Has M&C Saatchi given Bohemia its much-needed lifeline?
Client losses, staff churn and the departure of seasoned talent – one year ago Bohemia, once riding high, was in danger of crashing and burning. Then it was bought by M&C Saatchi. Mumbrella’s Abigail Dawson sits down with M&C’s group CEO, Jaimes Leggett, and Bohemia’s managing partner and co-founder, Brett Dawson, to reflect on the acquisition, what’s working, what’s changed, and whether anyone is still wearing Speedos to work.
One year ago, Bohemia, a struggling but talented media agency, was given a miracle lifeline when it was bought by M&C Saatchi.
The creative agency had been harbouring ambitions to launch a media offering for a long time, and eventually landed on the decision to buy Bohemia, the media agency once described as a “hyped up toddler on red cordial”.
Bohemia founders Chris Christofi, Brett Dawson, Peter Leaver
The media agency was launched in 2011 by former Ikon stalwarts Brett Dawson and Chris Christofi and Commonwealth Bank’s Peter Leaver, and now has clients including Caltex, Best & Less, MLC, Ubank, Unibet, Rip Curl and Open Colleges.
Nice one boys, good to see you back on top.
This headline is typical Mumbrella negativity and the article missed the biggest win of boho last year of $50m Steinhoff group and fails to understand that Boho is thriving as a media business and is winning (a near flawless new business record last year.) Much better year than M&C in fact. Why can’t you celebrate success stories Mumbrella. A big famous global ad agency buys an Aussie independent and a year on its thriving. The other M&As going down could learn a thing or two and this could provide hope to the employees involved
Mumbrella off the mark yet again. A good business that took $9m upfront and will be more like $24m at deal completion boho was a good businesss a year ago and is an even better one now. Why can’t you celebrate success stories of the industry that feeds you mumbrella? Your opinion pieces continue to be poorly researched, with a negative click bait headlines out of synch with reality
As a proud Bohemian of almost 2.5 years, I feel it pertinent to point out that this article completely omits more than half of Bohemia’s success last year. We additionally won Fantastic Furniture, McWilliams Wines, Harris Scarfe, Freedom, YellowTail, Schnieder Electric – and these were all Bohemian wins, distinct from the larger M&C group.
Maybe you could focus more on research and facts, and less on Red Cordial analogies?
Or if you want to keep talking about beverages, you could pour yourself a nice refreshing glass of YellowTail or McWilliams wine, rather than the lemon, lime & Bitter you seem to be drinking.
Proud Boho, don’t get all Atomic 212 on us.
“Empathy is a really important and powerful word,” Leggett says out of the blue.
Jeez, I thought the headline was incredibly positive about Boho…
Make the logo bigger