Stacy Batchelor, the sometime “crazy bearded wrestler” who does haircuts for the homeless, has a new role, having sold the Epic Digital business he founded with Drew Worthington to The Brag Media.
He’s the one with the bushranger beard in handout pictures to accompany today’s announcement, and also the ageing Facebook promo for Sydney’s Batcho El Barbero (top), focussed on “handsoming up the male population one grooming session at a time”.
The “crazy bearded wrestler” is a reference to a 2016 magazine interview about perceptions of the charity hair-cutter.
Epic launched in 2019, and has run campaigns for brands including Apple, Playstation, Bandai, Hasbro, Stan, Sailor Jerry, Lion, EA, and Binge. Interestingly, its website lists former clients as well as current ones. Prior to that he worked at Evolve Media, Hoozu, Urban Geek Media, Foxtel and Time Out Sydney.
Batchelor becomes national sales director at Brag, while Worthington takes a role as a campaign manager.
In a LinkedIn post today, Batchelor looks back on “an amazing journey, good times, awesome times and tough times”, proud of their achievements and what the two of them built.
The Brag Media, which modestly says its mission is to be “the most ubiquitous presence in Australian culture” has a publishing business with iconic brands including Rolling Stone, Variety and Tone Deaf, and claims to reach a fifth of the Australian population every month. It says acquiring Epic doubles its reach to 40 million monthly page views from eight million users.
Other activities include events such as the Rolling Stone Awards, talent management, creative and agency businesses. Check out its home page – which features some serious moshpit action – for is an indication of where its heart lies. “Everything The Brag Media does, it does at the centre of culture,” it says.
Apart from its acquisition of “premium digital activations network” Epic Digital, the company has announced that chief revenue officer Joel King becomes its chief operating officer.
Batchelor says the tie-up is a “no brainer”, given that the two have been working together “for years” in what he says has been “a sensational partnership”.
King, who founded music publication Music Feeds, is the former managing director of Evolve Media, and joined The Brag Media in 2020.
Chief executive officer Luke Girgis praised King as “instrumental in growing the commercial” and “a Bragger to his core”.
Below: Girgis and King with (left) managing editor Poppy Reid, and (above) with Batchelor