Taking Over Havas' Bastion Brands: What Dan King Inherited and What Changes Now
As Dan King steps into the MD role at Bastion Brands, he talks about the 40% prescription rise on one client's brands, the Havas relationship, and why specialist health agencies are anything but limited.
Dan King has spent years working alongside Simon Davies at Bastion Brands. Now, as he steps into the MD role following Davies' retirement, he talks about what the transition really looks like from the inside, why the health sector is underestimated, and what the 40% prescription rise on one client's brands tells him about what actually works.
Bastion Brands has been closely identified with Simon Davies since its launch. What does it mean to take over now?
Taking over Bastion Brands at this moment is both a responsibility and an opportunity. Simon built an agency with real substance, deep expertise in health, strong client relationships, and a reputation for doing work that matters.
For me, it’s less about a change in direction and more about building on that foundation with clarity and pace. The first thing I want both clients and staff to understand is that this isn’t a reset. It’s an evolution. We’ll continue to be a leading specialist health agency, but with a sharper focus on impact and outcomes: combining scientific credibility with creativity that genuinely shifts behaviour.
Leadership-wise, I’m very focused on openness and momentum, being closer to clients, backing our people, and making sure we’re moving as fast as the market now demands.
Internal successions can look seamless. What conversations mattered most?
Planning the 11/10 transition plan was critically important. These transitions only look seamless if the hard conversations happen early.
The most important discussions were around intent and role clarity. Simon and I spent a lot of time aligning on what needed to stay consistent — our standards, our values, our client focus, and where change was necessary to maintain our future focus and keep the business competitive.
Equally important were the transparent conversations and planning with our senior team. A leadership transition only becomes credible when it’s understood and supported internally. That meant being clear about the transition plans, how responsibilities would shift, and what success looks like going forward.
Credibility doesn’t come from the announcement. It comes from how people experience the change day to day and understand the personal impact it has on them.
Leighton Cosseboom
What do clients need most from a health-focused agency now vs. three to four years ago?
The biggest shift is the demand for integration between scientific rigour and audience understanding.
Three or four years ago, clients often sought strong medical accuracy and compliance as a baseline. That’s still critical, but now it’s not enough. They need partners who can translate complex science into something meaningful, persuasive, and culturally relevant.
There’s a much greater expectation around achieving behaviour change and measurable outcomes. Clients aren’t just asking for awareness. They want to understand what helped them achieve their objectives, whether that’s patient adherence, HCP engagement, or public health outcomes. The emphasis on measuring outcomes provides our clients with insights to shape future strategies and a greater competitive advantage.
Bastion was recently appointed to a client’s infectious disease portfolio. They’d been underwhelmed by their previous agency’s work, which lacked strategy and creativity and hadn’t helped their brands stand out meaningfully to their HCP customers. In Australia, compared to global performance, their brands had underperformed with lacklustre market share results.
Over the last year, the client has been inspired by Bastion’s strategy and creativity and moved their account to us. They’ve also been confident enough to back Bastion’s work and go to market with creative that really stands out. The results have been incredible. The client’s most recent market share results show a 40% rise in prescriptions, in line with the campaigns going to market here in Australia.
Where does the wider agency world underestimate health marketing?
I think the industry still underestimates how creatively demanding health can be.
There’s a perception that regulation limits creativity, but in reality, it forces a different kind of discipline. You have to be sharper, more precise, and more inventive to land an idea that is both compliant and compelling.
Health is also at the forefront of trust. In a world where misinformation is everywhere, the ability to build credible, evidence-led narratives that HCPs and patients believe and act on is incredibly valuable.
That intersection of trust, behaviour change, and storytelling is where some of the most interesting work in our industry is happening.
Leighton Cosseboom
How do you want Bastion Brands to evolve under your leadership?
The opportunity is to sharpen, not broaden.
We don’t need to be everything to everyone. We need to be the best at what we do. That means doubling down on our position as a specialist health agency that can connect science, strategy, and creativity in a way that drives real outcomes.
