Hatchit Co. and Big Fish Presentations, two local creative agencies with a specialty in digital marketing, branding and presentation training, have joined forces to create a new firm, Three Sixty Eight, with 19 employees and combined billings of an estimated $1.3 million.
Merger talks between the two agencies, both of which were founded in 2011, have been ongoing for several months. The agencies have long had a close relationship, and combining forces in a competitive market will create a bigger, stronger firm that has more to offer local customers, says Kenny Nguyen, an owner of Big Fish Presentations and now one of four equal partners in Three Sixty Eight.
“We have collaborated before on many projects and worked together on several accounts,” he says. “We always used to say how great it would be to create a company that could compete on a national level with creative companies, so we finally decided to come together.”
Hatchit, which was owned by Jeremy Beyt and Nick Defelice, specialized in web and video content. Big Fish Presentations, which was owned by Nguyen and Gus Murillo, focused on design, copywriting, web and presentation training. Three Sixty Eight bills itself as a digital experience agency specializing in creating digital products and experiences for evolving brands. As a practical matter, that means using digital platforms in new and creative ways to promote client companies, Beyt says.
“Everyone is always on a screen and a lot of agencies around here aren’t capitalizing on that,” he says. “So our mission is to take interactive web, interactive media and brand strategy and create digital experiences that connect with people on the other side of the screen by giving them something new and exciting.”
For example, the firm recently created a website and “online experience” for a client in the form of a question and answer game. At the end of the game, the user could sign up to help a cause that benefitted a needy community in Africa. In just 10 days, the campaign raised more than $80,000 “just by being a digital experience that people shared on social media,” Beyt says.
Three Sixty Eight will be located in the newly renovated offices at 10889 Perkins Road that have been home to Hatchit Co. Big Fish Presentations will continue to provide presentation training as a separate service line under the Three Sixty Eight umbrella. Nguyen and Murillo also recently published a book about public speaking and presentations, The Big Fish Experience, and sales and speaking engagements following the publication have been brisk so keeping the Big Fish brand name for that niche business makes sense, Nguyen says.
—Stephanie Riegel
