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Ogilvy has bought Auckland advertising agency Metromedia and intends moving into the Wellington advertising market next year.
Ogilvy New Zealand managing director Greg Partington said the agency would be renamed Ogilvy Metro and would continue to operate out of separate offices.
Metromedia founder and managing director Paul Manning and general manager Ant Hassett will retain a 5 per cent share of the company.
The purchase is the third by Partington, whose company AdWorks initially merged with Singleton Ogilvy & Mather and latterly with creative advertising agency Meares Taine.
Partington said the Metromedia purchase was largely due to admiration for Manning, who started the agency at age 22 and was last year named Ernst & Young New Zealand Entrepreneur of the Year at age 28.
Manning said the sale would enable the company to access Ogilvy's worldwide resources and take it to the next stage in its development.
Meanwhile, Partington acknowledged that the most recent merger had been difficult.
He had been disappointed when the two highest-profile creative talents, Josh Lancaster and Jamie Hitchcock, left the merged company to join rival agency Colenso BBDO. The two had been creative directors.
Partington said the company was planning to expand into the Wellington market in the New Year.
* Ninety per cent of advertising agency Metromedia has been bought by Ogilvy, not by their advertising arm OgilvyOne, as stated in an earlier version of this story.
