Switch CT, Burns merge

“The norm in brand development is to fall for ‘the next great idea' without giving thought to the client's overall business strategy,” said S'bu Manqele, group business director for Switch, whose clients up until now have included Parliament (re-brand), 2010 FIFA World Cup (logo), 5FM, Investec, SARFU and SABC). “Industry is fielding a greater call from business for activations which have a direct impact on the bottom line.”

Burns co-founders Johnny Johnson (ex Y&R/Hunt Lascaris) and Kate Clayton bring more than 40 years' strategic planning experience to the table, enabling them to bridge the gap between logic and magic. Commented Johnson: “Our process is deceptively simple but rigorous, and requires logical steps to be followed. The process ensures a strategy is fully informed, substantiated and has buy-in, so that by the time it gets to the creative, execution just flows and comes alive. This involves ongoing one-on-one interaction between strategist and creative.”

Cultural fit

In any successful merger, cultural fit is imperative. This became evident as Burns and Switch collaborated more and more over the past three years, with Burns activating many clients' strategies through Switch Cape Town's specialist design team. What Switch and Burns share are values of diligence, integrity, heart and creativity.

Said Simon Arenhold, MD of Switch Cape Town: “We have a philosophy at Switch which we call ‘design with integrity' - it recognises the balance between intuition and logic, creativity and strategy and that's the very reason we have loved working with Burns; their ability to give us a strategic basis for our creativity - informed intuition, if you like.”

The merger will see Burns relocate from its Woodstock address to Switch Cape Town's new Hudson Street studios in the Waterkant precinct area. The merger was effective from 1 October. “It's an easy one, actually,” said Arenhold “because we have, and are, working so well together already.”

Core positioning

Cognisant of Switch Group's core positioning, Manqele says, “We pride ourselves on the collective talent of our team and our ability to integrate the talents through application in a bid to establish world-class brands for our clients. Our experience has shown that integration is vastly increased by good planning, which includes an excellent way of accessing our clients' knowledge.”