More about HaasXSwitch, Cape Town's new advertising agency

Glynn Venter, chief creative officer and Tarryn Burton, managing director, make up the dynamic duo heading up HaasXSwitch

EXCLUSIVE: Haas Advertising merges with Switch Cape Town to form HaasXSwitch

22 Nov 2021

The duo shares more about the newly launched HaasXSwitch...

Can you comment on the merger between Haas Advertising and Switch Cape Town

The merger was thought through very carefully - we actually decided to “date” before we started the merger process - Switch Cape Town moved into our offices more than eight months ago so that we could test if this was the perfect fit and more important to see if the two agencies cultures could fit.

Soon we saw the potential of a bigger offering to our existing clients and we began feeding off each other strengths - this was done in a cross billing format where each agency basically billed the other each month for work done.

Could you comment on the process of this integration.

While trading as two entities, we started the merger in the background - and if anyone has done a merger before you would agree it's not as simple as a joint bank account. From the heads of agreement to the structure of the merger, directorship, shareholding to new contracts, staff interviews, client meetings and many more we eventually finalised it all and started trading as the new entity from 2 November 2021. We were very aware of our staff and wanted to make sure that they were informed throughout the process.

What services will HaasXSwitch be offering?

We will operate as a full-service agency with a big focus on digital. We offer traditional advertising, experiential, pure design, packaging and PR.

With the integration of the two teams, what are the objectives?

To truly practice what we preach and that is full integration - to be able to put teams together of different disciplines to work across fully integrated campaigns - giving creatives the opportunity to think about big ideas and not channel-specific ideas. We believe we should be channel-neutral and once you have a big idea then only we roll that out into channels.

What's the big project you're currently working on?

Sadly, we are not able to reveal too much about our current projects, however, the first is a global account as our first win and the second is a brand pitch...Watch this space!

The other big project is on Sanlam Private Wealth - a new brand campaign for 2022. The launch of a new men's facial range (African extracts, Rooibos Man) and a massive housing and business (live, work, play) development in Uganda.