Blackwood and G2 join forces in NZ market
Blackwood Communications Group and Grey Global Group have joined forces in New Zealand to form bcg², an integrated advertising and communications agency providing a unique offering in the local market. Ownership involves a mix of local/international shareholding. The company will be locally managed with Paul Gardner, Grey Group chairman Australia, joining the board.
Bert Lamb, bcg² chairman says the company has been searching forinternational support to strengthen its New Zealand operations for sometime: “The new entity will provide clients with an enhanced, totallyintegrated communications solution,” said Lamb.
James Blackwood, CEO and executive creative director, bcg², believesthe new company will resonate very positively with current andpotential Kiwi clients: “We have brought together two very talentedteams who are well versed in managing global business with adistinctive local perspective. This will make bcg² stand out fromothers in the market,” said Blackwood.
Gardner says the integration will provide a seamless transition forclients of both agencies: “They can look forward to a one-stop-shop fortheir marketing communication needs and that the combination ofBlackwood Communications and Grey Global Group has been a smoothprocess with no conflict across portfolios.”
The new agency employs 30 staff including Managing Partners MichaelJarvis and Sarah Norrie – who played a significant role in establishingGrey Healthcare and has been managing G2, Grey Group’s New Zealandoperation since its inception in 2006.
“The Healthcare team is headed up by Stuart Ogden, one of New Zealand’sleading medical marketers with over 16 years experience,” says Lamb.
BCG2 key staff from L-R: Bert Lamb, Sarah Norrie, James Blackwood and Michael Jarvis.
14 Comments
If 2 crap agencies join together in a forest, does anyone give a shit?
Wouldn’t call BCG shit, but would question what is so ‘unique’ about this offering? Typical PR statement with little thought behind it
BCG square.
See what I did there?
Ha ha you said shit.
Didn’t they do this once before with an equally shit agency called redman. Maybe they don’t remember because there is no client or employee still there from the heady days of their last mergetastic effort.
Note to Grey – if you want more clients, try doing decent work, rather than buying agencies with clients whose expectations are so staggeringly low that even you may struggle to underwhelm them, because invariably the curse of Grey does indeed underwhelm them.
thank god there is a fully integrated agency out there…
Redman? Grey? Your grudge is old, it might even be older than my kids.
Norrie is probably the longest serving staff member, the staff churn has been immense and she joined long after Redman was out the door.
Anyways, best of luck nursing it along, but sometimes you’ll find you’re better off letting it go.
Simple survival play – nothing more
Are there any clients looking for a “one stop shop”?
and in other news…. a cat gets stuck in a tree.
Interesting that Norrie claims credit for Grey healthcare – what do you think about that Mssrs White, Coffey, Devonport, Fletcher, McFarlane??
Dear Paul,
Whilst it is always a great idea to ignore history, the observation of it repeating itself does not a grudge make. As you will see from the cacophony of comments along the lines of “oh no – now we’re all screwed – Grey will take our clients off us because they have invented an integrated agency” Like everyone else in the New Zealand Advertising industry, Grey doesn’t register enough of a pulse to warrant or earn grudge status.
Let’s call it a bemused eyebrow raise.
Fascinating to see someone using ‘immense staff churn’ as a positive! Yep, that establishes your credentials.
9.35.
No shit, but I don’t have a clue who you’re talking about.