Photo: Davor Bruketa, Alain Groenendaal and Nikola Žinić
Grey Group, a unit of WPP, the largest global communications services group, has completed its acquisition of a majority stake in Bruketa&Žinić OM as well as a 50% share of its sister agency Brigada. The agencies are now merging with Grey Zagreb to create Bruketa&Žinić&Grey.
The management team consists of Co-Chairmen and Chief Creative Officers, Nikola Žinić and Davor Bruketa with Siniša Waldinger as Executive Creative Director, Damjan Geber as CEO of Brigada and Nikola Bubanj, CEO of Grey Adriatics.
The agency will operate under the new name as part of the global Grey network. This investment strengthens Grey’s position in the Adriatic region and enables the agency to leverage B&Ž’s core competencies across its European network.
Bruketa&Žinić&Grey will become one of three design hubs for Grey Europe, the others being the award-winning shop KW43 in Düsseldorf and Brand Union in Stockholm, part of INGO. Designers in Zagreb have already begun working in collaboration with Grey agencies in Milan, Moscow and New York. Brigada is also developing architectural design plans for Grey’s European headquarters in London.
Additionally, Bruketa&Žinić&Grey recently expanded its offerings by recruiting a new digital team, that has years of experience working with some of the Adriatic region’s largest brands. This group is led by Ivan Kovačević and will form the core of a new Digital Shopper Hub which will help clients across Europe capitalize on the interaction between their digital activities and their instore/shopper activations. The team has already begun working on opportunities with Grey Warsaw.
“Our past work is based on successful collaborations,” said Davor Bruketa. “It was just two of us – Nikola Žinić and I – at the beginning and then later we were lucky to cooperate with a great number of exceptional people – creatives, entrepreneurs and all kinds of experts. Today we collaborate with some of the most ambitious organizations in this region. This is a new step in our development. There’s more space for us to grow our ideas internationally.”
“This collaboration will provide better service for our partners in Croatia and in the region because we will be able to connect the creativity of our teams with the insights and technology of the global Grey network. Almost all of our clients are searching for ways to export their products and services. We will now be able to better support their ambitions, no matter whether it is tourism, the food industry or innovative digital products,” said Nikola Žinić.
Damjan Geber agreed, “With Brigada, the Bruketa&Žinić&Grey offer covers the whole communications spectrum, from branding to on-line and offline retail. It’s a unique offer, not just in this region. With our deep understanding of the retail process we have already proven that we can come up with effective solutions for different markets. This partnership will speed up our growth and development.”
“It isn’t often that you discover an agency with such a unique, design inspired and holistic vision for communications in today’s marketplace”, said Alain Groenendaal, President and CEO of Grey Europe. “I am incredibly excited about the opportunities for the Bruketa&Žinić&Grey team to add capabilities and value to our clients in the Grey network both in Europe and beyond.”
Nikola Bubanj is excited about the opportunities for the employees of the merged organization. “At Grey we have always focused on culture, talent, and flawless execution. As we come together, our capabilities will be broader and deeper and teams will be able to work on different, and larger, pieces of business like shopper, branding & design, retail and e-commerce. We’ve got a bigger canvas to work on now.”