Where I see the biggest opportunity is in making our thinking more visible and more proactive, bringing clients solutions before they ask, and helping them navigate increasingly complex health landscapes.
It’s also about continuing to invest in talent; people who can operate comfortably across medical, strategic, and creative disciplines. People who live our values, who have a growth mindset, who are curious about the future of technology, and who are passionate about improving health outcomes.
I’m focused on helping Bastion strengthen a culture that lifts our people up, supporting their progress by creating opportunities for ambitious individuals to grow at their own pace.
What does being part of Havas unlock? And what needs protecting?
The Havas network gives us scale and access that’s incredibly valuable: global insights, specialist capabilities, and a connected health network that allows us to tap into expertise across markets.
For clients, that means we can bring a broader perspective, a higher quality of talented people, and more integrated solutions, particularly on regional or global briefs.
At the same time, we must protect what makes Bastion Brands distinct. Our agility, our local expertise, and our close client relationships in our Australian market. That independence in how we think and operate is a big part of our value.
The balance is using the Havas network, where it adds value, without losing the clarity of who we are.
Where is the biggest tension between science, commercial outcomes, and creativity?
The tension is in simplification.
Science is inherently complex, but commercial success often depends on making that complexity accessible and actionable. At the same time, creativity demands clarity and emotional resonance.
The risk is either over-simplifying and losing credibility, or over-complicating and losing engagement. Finding the right balance of complexity versus simplicity, science versus emotion, is played out regularly between many of our client partnerships.
The real skill is in translating, not diluting, science into ideas that people can understand and respond to, while still delivering against commercial objectives. Then, being committed to measuring the outcomes. Without measurement and a clear understanding of what works, all we have are deliverables that may have made no real impact.
What will you do differently?
One of my priorities is to increase the agency’s outward focus.
That means being more proactive in how we engage with clients and the broader market, sharing thinking, challenging briefs, and bringing new ideas forward earlier.
Internally, it’s also about creating more cross-disciplinary collaboration within our teams and across the Havas Village network here in Australia and globally. The best health work sits at the intersection of strategy, medical, and creative, and I want to make that integration even stronger.
So while there’s continuity in what we stand for, there will be a noticeable shift in energy, visibility, and pace.
Leighton Cosseboom
What shifts are you seeing in ANZ health communications over the next 12 to 18 months?
A few key shifts stand out.
First, there’s a continued move towards patient-centricity, but with more sophistication. It’s not just about messaging anymore. It’s about designing experiences for HCPs and patients that genuinely support behaviour change.
Second, digital health and data are becoming more central. Clients are looking for ways to use data more effectively, whether that’s in targeting, personalisation, or measurement.
Third, there’s increasing scrutiny around trust and transparency. Brands need to be clearer about their evidence, their intent, and their impact.
Finally, it’s about outcomes and impact. For too long, our clients’ success has been measured by the delivery of outputs on quality, time, and budget. We need to push the market towards understanding what actually works beyond delivering materials. Investing in materials that drive no impact, or lack measurement of outcomes, is no longer good enough.
As I mentioned earlier, our client with an infectious disease portfolio launched our standout creative campaign activity late in 2025. As an outcomes-focused agency, we worked with our client to measure the impact of our campaign. We’re very pleased to share that our outcomes-focused strategy and creative delivered a client-reported 40% market share increase. The shift to outcomes and impact will be a key driver of strategy, creative, and client relationships over the next 12 to 18 months.
What assumption about specialist health agencies would you challenge?
The assumption that specialist means limited.
There’s sometimes a perception that health agencies are narrow in scope or less creative than general agencies. In reality, the opposite is often true.
Working in health requires you to navigate complexity, regulation, and high-stakes outcomes, while still producing work that connects with doctors, connects with patients, and does this in a meaningful and memorable way.
That combination builds a level of strategic and creative capability that is highly transferable and increasingly relevant beyond traditional health categories.
Bastion Brands is a specialist health agency and part of the Havas network. Learn more at bastionbrands.com.au.
