Bastion and BUNTIN are merging into a single global independent agency network, operating in the U.S. under the BastionBUNTIN name. The deal, which was announced on August 18, unites Australia- and New Zealand-based Bastion with Nashville’s BUNTIN and pitches the combined shop as an independent alternative to the traditional holding companies.
“The holding companies have made a rational bet on scale. We’ve made a different bet, on integration, accountability and what is becoming the age of the independent,” Cheuk Chiang, group CEO of Bastion, told ADWEEK. “The numbers are telling their own story: WPP has lost 87% of its market value from peak. Dentsu is down 75%. IPG has been absorbed. And yet global marketing spend has roughly doubled over the same period. The model that was supposed to capture that growth isn’t capturing it,” he added.
The deal will combine more than 400 staff across nine offices in Nashville, Los Angeles, New York, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Auckland, and Wellington. Nashville will be positioned as the North American hub for the new company. According to the firm, the combined network offers end-to-end capability across brand strategy, creative, media, communications, PR, digital, insights, and experience.
Chiang will lead the parent network. Jeff Browe takes over as CEO of BastionBUNTIN. Chiang framed the deal as the formation of a new U.S. entity, BastionBUNTIN, combining Bastion’s existing American operations with BUNTIN. BUNTIN will keep a significant ownership stake, and Jeffrey Buntin Jr. becomes U.S. co-chairman while joining Bastion’s global board.
“This isn’t a situation where an agency gets acquired, absorbed and effectively disappears into someone else’s operating system. BUNTIN’s ownership and leadership are real. At the same time, we’re not going to manufacture a ‘merger of equals’ label for the sake of optics,” Chiang said.
Still, the decision to merge businesses is not easy and often comes with integration woes. “Most mergers don’t fail because someone chose the wrong org chart. They fail because the financial logic was stronger than the cultural logic,” Chiang said, describing the rationale behind the merger. Chiang added that the company tested its partnership against four questions: “Does it create more value for clients, more opportunity for our people, stronger growth prospects, and genuine cultural alignment?”
The new company counts Kellogg’s, United Airlines, Spotify, L’Oréal, Coca-Cola, MARS, and Clayton Homes among its clients.
