Big Communications, part of The Mission Marketing Group, has acquired creative agency Quorum for an undisclosed sum as part of the company’s ambitious growth strategy.
The acquisition will see Quorum founders Billy Mawhinney and Simon Collins both joining Big in Leicester. Mawhinney will join Big as its creative director to head up the company’s 25-strong creative department and report direct to CEO Dylan Bogg, while Collins takes up a creative consultative role.
Prior to setting up Quorum, Mawhinney was creative director at BJL in Manchester and before that held senior creative roles in London agencies including JWT and BBH. During his career, he has produced award-winning brand campaigns for Asda, Rice Krispies, Kit Kat, Smarties, Wotsits and Bran Flakes, amongst others.
Commenting on the investment, Big’s CEO Dylan Bogg said, “Billy and I have known each other for years and the opportunity to acquire Quorum was certainly a timely conversation. Billy is one of the most awarded creative heads in the business, and we look forward to him joining our team and helping us to develop the company and achieve the next phase of growth.”
Mawhinney added: “When Dylan made the initial approach, it really was an easy decision to make. Opportunities to join a company with a track record like Big’s don’t come along very often and it’ll be exciting to be part of a much bigger creative department. They have a fantastic client base, extremely talented creative team and a real vision for the business.”
It has been a very busy start to 2012 for Big, which announced in January that it was bringing in Tim Gearey (ex McCann-Erickson Bham and Golley Slater) to head up a new PR and social media division.