Krow swallows up Big Dog in Mission agency restructure

Mission Group agency Big Dog is being folded into sister shop Krow, as part of a major rationalisation spearheaded by group chief executive and former Big Dog boss James Clifton which sees the group go from 16 agencies to 11.
The writing has been on the wall for Big Dog, formed in 2015 from the merger of Balloon Dog and Big Communications, ever since Mission acquired Krow last year in a deal worth an estimated £14.5m.
At the time, Mission said it would integrate Krow with Big Dog and share offices in London, although it insisted both would retain their own brand and leadership teams.
Krow’s clients include DFS, Ferrero, Sky Vegas and Fiat. It was co-founded by former IMP chief John Quarrey and has an income of £8m, with a team of 65 people. Big Dog clients include Barclays, Aviva, Pret, Mazda and Vax. It has offices in London, Norwich and Leicester and has about 135 staff in total.
The newly merged agency will officially launch at the end of October and Mission insists there are no planned redundancies.
Elsewhere in the group, which has 31 offices in the UK, Europe, Asia and US, creative agency Story will expand into Newcastle by taking over Robson Brown and will open a new office in Leeds. Its clients include M&S Bank, Velux and the NHS.
Meanwhile, automotive agency RLA will be folded into April Six, with a client list that includes Volkswagen Group and Peugeot and Citroën owner Groupe PSA.
Finally, Mission has unveiled a new logo and shortened its name from the Mission Marketing Group to reflect the fact that its services have evolved beyond “pure marketing”.
Clifton, who took on the role in April, said: “Since taking on the role, my priority has been to look at how we can build on our position of strength and ensure that the business continues to grow and prosper.
“The new vision, identity and structure of our group not only reflects where we are today, but provides a platform for the future. This platform of ‘collaborative specialists’ harnesses the unrivalled talent that exists within our agencies.”