Ex-M&C Saatchi chief creative and chief strategist launch new venture
Former M&C Saatchi leaders, Cam Blackley and Emily Taylor, have revealed their new venture – the Bureau of Everything.
Described as having a more progressive creative model and business than a typical creative agency, Bureau of Everything is a creative ‘office’ designed to deliver bespoke problem solving in a more complex world.
“Bureau is a response to what we have been hearing from clients for years,” said Blackley, creative founder.
“…opting for a strat/creative directorship as the core for more impactful problem solving. We want to partner with brands and people who are also feeling the urgency for change.”
Taylor, strategic founder, added: “We have designed a creative company to truly answer the big question we hear from clients: What is my business problem and how will you solve it?
“We are purposefully super senior, purposefully leaner, and purposefully flexible. Mixing brand and digital skills, uniting business and brand thinkers with the ability to shape teams depending on the brief,” she continued. “This model allows us to always have a rock solid foundation but still be bespoke and importantly, a lot less ‘cookie cutter’…”
The duo have welcomed Jeff Goodby, international creative powerhouse and co-founder of Goodby Silverstein & Partners, to Bureau of Everything’s advisory board.
“I’m really impressed by Cam and Emily’s determination to bring a whole new way of interacting with clients in order to get things right. It’s about time,” Goodby said.
Bureau of Everything will use a bespoke team of “mega talent” for each project, based on the brief. The team is already working on a brand relaunch and a series of consulting projects.
In October last year, Blackley announced his departure from M&C Saatchi after nearly six years in the chief creative role. He led the team through the Covid pandemic, and was involved with clients including Tourism Australia, Minderoo Foundation, Big W and Steggles, among others.
He said his time at the agency had been “incredibly fulfilling” but globally, the agency was going “through a period of transition and that has accelerated the decision to part company”.
The transition meant global restructures, with staff lay offs across the UK and Asia-Pacific regions, including less than 10 redundancies in Australia.
In November, M&C Saatchi announced Blackley’s replacement in Steve Coll. He joined from Facebook Creative Shop.
In February, it was revealed that Taylor was also departing, after three and a half years. As chief strategist, she “nurtured a team of seriously talented strategists” while also building “strategic capability across the entire business”, according to Justin Graham, group CEO of M&C Saatchi.
He told Mumbrella at the time: “Tay-tay will always be a great friend of M&C and I look forward to supporting her in the next chapter.”
Together, the duo led M&C Saatchi to win two Gold Effies, including a gold last year for its work on Big W, the LA Short Film Festival for Tourism Australia’s ‘G’Day’ movie, a D&AD Yellow Pencil, and many more awards.
While M&C Saatchi has not formally replaced Taylor’s chief strategist role at the group level, it has recently promoted Nick Jacobs to chief strategist of the agency. It also recently recruited Scott Dettrick from The Monkeys as its new joint national ECD, alongside Emma Robbins.
Earlier this month, a number of senior employees also exited the agency, including group creative director Sharon Edmondston.
Keep up to date with the latest in media and marketing
Got a tip?
Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
Linkedin
Have your say