STW buys Bullseye
Digital agency Bullseye has been bought by STW Group, which has also announced the acquisition of Indochina marketing agency Edge Marketing and the opening of a Singapore office of its digital business Alpha Salmon.
STW’s portfolio includes Ikon Communications, Ogilvy, DT Digital, Howorth, JWT, Maxus, Mindshare, Moon, The Conscience Organisation and The White Agency.
STW has taken a 51% stake in Bullseye which employs around 40 people in its Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane offices. It also has a digital production operation in Bali where 60 people work, and a Jakarta office.
Bullseye’s clients include Austrade, Blackmores, Lend Lease, Goodman Fielder, Westpac, Bupa and Roche. The agency was founded by Jim McKerlie and Jason Davey in 2000.
STW boss Mike Connaghan said: “Bullseye offered us the best of both worlds. First, a leading, highly competitive and fast growing Australian based digital marketing leader to add further firepower to the market leading STW stable of digital companies. Second, Bullseye brings a proven, large-scale integrated digital production hub in Indonesia.”
He added: “We immediately liked the entrepreneurial, optimistic and growth focused attitude of the Bullseye principals. We are like-minded about digital’s future, growth in Asia and the critical need to remain customer centric at all times. Bullseye is a perfect fit with STW, and our ambition for its future growth is significant.”
The agency will relocate its Sydney team to STW’s St Leonard’s offices in January.
The investment in Edge Marketing sees STW take a majority stake in the 400 staff creative agency which has offices in Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Edge Marketing clients include Diageo, Citibank, Mead Johnson, Microsoft, Samsung and HSBC.
And Alpha Salmon, which launched in Jakarta earlier this year, will open a sales office in Singapore.
Connaghan said: “Alpha Salmon has got off to an extremely fast start in Indonesia. There is clearly a big capability and service delivery gap in that fast growing market, and we’re delighted with the way Alpha Salmon has stepped in to grab significant market share so quickly.”
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Go STW, go bullseye, Go alphasalmon. being together is better.
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‘A large scale digital production hub in Indonesia’
Anyone in digital should now be asking yourself… is there someone in Asia who could do what I do for a fraction of the pay? STW know the answer.
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An astute buy.
Bullseye is a great digital company that has been run very well for a long time and has been doing a lot of interesting online work.
It’s going to be an interested 2012 in the digital space, that is for sure. Expect more of these acquisitions as the big ad players read the writing on the wall for traditional media and scour the earth for talent.
Jimi Bostock
push
Canberra
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Well done Jason and team.
@Cactus – Agree. Anyone not in digital should also ask themselves the same question.
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Nice astute move on all front from STW
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@ Jimi – pray tell what the writing on the wall for traditional media means?
the largest and wealthiest consumer cohorts are going to stop watching television, are they?
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Agree with all of the comments above.. and well done to those involved. Alpha Salmon in particular have done a Lazarus over the last few years.
And the Really Useful Crew might also know the answer to effective offshore digital production for agencies…
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Thanks for the positive support guys – it’s the start of an exciting new chapter for Bullseye and one which I’m personally looking forward to being a part of.
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@Devil’s advocaat – I don’t think everyone outside of digital should be worried in the same way that those with specific skill sets that aren’t client facing need to be. Production, be it traditional or digital can be outsourced, but you can’t outsource relationships and networks. Not at such alarming speed, anyway.
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Well done Jason and Team! Fantastic news..
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