Creative injection for Red Nail

The Bingo team started their own company five years ago. They subsequently secured clients including Sappi Fine Paper, Gearhouse, Global Warming and the Friends of the Johannesburg ArtGallery but by the middle of last year had reached something of an impasse.

Brown says: "We found that more and more we were involved with the 'business of business' such as administration and less and less in what we really enjoy and are good at, namely producing award winning ideas. This stymied the company's ability to grow its client base.

"It was clear that we needed to bring management expertise into the business that would add weight and provide fresh insight. Initially we attempted to find an MD who would fulfil this role but were unable to secure anyone who we felt was right for the position.

"It was then that we began searching for suitable business partners and discovered that Red Nail was the perfect fit as it shared a number of the same values, ideals and goals."

Red Nail Managing Director, Reinher Behrens says the agency had also reached a crossroads: "After losing our creative director a few months before, we wanted to build on our excellent reputation and high credibility in the market by taking the business to the next level.

"We saw that there were striking similarities between the two groups and after a lengthy courtship - which saw us building our relationship and finally ironing out the fine print of the deal - the process culminated in the merger of Bingo and Red Nail, which took effect on 1 August 2005.

Looking ahead, Behrens says that Red Nail and its new business partners are keen to offer a lot more added value to the agency's existing and future client base: "The new team is already hard at work mining its collective experience to identify new business opportunities and complementary services that will open up exciting revenue streams for the business."