Soap Creative merges into Isobar Australia

Dentsu Aegis Network has today announced that Soap Creative will merge into Isobar Australia, forming a powerhouse agency dedicated to transforming businesses, brands and people’s lives with the creative use of digital.

Between them, Isobar and Soap have won Digital Agency of the Year at eight out of the past nine AdNews Agency of the Year awards and the coming together of the two agencies will add creative firepower to Isobar, particularly in the digital marketing space.

With the merger, Soap founder Brad Eldridge (above left) will become executive creative director of Isobar. A well-respected creative leader, Eldridge is a globally award winning ECD and was a judge at Cannes last year.

Clients such as Xbox, Microsoft, Transport NSW, Nutella, TIC TAC, Kinder Surprise, Cancer Council of NSW, Pepsi Snackfoods and Reach Out will join the Isobar Group as Soap Creative’s staff relocate to Isobar’s offices in Sydney’s Walsh Bay, led by Sydney general manager Tom Tearle and Isobar national MD Erik Hallander.

Soap’s gaming studio, SMG, will remain a separate brand with its 20+ staff remaining in their Ultimo offices led by Sydney studio head, Ash Ringrose (above right), who was a co-founder of Soap. To date, SMG has created a number of hugely successful mobile games, with Death Squared, Thumb Drift and the One More Line series downloaded over 50 million times.

Says Konrad Spilva (above centre), CEO, Isobar Australia Group: “Ash and Brad have been highly respected colleagues for many years and Isobar and Soap have always shared plenty of synergies. It’s been three years since our Group’s acquisition of Soap and the time is right to combine our teams and grow our capabilities even further.”

Says Eldridge: “Isobar and Soap have a great history; first as competitors, then as sister-agencies within Dentsu Aegis and now, as a single entity. We share an entrepreneurial spirit, have strong values at the core of everything we do and I’m looking forward to seeing what we can achieve in the next chapter as our teams come together.”