Dani Bassil on Buying M+C Saatchi AUNZ: “People Love The Fact You're Backing Yourself”

​M+C Saatchi ANZ CEO, Dani Bassil, has been working on a management buyout for the agency for "most of this year.”

Expected to complete on October 1, the deal will see the agency become an independently owned business, disconnected from its global counterpart, while retaining the M+C Saatchi brand and existing leadership team. It acts as a reset moment for the agency brand, which has weathered client losses including Optus, Commonwealth Bank, Woolworths, and Baiada over the past year.

The business will continue operating under its existing brands, including M+C Saatchi, Re, and Sport & Entertainment. Dani told LBB retaining those brands was an important part of the decision.

"There's a lot of equity in the marketplace on those three brand names. I came to M+C because of the brand, I've always loved the brand, and there's a lot of support still for the brand – I think that's still worth something.

"We felt it's the right thing to keep [the name], but it's just a new version of that, as all brands go through their iterations of what they are. This will just be a new version of what M+C Saatchi Australia is."

Independent agencies continue to gain momentum, with a series of high-profile account movements in H1 showing Australia's agency pitch market is more than willing to take a chance on indies. With local ownership increasingly viewed as an advantage, Dani said the early response to the news has “been incredibly positive.”

“Everyone's loving independents at the moment, and I think more broadly people love the fact that you're backing yourself," said Dani.

Co-founder of indie Thinkerbell, Adam Ferrier, wrote on LinkedIn the buy-out “makes me happy”, because M+C’s origins – the agency Saatchi brothers Maurice and Charles started after exiting Saatchi & Saatchi – mean it has always been a “renegade”.

“It’s with great interest and admiration that I see the local management buying the local arm back out of the group and going ‘solo,’” he wrote.

“The M&C business had over the last 10 years (in Australia) become a basket case, but despite this, the brand is still strong – and bloody valuable.

“Under local ownership and management, they have a great opportunity to repurpose and redirect this iconic industry brand.

“This buy-out shows the kind of corporate-level creativity that I’d hope our industry is capable of – it’s so much more interesting than the buy, merge, and retire model of other large, struggling holding companies.”

Alongside Dani, the team taking ownership includes chief strategy officer Simon Wassef, executive creative director Jeremy Hogg, chief client officer Anita Zanesco, Re managing director Remi Couzelas, and head of sport and entertainment Jack Playfair.

Dani, formerly CEO of Clemenger BBDO before it was merged with CHEP and Traffik, joined M+C in the second half of last year, as APAC CEO Justin Graham stepped back. She spent her first few months in the role assembling her leadership team – barring Remi, who has been with the business since 2022.

The transaction is backed by growth investment firm Parc. The management team considered their options before settling on their investment partner, and Dani said Parc “position themselves as a growth partner, and what they like to invest in is businesses that are founder-led.

"Although we are a little bit different – obviously we're not the founders of M+C Saatchi – they bought into us as a management team.

"I've met quite a few different people in the process, and we just felt [Parc] was the best fit for us, and vice versa."

In a statement announcing the deal yesterday, Adam Pozniak, co-founder of Parc, said, “M+C Saatchi Group ANZ have built a genuinely differentiated offer in the region, and we see significant opportunity to support their growth ambitions, both organically and through further investment. This is exactly the kind of founder and management led opportunity Parc was set up to support.”

The creative product will continue to be led by executive creative director Jeremy Hogg. Asked whether the team will consider hunting for a chief creative officer after the departure of Emma Robbins, who started as ECD of Droga5 Melbourne this week, Dani said Jeremy “is a fucking rockstar,” and the team is “very happy with our creative leadership, as it is."