VisitBritain bolsters its team in Australia

Havas Group ANZ has announced a planned leadership transition at health communications agency, Bastion Brands, with Dan King promoted to Managing Director.

The appointment follows Founder and CEO of Bastion Brands, Simon Davies' decision to step away from the Australian business at the end of June to spend time with family overseas. He will subsequently support Havas Health projects in Europe.

As Managing Director, Dan will lead Bastion Brands' Melbourne and Sydney offices. His focus is to continue the agency's momentum through innovation, specialist capability, and collaboration across Havas, working with both local and international clients.

Dan joined the agency in 2019 and was most recently Executive Director. During his tenure, he's worked across Australian and global clients on commercial and communications programs for medical, pharmaceutical, and life science businesses.

"Bastion Brands has always stood for work that respects science and moves people to act," said Simon.

"I am incredibly proud of what this team has built with our clients since 2012. Thank you to our people and our partners for the trust and the results we achieved together. The business is performing strongly, and the acquisition has been a huge success, we are now fully integrated within Havas, this is the right moment to pass the baton. Dan knows our clients, our people and our craft. The agency is in great hands. I want to thank the Havas leadership of James Wright, Donna Murphy and Charles Houdoux for their incredible support, partnership and valued counsel."

James Wright, CEO of Havas Group ANZ said: "Simon leaves a legacy at Bastion Brands and within Havas ANZ. He helped create a specialist agency that pairs scientific depth with powerful creativity to drive outcomes for clients. Simon is a great friend, and I want to thank him for the enduring impact he has made.

"Equally, I want to celebrate Dan’s promotion, he has been central to the agency’s continued growth. His leadership through the transition will ensure continuity for clients and set the pace for what comes next. We hope to welcome Simon back into the Havas ANZ fold when he returns from Europe in late 2027."

^{(Pictured, Bastion Brands senior team from left: Matthew Gill, Sidony Laing, Daniel King, Simon Davies, Rhian Shinners, Katie Colson, and Matt Chilvers)} 

Herd MSL Australia has partnered with search specialists from Publicis Groupe ANZ to launch Elevate, a new AI search visibility, authority, and measurement service.

Designed to help brands strengthen visibility, credibility, and consideration, Elevate addresses what the agency describes as the challenge of how brands are framed, trusted, and recommended across fragmented, AI‑powered search environments.

The service assesses the quality of a brand's representation, identifying both strong and weak signals of credibility, relevance, and authority, while highlighting where investment in owned content and earned media can influence outcomes.

Speaking on AI search's evolution into a reputation engine, CEO of Herd MSL, Skye Lambley, said: "It doesn't just decide who appears - it shapes how brands are described, trusted and recommended.

"Winning isn't just about showing up more - it's about showing up better. The brands that perform strongly are backed by credible, high quality earned and owned authority: trusted coverage and content, expert validation and consistent third-party proof points. That takes more than content output or disruption - it requires a sophisticated earned and owned strategy and execution to shape how a brand is represented, not just whether it’s mentioned."

Elevate connects three specialist Publicis Groupe ANZ capabilities within a single service:

• Category‑level search intelligence: Understanding what people are searching for across a category, how demand is forming, and where brands, competitors and third‑party sources are showing up - revealing gaps, risks and opportunities to influence discovery.
• AI search strategy and content structuring: Identifying priority question clusters, decoding the signals AI systems use to generate responses, and defining what needs to change to improve how brands are selected, framed and explained in AI‑search results.
• Earned & owned authority building: Designing and delivering insight‑led owned and earned programs that efficiently build third‑party validation, expert presence and credible references - strengthening the signals AI systems rely on when generating responses.

Nilesh Pritam has joined Veeam Software as its Director of Corporate Communications for Asia Pacific. Based in Singapore, he oversees the company’s regional communications activities, including media relations, executive communications, employee engagement and analyst relations.

Nilesh spent more than 15 years at Verizon, most recently as Head of Corporate Communications, Asia Pacific. He has also held senior communications roles at Ogilvy and Tandberg.