First Page Australia has announced the appointment of Byron Redhead as CEO to head up its Australian operation.
Redhead recently moved back to Melbourne from Hong Kong where he has spent the past three years building and driving the Asian operation of the First Page business.
“When I first moved to Hong Kong, I didn’t know anyone and it was a steep but valuable learning curve in leadership, adapting to cultural differences and building an agency in a new market, said Byron Redhead.
“Despite all the external events (protests, trade war with the US, covid) causing strain on the local industry we were able to build a market leading agency that experienced its highest revenue and headcount growth in 2020.
“In the past few years, the digital industry across Asia has really advanced and I am excited to be bringing back the learnings to set up First Page in Australia.”
First Page is the latest business to be launched by AFR young rich-lister Nick Bell and marks his ‘re-entry’ into the Australian digital marketing industry four years after he sold his former agency WME for $39 million.
Following the sale in 2017, Bell has focused on building his global agency network across Hong Kong, Thailand, Dubai, Malaysia and Brazil, which grew substantially during covid and now has over 1,000 staff. However, Bell’s time in the digital marketing industry left a reputation and he has since fielded numerous enquiries from colleagues and business owners asking for digital marketing services which ultimately influenced his decision to re-enter the market with a new and improved offer.
Nick Bell, founder of First Page, said, “I’ve spent the past few years focused on growing my international agencies and in that time I’ve fielded quite a few emails and LinkedIn messages asking me who I would use locally for digital marketing.
“With the borders shut I’ve had a lot more time to focus on the local market and assess what’s happening here. I realised that there was an opportunity for a new player to deliver better technology, results and service than what’s currently on offer.
“I’ve launched First Page in Australia, which leverages everything I’ve learned not just from founding and growing WME, but also the years of experience built up overseas, in particular Asia where the industry has started to really evolve and become a source of knowledge.”
First Page currently employs 20 staff in its Melbourne office with Bell expecting to double that number before the end of 2021. Launch clients include carpet supplier Godfrey Hirst and furniture brand James Said.
