London advertising firm M&C Saatchi has taken a minority stake in the New York creative agency Shepardson Stern & Kaminsky for $8 million.
M&C Saatchi took a 33% stake in SS+K. The move came after the London firmed failed twice in its efforts to establish its own New York division in 1995 and 2007.
SS+K partner Lenny Stern said, “M&C Saatchi has been quietly turning itself into the nimble network alternative to holding company behemoths. For us t means the chance to work internationally without losing our identity in a bureaucratic fly trap.”
M&C Saatchi global CEO Moray MacLennan described SS+K as “intelligent, ambitious and creative to its core.”
“With hindsight, I don’t think we ever invested, if we’re honest with ourselves, the time or money to create a flagship office in Manhattan, the toughest of all markets. It’s a brutal old town you have.”
