Electric Media, the digital sales house that was set up 10 years ago, is to rebrand as Packed.House as it embarks on a new business model that will see it develop new platforms and service offerings for clients and agencies. The new business is headed up by Richie Kelly, the former founder and CEO of the Digicel-owned Trend Media.
While the company will continue to represent big brand platforms and websites like BBC.com, Shazam, Oath/Yahoo as well as other smaller indigenous online properties, the newly branded company will continue to develop its own online properties which include Entertainment.ie and Beaut.ie while offering brands and agencies a full suite of content creation services with the roll out of a new video and audio content studio.
“The creation of Packed.House is intended to combine the muscle of several established and successful media businesses to ensure the digital services provided cover a broader range of abilities and cooperation opportunities. We have Wide Eye Media in Ireland, Pearl and Dean in the UK and a new stable of owned publishers such as entertainment.ie, Beaut.ie, FamilyFriendlyHQ.ie. There are more to be announced at the launch including one of the largest parenting sites in Ireland and a brand new sports platform” says Dermot Hanrahan, Chairman of Packed.House.
“Over the last six months we have assessed the market and engaged with several publishers both here and in the U.K. We had very clear criteria for our acquisition strategy; strong organic traffic, well established brands and a credible, authentic voice generated through talented content teams. Entertainment.ie, Beaut.ie, FamilyfriendlyHq.ie and approved others all surpassed those criteria. Redevelopment of the platforms are already underway, it’s an incredibly exciting time to be at Packed.House,” adds Richie Kelly, CEO.
Packed.House has moved into the same building as the cinema advertising specialist Wide Eye Media, close to the Three Arena and according to Kelly this will facilitate a greater level of cooperation, across sales and creativity, in both digital and cinema.
“There are exciting potential synergies to be explored now between entertainment.ie, Wide Eye Media and its sister company Pearl and Dean, Britain’s longest established cinema ad sales company. The construction of fully equipped video and audio studios on site, is just a start,” he says.
