Forsman & Bodenfors

Forsman & Bodenfors (F&B) is a Swedish advertising agency, founded 1986 in Gothenburg. The new Forsman & Bodenfors will have around 700 employees in 8 offices: Gothenburg, New York, Stockholm, London, Toronto, Montreal, Shanghai and Singapore.

Forsman & Bodenfors
TypeAdvertising Agency
Founded1986 (1986) Global Merger: Sep 2018
HeadquartersGothenburg & New York
Number of locations
8 offices
Key people
Anna Qvennerstedt (Global Executive Chairman) Guy Hayward (Global CEO) Silla Levin (CEO,Sweden)
ServicesAdvertising
Number of employees
700+
Websitewww.forsman.co/

History

Their first major client was the local newspaper Göteborgs-Posten in 1988, a collaboration that is still ongoing.[1] A year later they got their first client in Stockholm when they signed a deal with food company Semper. Other clients since then include IKEA, Volvo cars and UNICEF.[2]

In The Directory Big Won Rankings for 2012 Forsman & Bodenfors were ranked 10th among the top agencies in the world, and second among Top Digital agencies.[3]

In 2015, the agency recorded $40 million in revenue, and was the creator of the "Epic Split" advertising campaign for Volvo starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.[4]

In June 2016, the company was acquired by MDC Partners Inc. The deal involved an initial payment of $32.3 million in MDC shares. This was the first acquisition by MDC's new CEO, Scott Kauffman.[5] When asked to comment on the deal, F&B's CEO, Erik Sollenberg “We needed a partner to expand our business,” and that “[t]he ad world is becoming more and more global.”[6]

In September 2018, MDC Partners-owned agencies Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners (KBS) and Forsman & Bodenfors are merging to form a new global creative offering under the latter's name, effectively putting an end to the KBS acronym.[7]

KBS and Forsman & Bodenfors are joining forces to form a global creative collective under the Forsman & Bodenfors name.

This brings together Forsman & Bodenfors’ world renowned creative pedigree and way of working with KBS's innovative technology capabilities, media offering, and data strategy – and expands the footprint into the US, Canada, Europe, UK and Asia markets. It’s in the talk on the organization may pull it’s plug in Asia due to the market challenges. The organization is looking to right-size the structure to meet the demand in the market.

Sitting at the helm of this new entity will be global executive chairman Anna Qvennerstedt (former copywriter, senior partner and chairman at the standalone F&B) and global CEO Guy Hayward (who previously held that title at KBS).

References
  1. Andersson, Klas (2002-04-12). "Reklamguld till Göteborg Forsman och Bodenfors som tog hem sammalagt fyra guldägg och sju silverägg". Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 2013-01-19.
  2. http://www.fb.se/clients/
  3. Kennedy, Marie (2013-01-18). ""Man nyper sig i armen" - Ekonomi - www.gp.se". Göteborgs-Posten (in Swedish). Retrieved 2013-01-19.
  4. Vranica, Suzanne. "MDC to Buy Swedish Agency Forsman & Bodenfors". The Wall Street Journal.
  5. Vranica, Suzanne. "MDC to Buy Swedish Agency Forsman & Bodenfors". The Wall Street Journal.
  6. Vranica, Suzanne. "MDC to Buy Swedish Agency Forsman & Bodenfors". The Wall Street Journal.
  7. Rittenhouse, Lindsay. "MDC Partners Retires KBS Brand, Folding It into Forsman & Bodenfors". AdWeek.
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