Welcome to Bastion.
Bastion is an integrated, full-service marketing and communications agency founded in 2009. We are Australasia’s largest independent agency, with an ambition to achieve the same feat in the USA. Our 300+ staff work across our offices located in Melbourne, Sydney, Gold Coast, Los Angeles, Newport Beach, New York City, Auckland and Wellington. We also hold agency partnerships in 10 Asian markets.
We offer a breadth of specialist capabilities across the communications spectrum including market research, brand and creative, advertising, corporate and change communications, PR and social media, digital and customer experience (CX), sponsorship and experiential, film and content production, merchandise, Asia marketing and communications, data analytics and panel management.
Our Model
We have built Bastion over more than a decade by bringing together world class independent agencies and experts, with complementary skillsets, to deliver a truly integrated communications service offering to our clients.
We are a business that thinks wide across the breadth of communications disciplines, with deep expertise in each service offering we deliver. Each of our specialty services are delivered by an industry renowned Managing Director with a team of experts in their field.
Our clients can choose to work with us in one of our disciplines, or, when the time is right, access our range of communications services to deliver truly integrated campaigns.
Our business is built to deliver clients independent expertise and agility, with true scale and breadth.
Our business is built to think wide.
Our Methodology
We live in a world where the networks and technology that underpin our commerce and society, give rise to crises and opportunities for brands on a near daily basis.
We live in a world where narrative is king.
Where brands are remembered for their emotionally compelling, engaging stories.
In this world, if you can’t excel at both, you’ll fail.
You’ll fail to find the right solutions.
So, you need people with divergent yet complimentary mindsets.
Experts that think data, that think creative, code, research, relationships, reputation, experiences and more.
That think wide.
Our People
Over the past 10 years, Jack and his team have grown Bastion into the largest independent marketing and communications agency in Australia. Day-to-day, he works with Bastion’s wide range of clients to ensure that anyone who walks through the doors leaves satisfied. As CEO, Jack prefers to anticipate Bastion’s next big opportunity rather than relish in its success – he is always looking ahead to see what can be achieved in the near future.
Gaven is the former Director of ABC News and an executive and journalist with over 30 years of experience in international and Australian media. Until 2021, Gaven led ABC News to become Australia’s leading online and social media news service through a comprehensive strategic and cultural change program over six years. He’d previously led the launch of the ABC News Channel and was the Executive Head of ABC News Content as newsrooms and production teams converged to become truly multiplatform.
Mike is one of Australia’s leading agency professionals. Mike has helped clients such as McDonald’s and Coles successfully navigate their way through brand and business transformations. He led the McDonald’s business in New Zealand when the client won Client of the Year at the annual Effectiveness Awards. He helped turnaround the fortunes of DDB Sydney as GM, seeing it win B&T’s State and National Agency of the year as well as Employer of the year during his tenure. After running and building the Melbourne office of multinational agency Wunderman Thompson (JWT) from an office of 30 people to 120, over ten years, Mike joined Bastion to lead its Creative team.
Clare has more than a decade of experience working in government, public affairs and corporate communications roles in Australia and overseas. Clare was previously the Director of Corporate for the Melbourne office of Edelman and started her communications career with the Victorian Government. She has also worked in the UK with Shell and the UK Government.
Ana has a career spanning over 15years with integrated experience directing top multinational and domestic clients in both Global Networks and Independent agencies in the UK and Australia. She is a highly motivated brand marketing specialist with a global mindset and cultural fluency dedicated to delivering value to businesses, cross-team leadership and agency management. Ana’s expertise specialises in building and leading successful new team models with a focus & passion on people, culture and creativity, with a focus in FMCG, Telco, Consumer Health, Fashion Retail and Luxury Brands.
Angela has over 20 years’ global experience in building compelling brands & marcoms for clients such as Treasury Wine Estates, Kellogg’s, Nestle, Jetstar, HSBC, RAC, Vodafone, Subway, Ford and Tourism Queensland. She also specialises in behaviour change inc. health, road safety and bush-fire. Previously National Chief Strategy Officer at WPP’s Wunderman Thompson, Angela is widely awarded and has served as Chair of the APG, on the Communications Council Board, the Effies Committee and numerous award judging panels.
Simon Langley has been successfully leading agencies and creative departments for over a decade. A personable and collaborative leader, Simon has a proven track record of producing highly effective, long-term campaigns across all channels, for some of the world’s most iconic brands. Throughout his career in Australia and overseas at some of the industry’s most creative agencies, his work has been recognised at all the major award shows, including over 30 Cannes Lions, multiple D&AD yellow pencils and NY One Show gold, silver & bronze amongst others.
