Ad agency Bareface in Down Under takeover deal

Simon Morris, from Pedmore, is group managing director of Bareface advertising agency, which has acquired the global content production studio Invisible Artists and its Sydney and Singapore footprint for an undisclosed sum.

The move sees Invisible Artists founder Dan Day – now living in Old Swinford – take up a board director role and equity partner stake at Bareface, helping to expand the firm's international presence beyond its current Birmingham, London and New York offices and into the Asia Pacific region and the West Coast of America.

China is a particular focus with Mr Day’s cultural understanding and experience of the region , while Bareface will now look to leverage Invisible Artists’ ongoing work for Facebook and Nielsen further afield in Silicon Valley and San Francisco.

Simon Morris said: “We’re extremely excited about the combination of complementary skill sets. It’s a fantastic opportunity for both parties and allows us to expand our reach to prolific new markets and add top notch creative, editing, 3D Animation/CGI and production skills to our award winning offering of digital marketing, web development and social communities.

“It’s both a robust and tactical partnership and the end result is a full service, modern advertising agency that has digital at its heart but understands the importance of localisation. We’ll use data to lead our analysis; however it doesn’t necessarily determine our creative response. A balance of senior expertise, plus up-to-the-minute information and market research helps guide our creative and make it unique.

“With our UK export hub and key staff members around the world delivering on specific needs, we can especially help UK companies post Brexit to enter the lucrative Asia, Australia and US markets. Tom West, now Group Account Director, will lead the client-facing team over here delivering fully integrated campaigns, but also creative, tactical and multi-faceted visual content across the globe.”

Dan Day, now Bareface Group operations director, added: “The two companies have a very similar ethos, so the synergy couldn’t be better. Invisible Artists has forged new and smarter ways to produce consistent quality content, but Bareface is the perfect agency in terms of size, values and structure to build on our desire to grow beyond our current territories.

“We needed to diversify and be more nimble and agile and Bareface’s now global capability will provide that thrust. More than any of the dozen or so agencies I spoke with, they simplify and minimise core messages better than anyone else. We’re building a truly global modern advertising agency and by modern I mean completely new wave and non-traditional.

“But equally important is that we remain fiercely independent, like Bareface are, in a sea of multinational groups fighting for profit, guilty of media waste and losing focus. We formalised Birmingham-based Kimberley Kayla re-locating to help run the Sydney operation in 7-10 days and the so called big boys would take six months to do that.”

Mr Day had big ad agency experience in his hometown of Sydney and London before setting up Invisible Artists six years ago, and his forte is growing and developing overseas teams in new markets. He will look after Bareface’s international presence and is bringing all staff and clients into the new agency fold.

It’s business as usual in Sydney and Singapore, with no-one losing their jobs – in fact Bareface has already been hiring with Andre Chen (ex tbwa in singapore) brought in as account director. day’s trusted number two Esther Lussier becomes executive producer for Asia Pacific and a board member, driving design, photography and production projects within the agency and helping to build out the capability in emerging markets.

One of the first collaborations has been the Sydney office’s KIMBY (Koala In My Back Yard) campaign for WWF Australia, which has been nominated for two categories in the AEAF (The Australian Effects and Animation Festival).

Other clients that the new Bareface represent include Bacardi, P&G, Porsche (Eurokars), Boss Design, Semilac, Coca-Cola, Foodpanda, Syngenta, London Tourism and West Midlands regeneration developer St Modwen.