Former Cummins & Partners CEO, Chris Jeffares joins production company Safari

Chris Jeffares, former CEO and founding partner of Cummins & Partners joined content production company Safari. This came a year after it was revealed he would be splitting his time between running the agency and working at his family brewery, Stomping Ground, later shifting his full focus to the beer company.

After leaving the agency he was then replaced by Kirsty Muddle, who also left shortly after to join Dentsu as creative CEO.

Jeffares joins the lifestyle production company as partner

He now joins the adventure, lifestyle, and tourism production company as a partner, having worked with the founders, Andrew Englisch and Nigel Camilleri previously while at his former agency.

“Cars, wineries, travel, snowboarding, surf, mountains, exotic locations … it was hard to say ‘no’,” Jeffares told Mumbrella.

Safari said that Jeffares and the founders have previously worked together on content projects “that crossed the globe in Niseko, Tokyo, Oregon, India, China, Queenstown and even Las Vegas”.

In his role, Jeffares will lead expansion into Safari-owned content productions and partnerships. It has worked with tourism and experience brands including Anaconda, Mountain Designs, Visit Victoria, Great Ocean Road Regional Tourism, Visit Gippsland, Accolade Wines (Global) and Kitchen Warehouse, as well as specializing in automotive production, working with agencies on Ford, Mercedes Commercial, Lexus, Land Rover, BMW and Fuso.

Jeffares was also previously board director of the Advertising Council of Australia. While working for Safari, he will continue his interest in Stomping Ground.

Camilleri said: “CJ is one of the best strategic and entrepreneurial minds in the creative and content industry, and shares similar values and philosophies to us in everything from work to life. We see Safari as having great opportunities to expand into branded-content, owned IP productions, and simply doing awesome-fun-work for brands that deliver amazing experiences and those that lift emotions. There is nothing better.”

Jeffares added: “I have always loved these guys for their energy, entrepreneurial spirit, diverse skills and the flexibility of Safari was unrivaled compared to a number of other agency roles that I was sounded out about. They go a lot further than work life balance, having established lifestyle as integral to creativity, wellbeing and business model.”