Sydney, Australia – Following the company’s recent global rebranding from Bastion Collective, independent agency Bastion has recently acquired New Zealand-based agency Shine, a fifty-member team––now being added to Bastion’s team, accounting to more than 300-count workforce across offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, Los Angeles, and New York.
Bastion’s acquisition of Shine sets it to become one of the largest independent communications agencies across Australia and Asia.
Through the acquisition, Shine will be rebranded as Bastion Shine, consisting of clients such as Air New Zealand, telecom Spark, energy company Genesis and Tip Top. Together, they will be joining Bastion’s global roster of clients, including Microsoft, Google, KFC, AIA, L’Oreal, and Carl’s Jr.
According to Simon Curran, co-founder and CEO at Shine, they were looking for a partner that can help them scale their business more quickly than they can alone. Curran also noted that Bastion had given them the opportunity to not only access global markets in Australia and the US, but also to bring new capabilities into the New Zealand market.
“We weren’t really interested in being swallowed up by a global network, and after a meeting of minds and philosophy with Jack and the Bastion team, we knew we had found the right partners. They’re building a global independent model that has all the benefits of being part of a group, with the advantages of being independently run. For Shine, it’s an ideal scenario and we’re hugely excited about the opportunities this presents,” said Curran.
Meanwhile, Jack Watts, founder and global CEO at Bastion, commented that their recent acquisition of Shine reflects their recent move of making a ‘New World Agency’, where they look for a partner who thinks wide across the breadth of communications disciplines, and believes that the future of agencies is independence at scale.
“In the team at Shine, not only did we find this, but we also we found a shared set of values and principles that I have rarely experienced. For more than a decade we have both built similar businesses on either sides of the Tasman and to unite now is beyond exciting for our business, our people and our clients. It felt right from the first meeting,” he added.
He also stated that creating the largest independent communications agency in Australasia mirrors the fact that more clients want independence after being under-serviced by multinational agencies.
“Looking back, March of 2020 was one of the defining moments in the 12 year history of Bastion. We quickly set in place a plan and we have stuck to it ever since. That plan was to make difficult decisions early, and then accelerate out hard as the multinational agencies were still waiting for someone in London or Paris to tell them what to do,” he stated.
Watts further added, “And that is exactly how it has played out. Since June of 2020 our business has been experiencing unparalleled growth as we continue to grow existing, and win major new accounts by providing clients access to wide thinking across the breadth of communications services, combined with deep expertise.”
