna Campbell, Darrell Lea’s general manager, marketing and innovation, added: “We are thrilled to be entering into a strategic partnership with Atomic 212° in media buying. Atomic 212° will help us connect with even more Australians, to tell our unique and compelling Darrell Lea story.
“The team at Atomic 212° have the right mix of agility, expertise and resources to support us. With their data insights, media strategy and a team who know us and our story, we will continue to grow.”
The Darrell Lea appointment follows a series of client wins and retentions for Atomic 212° over the past 18 months, including BMW Australia and New Zealand, Bupa, Craveable Brands, Entain (Ladbrokes and Neds), the Northern Territory Government, Tourism Northern Territory, Northern Territory Major Events Company, Victoria University, My Muscle Chef, Ponant, Growth Faculty, Sydney Water, VetPartners, Adyen, and UKG.
Atomic 212° ranked #1 among independent agencies in the 2023 calendar year in terms of new business wins, including client retentions, according to the latest report from COMvergence.
The agency also hired Sylvia Pickering as Melbourne general manager this week. She joins from GroupM’s Mindshare, where she was managing partner on the NAB account for almost five years. In her new role, Pickering will report to national managing director, Rory Heffernan.
Chief digital officer James Dixon recently told Mediaweek the next goal is to crack the top 10 this year, and the top 5 in the next three years. In the past few years, Atomic has “firmly actualised as the largest indie,” Dixon says.
“I think that was a big, hairy, audacious goal five years ago. And now it feels like we’re firmly there, if not heading to the next big, hairy audacious goal, being top five. We’ve got billings of $300 million now. Top five is $500 million. So potentially we can get there in the next three years.”
See also: Atomic 212° nabs Mindshare’s Sylvia Pickering for Melbourne GM role