Dentsu Aegis Network acquires content firm Novus Singapore

Dentsu Aegis Network has acquired content services company, Novus Group, in Singapore. Following the acquisition, Novus is set to be merged with global content provider John Brown Media. The new entity will hence be rebranded as John Brown Novus. This was a full acquisition but Dentsu declined to comment on the price tag attached to it.Joining the leadership team from Novus are Simon Cholmeley, CEO, and Marie Lyte, chief operations officer and chief financial officer.Simon Cholmeley, CEO at Novus Singapore, will now be the CEO of John Brown Novus. Meanwhile, Marie Lyte, chief operations officer (COO) and chief financial officer at Novus, will take on the role of COO of the new entity. Both will report directly to Rob Hughes, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network North Asia.They will also be joined by Lucy Dryburgh, John Brown Media’s existing managing director of APAC, who will take on the role of managing director for the new entity. She will be reporting to Cholmeley.John Brown Novus will also work in tandem with digital performance network brand iProspect through its performance solution – Intelligent Content, to scale and accelerate Dentsu Aegis Network’s content marketing proposition in the Asia Pacific region.“Content marketing is a fast growing segment and is moving towards the centre of the marketing services spectrum. As consumers have increasing means of avoiding advertising, content is becoming an increasingly differentiating segment of marketing services and is vital in enabling marketers to get their messages to consumers,” Nick Waters, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network Asia Pacific, said.“Novus is a great fit with John Brown Media with strong complementary sector expertise. It has a solid core team of talent as well as a reputable management team. Novus follows a set up similar to our model which features end-to-end content services, presenting a natural alignment with our ambition to scale content marketing in the region and lead in this space,” Andrew Hirsch, global CEO of John Brown, said.“We have seen a dramatic increase in demand for high quality content services across the region over the past couple of years. Novus needed to find a partner with a strong global network who could offer us the infrastructure, expertise and resources to allow us to expand our footprint within the region,” Simon Cholmeley, CEO of Novus, said.Novus was founded in 2009, headquartered in Singapore with fully integrated editorial, design and digital teams of more than 30 staff.