Birmingham marketing agencies announce merger

Two Birmingham marketing agencies, HDY and Orb, have merged to create a new company called Lunar.

HDY launched over five years ago and has 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.

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.”

Bloxham added: “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.”

Nick Smith, CEO of Elonex, which is backing Lunar, 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.