Visual Trends and JPA will be merging to create one of the largest marketing agencies on the island – boosting their capacity to grow internationally.

The new agency, which will keep the JPA name, will remain at Ta’ Xbiex in the medium term but will eventually move to larger premises.

Managing director Chris Bianco said the merger had solved one of the greatest challenges for the creative sector: finding talent.

“To partner with our clients, we really have to understand where they are coming from and where they want to take the business – and then formulate the marketing communication solutions to get them there. To do that you need talent. We have been able to put together one of the largest talent pools – 44 people – in the field. This is a case where the sum is greater than the parts,” he said.

The two companies have already collaborated on certain accounts in the past and, as the market evolves, the merger puts them in a much stronger position to evolve with it, encompassing everything from classical media to digital and to whatever comes next.

“The industry has become much more elaborate in the past six years and what we bring to the marketing table is not just being specialist in digital or PR or classical media but the holistic knowledge of being able to tailor-make the right message, independent of the medium,” he said.

Steve Cassar of Visual Trends, one of the directors, said the merger was an obvious step forward because of the way the two companies complemented each other in terms of clients, strategy and synergy.

“It seemed a natural fit in terms of overlaps and areas of specialisation,” he said.

The new company has not revealed its plans – and there is clearly something big up its sleeve, with Mr Cassar hinting there were other synergies with third parties that needed to be developed through “collaborations”.

But financial director Adrian Fabri did confirm that JPA intends to carve out more space in the international scene as well.

“The real potential lies in the future. From a local perspective we intend to consolidate even more, churning out work that is recognised by the business community, and yes, hopefully, more internationalisation will follow.”