CREATIVEBANK, BLUE HAT MERGE

Independent ad agencies Creativebank and Blue Hat have merged their businesses into a single agency. The new entity, based in Auckland’s Viaduct precinct, will retain the name Creativebank.
Creativebank comprises 20 people, servicing a total of 21 clients. There are no client conflicts as a result of the merger and the combined agencies’ client list includes A1GP, Auckland Fish Market, AFT Pharmacueticals, Customs Clearing House (CCH), Energiser, Foster’s, Giltrap Motors, Kitchen Studio, Netball New Zealand, Roche, Sanofi-aventus, Vector, Watercare and Wendys.
Creativebank retains Western Union, for which the two merging agencies jointly pitched and won.
The CEO of the new agency is former Blue Hat managing director Andrew Clark. Creativebank founder Marco Marinkovich remains as executive creative director of the new entity.
The two principals both formerly worked at Grey Advertising – Andrew Clark as Group Account Director based in Sydney, and Marinkovich as Managing Director of the New Zealand operation that he established in 1995. Clark left Grey to return to New Zealand to join start-up agency Meares Taine, and subsequently established Workshop, the forerunner of Blue Hat. Marinkovich established Creativebank in 1999 and is well-known for his social marketing programmes including his chairmanship of the high profile Yellow Ribbon campaign aimed at reducing youth suicide.
Clark described the merger as a success story for the local advertising industry. “As individual entities we have both survived and operated profitably in the local market which is being increasingly dominated by multinationals.
“Blue Hat has built a reputation on being more strategically focused and Creativebank has always had the creative horsepower of Marco and his team. Together, we will provide a strong business offering as an agency that business itself will seek out for serious business solutions.”
Clark said both agencies had turned away a number of approaches from international suitors: “We believe in the strength and quality of New Zealand advertising and we believe we have a great deal to offer in this market.
“Many creative businesses are criticised as lacking process and undisciplined. At Creativebank we offer clients robust strategy, thinking and creative tools from Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats that achieve results.”
Clark, who is one of only two accredited Six Hat trainers and facilitators in New Zealand, says this provides clients with “a unique offering that no other agency can legitimately provide.”