Bastion Collective expands business to the UK; reveals new market-first agency model and name

After tripling its profits through a series of strategic acquisitions and appointments over the past 12 months, placing industry leaders on its boards and expanding internationally, Bastion Collective has revealed a new market-first agency model and name.

Formerly known as Bastion Group, the business’ rebranding to Bastion Collective coincides with the business’ foray into the UK, where it has established a London branch of its sponsorship agency, Bastion EBA. Bastion EBA’s UK arm will seek to replicate the success of its Australian predecessor throughout the UK and Europe.

The rebrand is part of wider group changes at Bastion Collective that has seen it successfully fuse a start-up culture with a think-tank backbone to foster entrepreneurialism and reinvent the typical agency model.

Bastion Collective comprises sponsorship specialist Bastion EBA, government relations firm Bastion S&GO, communications firm Bastion Effect (formerly Undertow Media), reputation management company Bastion RM, merchandising business Bastion Promote, creative content firm The Stadium and Bastion Live (formerly Bastion Owned Events). All businesses have access to a team of digital and social media specialists who act as shared resources across the Collective.

The Stadium is the most recent addition to the collective, bringing a strong content offering to the business and extensive experience producing major campaigns for the likes of V8 Supercars, the NRL and the Waratahs. Headed by award winning media creative duo Suzanne Pontey and Rob Rosenberg, The Stadium has more than 40 years comprised experience working with almost every major sporting organisation in Australia and the country’s biggest broadcasters.

For Bastion Collective’s communications arm (formerly Undertow Media, now Bastion Effect), the rebrand reflects the firms’ commitment to driving change for clients and pioneering a different way of working, including developing commercially driven methods of social and PR measurement and new offerings in property and virtual reality.

Bastion Effect have heavily invested in digital and innovative talent, welcoming Spotify APAC MD Kate Vale and ex Ogilvy Impact founder David Sawicki onto the board as non-executive directors to steer the firms’ success.

The evolution of the business has driven strong results, with Bastion Effect announcing significant client wins this year spanning the property, health, consumer, utilities, community and automotive industries. In Q2 2015 Bastion Effect reported a 120 per cent increase on FY15 profits.

The Bastion Collective model is less about creating a one-stop-shop and more about focusing on building a strong group of strategic communications businesses that both individually and combined help clients to form meaningful connections with their target audiences.

Says Fergus Watts (pictured), CEO, Bastion Collective: “Individually our aim is to build world class businesses. When you put a group of these agencies, in the same collective, working together, I believe you can create something pretty special in every area. We’ve created this business model so that each business is independent, with the start-up culture allowing our clients to add the services they need when they need it. This model also trains our staff to think like business people, not just specialists.

“The days of agencies working in silos is over. So many businesses talk integration, but they aren’t doing it. Our new name Bastion Collective aims to communicate exactly how we operate – we’re all in this together and everything from our structure to our name reflects that.

“We’ve quietly been doing business this way for a while and our profits have increased by 143 per cent over the past 12 months. More importantly, our staff are developing fast and our clients are seeing measurable results that are benefiting their businesses.”