A digital-media advertising and marketing firm is to create nine new jobs at the state-of-the-art “Media Cube” facility based on the campus of the Institute of Art, Design & Technology (IADT), Dun Laoghaire.
Digital-marketing agency FuriousTribe.com is being launched today following the merger of Digital Ambition with Web Splash, an internet technology company.
According to managing director Patrick Leddy, FuriousTribe.com, in a nutshell, will help brands attract a new breed of internet consumer – a consumer that has become immune to traditional advertising and, as of late, banner advertising.
Merger marks milestone
The merger, he claimed, is a major milestone in the Irish digital sector, as it sparks the creation of a new hybrid agency that will help Irish businesses promote new revenue streams online on an international level covering every aspect of digital marketing.
“FuriousTribe.com is a ‘second-wave’ digital agency because it takes digital marketing to the next step, ie, to integrated digital conversations between brands and consumers to help brands get closer to customers through ‘real live’ feedback. We help companies and brands embrace digital to develop new customers and grow their businesses into new markets.
“Online communications can help position an Irish company marketing, into say, Japan, France, UK, Scandinavia or the US at a faster rate than traditional marketing methods and for a fraction of the cost.”
Foreign projects
FuriousTribe.com, which is already working on digital projects in the UK, France and US, will target the UK market immediately, and claims it will help Irish companies who need to market their businesses on an international level quickly.
“Internet advertising is weathering the global recession and the market in the UK is estimated at stg£82 million in 2009, where online advertising overtook TV for the first time.
“We are targeting the UK as it remains the world leader in terms of market share for online, with the medium now accounting for 23.5pc of all marketing budgets spent in the first half of 2009. Marketing budgets are now being restructured rapidly as advertisers follow their audiences online and look to the internet for more measurable results,” Leddy added.
FuriousTribe.com features a hand-picked team drawn from a pool of specialists covering both marketing and technology-driven disciplines.
Apple approved
Core competencies include online advertising, social-media marketing, branded entertainment content, strategic web development, user-experience design and content for mobile consumption. The company is a certified phone development company approved by Apple.
The management team includes Leddy and marketing director Mary McGovern.
“The focus at FuriousTribe.com will be to help brands engage with their customers on the customers’ own terms,” McGovern explained.
“The challenge now for Irish businesses, strapped of cash, is to find new ways to engage with a new generation of customers in an online environment.
“Our combined skills of traditional marketing blended with a new younger breed of digital strategists means we can work with clients at a strategic level, to help them understand the digital channel. There is an excellent cultural fit and business synergy within the new business.
“Our experience in online community building, search-engine marketing, web development, social-media marketing and brand partnership marketing equips us to cope with campaigns on a domestic and international level,” McGovern said.
By John Kennedy
Photo: Patrick Leddy, managing director of FuriousTribe.com, the new digital-marketing agency.