UM appoints digital native Andy Copeland to Brisbane General Manager role

Media agency UM Australia has appointed digital expert Andy Copeland to the newly created role of General Manager, Brisbane. Copeland joins Brisbane’s leadership team, reporting directly to Anathea Ruys, CEO UM Australia.

With an immediate remit to pave the way for sustainable future growth in Queensland’s burgeoning market, Copeland brings extensive Business Strategy & Revenue Growth experience to UM, plus a true passion for discovering how clients can benefit from the power of media to bring people and brands together.

Anathea Ruys, CEO UM Australia said Queensland is a challenging and exciting market, offering significant opportunity, and the client demand for a genuine full-service media agency model covering traditional, performance and addressable channels, is a natural fit for UM Brisbane.

Says Ruys: “With the Olympics only a decade away, Queensland presents blue-sky opportunities and by appointing Andy, a digital native, to lead the team, UM is positioning itself as something different in the Brisbane market and is backing its fully-integrated model and futureproof strategy.

“UM Brisbane brought the full breadth and strength of Mediabrands’ capabilities under its banner late 2022, providing client access to solutions spanning strategy, planning, media buying across all channels, AdTech/MarTech consulting, data & audience strategy (founded on IPG’s proprietary Acxiom data spine), measurement and modelling, all without experiencing the traditional siloes associated with holding companies.

“UM has fully integrated media across traditional and all forms of digital, technology and data. As we strengthen our national Futureproof planning approach to media, we want to ensure Brisbane is a shining example of delivering strategic dividends for our clients, our staff and our partners. Having a strong leadership team is key to making this happen.

“We’re thrilled Andy has agreed to take up the challenge and work alongside our existing Brisbane leadership and National COO Malcom Connor (located in Brisbane) to help lead our 40+ Brisbane team and agency expansion.”

Following a brief stint as Chief Customer Officer and prior to that Chief Data and Technology Officer with Cummins&Partners, Copeland rejoins Mediabrands, having previously led the group’s expansion into ecommerce as National Head of Ecommerce for Mediabrands’ performance arm, Reprise.

Says Copeland: “I’m delighted to be back. It feels like coming home. I’ve always been amazed by the incredibly smart people and cutting-edge capabilities of the wider Mediabrands group, so to have them all natively part of UM is very exciting.

“Being able to work with our clients to solve genuine business challenges and draw from such a diverse solution set is something truly special. It is unusual for an agency to offer such a wide variety of capabilities and deliver them all equally well, but we can and we do.

“QLD marketers are some of the most commercially and technically savvy in the country and deserve an agency that can identify and deliver real solutions to real problems. That’s what we’ve built at UM and I’m excited about the work we’ll do this year.”