Sydney Production House Invisible Artists Acquired By UK Ad Agency

Sydney and Singapore-based global content production studio Invisible Artists has announced it been acquired by British advertising agency Bareface for an undisclosed sum.

The move sees Invisible Artists founder Dan Day (pictured above, second from the right) move to the UK and take up a board director role and equity partner stake at Bareface, helping to grow their international presence beyond the current Birmingham, London and New York offices into the Asia Pacific (APAC) and the west coast of America.

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

It’s business as usual in Sydney and Singapore, with no-one losing their jobs – in fact, Bareface has already been hiring, with the addition of Andre Chen from TBWA in Singapore as account director.

Day’s trusted number two, Esther Lussier, becomes executive producer for the APAC region and a board member from the growing Singapore hub, driving design, photography and production projects within the agency and helping to build out the capability in emerging markets.

Day said 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,” he said.

“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 UK-based Kimberley Kayla re-locating to help run the Sydney operation in seven to 10 days, and the so-called ‘big boys’ would take six months to do that.”

Day had extensive ad agency experience in 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.

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 at The Australian Effects and Animation Festival.

Bareface group managing director Simon Morris (pictured above, second from the left) 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 in the UK, delivering fully-integrated campaigns, but also creative, tactical and multi-faceted visual content across the globe.”

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

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