The deal for Feref completed last month.
The circa 20-staff agency, which operates out of Soho, was formed in the late 1960s. Since that time, it has created some of the UK’s most iconic movie marketing campaigns, including creative campaigns for film franchises Star Wars and James Bond. Clients include Sky, Disney, Sony Pictures, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Universal and Amazon Prime.
More recently it has built on its TV and movie heritage to develop and deliver campaigns for the likes of Mattel, Spotify, and Sony Music.
Feref principals, managing partner Andrew Warren and CEO Graham Hawkey-Smith, remain with the business, which will retain its branding. They will work with Delta’s MD of Film, Entertainment and Gaming, Danni Murray to leverage the synergies of the two operations.
“Combining Feref’s unrivalled reputation for creative in the entertainment sector with The Delta Group’s existing expertise across print, creative, digital, social, and experiential, will change the way campaigns are delivered in this sector,” said Murray.
While Feref isn’t a direct customer, Delta has a long history of working with Feref clients and according to a spokesperson their mutual clients “think the deal between two trusted partners makes a lot of sense, and they are excited about the combined group’s ability to deliver bigger, integrated solutions”.
The deal came about as a result of Delta wanting to expand its creative offering and Feref’s management wanting to realise its global potential.
“Joining Delta instantly enables Feref to offer more integrated, one-stop solutions, providing exceptional, high-quality and elevated end-to-end campaign services for our premium client-base,” said Warren.
Delta has run an in-house creative agency for several years and the Feref team, while retaining its own identity, will join the 60+ staff of Delta Creative agency team.
Both teams will ultimately operate out of a shared central office to better enable the sharing of skills and expertise and boost capacity across the teams.
“Bringing an agency with the expertise and reputation of Feref into the group means we have delivered the next stage of Delta’s growth strategy we developed under Danni Murray. This includes a focus in supporting our respective clients with their prioritisation on sustainability and ESG practises through our award-winning Delta Net Zero programme,” said Delta Group executive chairman Mike Phillips.
“Most importantly, we are in the best possible position to deliver increased value to our clients across film, game, music, toys, retailers and brands to create more interactive, engaging, and personalised customer experiences that deliver success.”
Delta is headquartered at a near-17,000sqm production supersite in Waltham Cross.
As well as its main facility, the £100m-turnover, 700+-staff group has production facilities in Dublin, Superior in Melksham, and following its acquisition of Odessa Print Group in January 2022, Penge and Biggin Hill in South London.
