Management buyout of Kastner in Sydney sees the launch of new agency O’Shea & O’Brien

February 20 2013, 10:52 am | BY Lynchy | 29 Comments

OKastner & Partners in Sydney, founded by Darryn Devlin in 2002, who departed in late 2009, has been taken over by Kath O’Shea and Ben O’Brien (pictured left), previous local partners in the Australian arm of the Kastner network.

The new agency name is O’Shea & O’Brien, or less formally, O&O. O’Shea is the managing director and O’Brien is the executive creative director. O&O has been contracted to continue work with both Kastner & Partners International and Red Bull Australia, as the retained agency.

The foundation clients of O&O include Red Bull, Air Niugini and the Centro Shopping Centre Group.

Says O’Shea: “It’s a great privilege to continue our long term partnership with Red Bull… indeed, O&O is absolutely delighted to kick off with such a robust and interesting set of foundation clients, and new business clients yet to be announced. We are in a very strong position for future growth.”

Says O’Brien: “Clients are finding our unique Fire Model very interesting. Our mission is to create lifelong fanatics for brands, which drives all the work we create. We’re very excited about some of the ideas we have in the pipeline, across a wide range of media.”

The management buyout in Sydney comes as part of a global change made by Kastner & Partners Worldwide. Kastner & Partners in Mexico, Kastner & Partners in Cape Town, and now Kastner & Partners in Sydney are no longer part of the network, bringing the total number of global offices down from eleven to eight.

Says Thomas Grabner, chief executive officer, Kastner & Partners Worldwide: “We are looking forward to working with Kath & Ben at O’Shea & O’Brien in the future as they will continue working on the Red Bull account as our ‘new’ partner agency. The network changes were made in order to match Red Bull centralising their marketing efforts. It makes sense for a small network like us to focus on fewer markets and to avoid extensive geographical distances. We are very happy that we are able to give Kath and Ben the chance to manage their very own agency. We look forward to working with them in the future as much as we did in the past.”

The new O’Shea & O’Brien agency has moved from K&P’s old Pyrmont premises to new Chippendale premises. The agency will be announcing other new business wins in weeks to come.