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London and Toronto – MARCH 20th, 2023 – Talon, the global independent Out of Home (OOH) media agency, today announced that it has acquired Novus Media Canada Corp, a leading specialized media agency, to further bolster its global presence and accelerate growth in the Canadian market.

Under the ownership of Novus Media LLC, Novus Canada has leveraged its prowess for geography and understanding of location to build smart campaigns for agency partners and their many OOH advertisers.  In the past four years, the agency has grown into one of the largest and most respected OOH specialist agencies in Canada.

Approaching its tenth anniversary, Talon works with global brands such as PepsiCo, PUMA and BBC as well as leading agencies Omnicom Media Group, Havas and Stagwell, delivering the most effective, innovative and creative media solutions for OOH at global, national and regional levels. Talon secured new investment from Equistone Partners Europe in July 2022, providing the capital to support its global expansion both organically and acquisitively.

Talon’s acquisition of Novus Canada provides true independence and global access to best-in-class buying, planning, creativity and industry-leading technology platforms to enable all agencies and direct advertisers to connect with engaged consumers in their daily journeys in Canada and globally. With OOH poised to achieve 12% growth in Canada in 2023, Talon’s Canadian team will be equipped with Talon’s creative and technology-forward solutions to lead the OOH marketplace in Canada.

Talon Group CEO Barry Cupples said, “Our global agency scale and innovation focus sets us apart and the addition of Novus Canada marks another important step in our growth strategy. As the leading global independent OOH agency, we’re delivering best-in-class services, data and technologies that enable brands to take advantage of a resurgent Out of Home market.”

Out of Home has evolved into a sophisticated, data-driven and innovative medium – and Talon is at the forefront of the transformation. Through digitization, audience-based targeting, advanced measurement and unmatched creativity, Talon is helping brands and agencies re-imagine the possibilities of what OOH can do to deliver better outcomes for brands and add genuine value to the top and bottom line.

“As we embarked on our expansion strategy into Canada, we recognized that while many of our brands are cross-border, Canada is a unique and exciting market,” said Jim Wilson, Talon US CEO. “Novus Canada has established itself as the leading independent agency with stellar leadership, a specialist team and a track record of success. Joining forces gives us an even greater opportunity to realize our growth ambitions in North America, drive higher advertising market share into OOH, increase innovation in the market and unlock more value for brands in Canada.”

“Becoming part of Talon is not only an exciting opportunity for our Canadian Out of Home team,” said Melony Rios, CEO of Novus Media LLC. “It’s a win-win scenario for clients in Canada, for Talon, and Novus. Novus Media will continue to stay focused on our rapidly growing U.S. multimedia business delivering customized, fully multichannel media programs for marketers.”

Debbie Benadiba, CEO of Talon’s Canadian operation, said, “Not only will we be integrated and aligned with Talon’s strategic growth objectives, but we will also be positioned to leverage our combined best-in-class tools and technology for marketers. It positions us to be Canada’s largest, truly independent OOH agency that has compelling and competitive advantages for our clients and agency partners.”

Debbie is a media veteran, with leadership roles on the media vendor side with Bell Media and Rogers Media for more than 20 years, and leading Novus Canada since 2019. She currently holds board seats with DPAA, a global digital OOH trade association, and COMMB, a leading OOH industry association in North America and chairs WE.DOOH. DPAA’s Women’s Advisory board.

As part of PepsiCo’s commitment to excellence and innovation in marketing it has appointed Talon  as its partner for Out of Home (OOH) Media Buying. 

OOH media is an important part of PepsiCo brands marketing and media mix. OOH media is changing rapidly to reflect consumers different behaviours, new retail media offerings, and new opportunities presented by the use of data and technology. As such it is important for PepsiCo to have the best agency partner to create new future facing opportunities and take advantage of the dynamic marketplaces being created.

After an intensive competitive review led by Flock Associates PepsiCo appointed Talon to be its UK OOH partner, working alongside its long-term media partner OMD whose role is not impacted by the appointment. 

Ed Sanderson, Head of Media & Planning at PepsiCo UK said of the appointment, “We are delighted to partner with Talon Outdoor at such an exciting time in the development of the OOH marketplace in the UK. Together we will build more innovative, creative, effective and valuable out of home solutions for our brands; harnessing great research, new data and the power of technology to serve our consumers and retail partners.”

James Copley, UK CEO at Talon said, “Obviously it is exciting to be selected to partner PepsiCo’s brands on such an innovative brief and a testing process managed by Flock. We are looking forward to working with the broader Out of Home community to create new relationships, new solutions and deliver exceptional value to PepsiCo.”