Jacqueline Archer is an awarded, multi-disciplinary, integrated production leader who delivers 360 campaigns across multi discipline platforms. She specialises in managing and leading creative teams to achieve maximum creative and strategic production outcomes for her clients. With over 25 years experience, Jacqueline has a proven track record creating successful campaigns and great relationships with Fortune 500 Companies – including Nestle, BIS, Subway, Kelloggs, Vodafone, BWS, Westfield & HSBC.
A creative communications practitioner with industry experience amassed over 20 years, Richard is a multi-channel expert who believes in the power of storytelling. He co-founded PR and experiential agency Spark Impact, going on to join one of the top global media and communications agency networks where he spent a decade creating memorable experiences that connected brands with consumers.
Katie Ferro joined the data team as General Manager in October 2019, overseeing our operations and client management, and was promoted to CEO in 2020. Prior to this Katie came to us with a strong history in data research, having spent the last 8 years at IRI in senior management roles and had built up a broad knowledge base across various industries and roles.
Originally starting off in the mail room at McCann Erickson as a youngster, Matt went on to be one of the youngest B&T 30-Under-30 winners. Before joining Bastion, Matt had a four year stint as Global Chief Operating Officer at a brand consulting agency. And before that he held the role of General Manager – Media and Sponsorship at Telstra from 2012 to 2015 managing a massive portfolio across 325 markets nationally.
With a career spanning over 20 years, Edwina has worked in media and advertising for businesses such as George Patts, Mojo, ACP, and Conde Naste. Having worked corporate and agency side, Edwina knows the importance of a great work culture. Since joining Bastion, her focus has been building Bastion’s Staff Engagement and Learning and Development program to position the business as one of the world’s most progressive and innovative employers.
Jeremy has more than 30 years financial and commercial experience in the marketing and communications industry. More recently he has spent the last 13 years as the CFO for JWT and Wunderman Thompson across Australia and New Zealand. During this time he also served as Chair of the WPP Australia Finance Group and more recently as a member of the WPPAUNZ Finance Executive Committee.
Solving organisational challenges as an officer/F-16 fighter pilot to serving another decade in C-Level sales and marketing roles, Dax embraces people empowerment and process. Responsible for U.S. growth, Dax believes Bastion’s solution to a fragmented marketing industry is to provide detailed service expected of the smaller owner-operated agencies while also delivering an integrated offering across a number core disciplines by aggregating expert agencies under one roof.
From an early stint in JWT to founding her own quantitative research firm, Joanna comes to us direct from the renowned global quantitative and qualitative research firm, Hall & Partners. Joanna was not only H&P’s 19th hire but Joanna became their Global Partner as they expanded to the US. Joanna went on to become H&Ps Managing Partner of their East Coast and US Health business and the Managing Partner in H&Ps acquisition of Tempo, designed to leverage digital technologies for uncommon insights. Joanna is unequivocally a brand strategy and insights expert with vast experience on the client-side as an ad agency strategist and market research expert for brands such as Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson and L’Oreal to name just a few.
Neva has 25 years of experience managing market research on both the client and supplier sides. She has a real appetite for telling stories and unearthing insights to help brands tackle their business issues, with expertise spanning tech, retail, finance, energy, automotive, and QSR. In her spare time you can find Neva traveling the globe (30 countries so far!) and sipping on a nice bold cabernet.
Chris is a savvy senior leader/marketer with over 20 years’ experience in integrated marketing developing brand-building strategies, managing paid and earned media campaigns, and building analytics tools. His experience stems from growing up in his parents marketing company to branching out on his own, having worked in various agencies such as Dentsu Next and Deutsch while serving clients in a broad range of industries including Mazda North America Operations, Doner Advertising on behalf of Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine, Mazda as well as Jenny Craig, Adidas, Kia, Hyundai and VW to name just a few. When Chris is not leading the business, he is an avid sailor with a passion for superyacht regatta racing on the open seas.
Shana’s expertise lies in the “getting it done” category and she works with her team to implement strategies and initiatives centered around exposure for growth.
Armed with an MBA and specialization in business services industries, Tracy has worked with companies across America to achieve financial and operational success.
Thanks to his knack for understanding business quickly and creating growth opportunities, Fergus Watts has assisted some of Australia’s most dynamic companies in charting the future of their marketing and communications. First and foremost, Fergus believes that a company is nothing without quality people growing within it. He has even fostered his own education program, the Bastion Degree, to help turn visionary young workers into well rounded self-starters.