Sydney PR agency Open Dialogue has severed ties with M&C Saatchi claiming that it would be financially better off without the parent company.
M&C Saatchi held an 80% stake in the boutique PR firm - named B&T’s PR Agency of the Year in 2007.
It is speculated that Open Dialogue told M&C Saatchi of its decision to split last November after the agency would not change its ownership share.
Rochelle Burbury, Open Dialogue managing partner said all of the firm’s 31 clients and staff have jumped ship with the agency which has changed name to Access Public Relations after M&C Saatchi barred Burbury and fellow managing partner Andrea Kerekes from keeping the name.
It was not known whether M&C Saatchi will relaunch Open Dialogue.
“All but two of our clients have been won independently of M&C Saatchi and the business has evolved very independently of the agency,” Burbury said.
“We have decided that our future should be as an independent business with Andrea and I in control of our own destiny.”
Tom Dery, M&C Saatchi executive chairman Asia Pacific, Tom Dery said Open Dialogue “would work best independently” of the agency.
“Open Dialogue evolved in a very independent way over the past two years without a lot of cross-client activity between it and M&C Saatchi which was different to our initial plans for the business,” Dery said.
“We all agree that such a personal consultancy with clients not associated with M&C Saatchi will work best independently.”
Burbury said she and Kerekes launched Open Dialogue with M&C Saatchi for the international network’s kudos but no longer required the “safety factor”
“We thought ‘we can do this without having to rely on any mothership’, basically we were sharing their floor space, IT and the finance (department) but nothing else,” Burbury said.
Burbury said the agency had experienced 108% year on year revenue growth to December 31, 2007.
“Essentially, it is the same business but we are out on our own now,” she said.
Access Public Relations, which has clients including SBS and ACP, has moved out of M&C Saatchi’s Sydney Macquarie Street digs and is temporarily based in the city.
