Match Media has become Blue 449. The agency is joining its siblings – the seven Optimidea agencies including Optimedia / Blue 449 in a rebrand. All eight agencies will now be known as Blue 449. Blue 449 is one of the five brands of Publicis Media.

Publicis Media created Optimedia / Blue 449 in March 2016 as the Open Source brand for the Group, merging the Optimedia brand with fledgling Blue 449.

In nine months, the combined brand has gone from strength to strength with wins including DJI, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Asda, Home Away, Kayak, Alibaba and Reliant/NRG.

Locally in the last two months, Match has been awarded Tourism New Zealand, 2017 Rugby League World Cup, Menulog digital and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.

Blue 449 now has a global presence in 14 core markets and 22 offices. It will launch eight more offices by the end of 2017, including Singapore, Mexico, Taiwan and Bulgaria, to strengthen its coverage of EMEA, APAC and the Americas.

John Preston, chief executive officer of Match Media explained, “Match was acquired by the Publicis Groupe in June 2015. One of the reasons we partnered with Publicis was to be part of Blue 449. Our entrepreneurial spirit continues as we are part of a relatively new global brand that embraces the intersection of data and ideas. This next evolution of Match as Blue 449, further powers us as a global brand that provides our people with unified purpose. It brings to our client partners a more worldly view of media along with access to the latest technology and a suite of world class platforms and tools. Our management team remains unchanged and James Simmons our COO and I will continue to lead the agency. We will proudly open our doors to business on the 9th January as Blue 449.”

Andras Vigh, Blue 449 global brand president, added, “Our Blue 449 journey started only19 months ago but over 18 years ago for Optimedia and 13 years ago for Match. By bringing together the brands we are creating a unique agency that is truly scaled with our ‘Open Source’ philosophy. Our focus this year has been to create a consistent global footprint and an aligned name. Blue 449 will help us to drive our product and our Client’s businesses, to live up to our mantra that we are always in beta and continue our innovation in creativity and data through media. Exciting times ahead.”