In December, Interpublic confirmed that it sold its digital agency Huge to private equity firm AEA Investors and that the agency was being merged with another AEA agency Hero Digital. 

Now Huge has disclosed that the merged agencies will go forward under the Huge banner. 

Lisa De Bonis remains CEO of Huge. Jay Dettling, who has been CEO of Hero Digital for the last two-and-a-half years recently announced on LinkedIn that he was stepping down. 

The agency said it has delivered “significant” growth in recent months and that 62% of clients are utilizing AI/GenAI-driven projects from the agency, compared to 25% in June 2024. 

“The integration of Hero Digital further strengthens our capabilities,” stated Jim Coleman, operating partner at AEA who became executive chair at Huge with the acquisition. 

He joined AEA in 2022 from Accenture where he served for 34 years most recently as a managing partner. He has also been a board member of Hero Digital since joining AEA, which bought the digital agency in 2021. 

As part of the integration, Huge has combined Hero Digital’s creative and technology teams respectively under Ez Blaine, global chief creative officer, and Marc Maleh, global chief technology officer, bolstering its creativity with broader tech capabilities. 

In 2023, Huge revamped its service-offering in a bid to move away from a project-focused business model to a solutions model with products and fixed pricing.