Ardmore Group takes stake in Dublin creative agency Bonfire

Belfast's Ardmore Advertising Group has bought into Bonfire, the Dublin creative agency, in a deal that funds an expansion of the agency's footprint at 22 Ely Place. Terms were not disclosed.

Bonfire was founded in 2005 by Ian Doherty and Sean Hynes. It stays independent under Hynes, who keeps the brand and creative lead. The structure is the familiar one for these cross-border tie-ups: capital and group resource on one side, a protected agency identity on the other.

For Bonfire, the investment brings access to skill sets it would otherwise have to build or buy: media planning, e-commerce, performance marketing, brand experience, PR and government affairs sit across the wider Ardmore Group.

For Ardmore, the logic is geographic. The deal gives the group an all-island offering and adds creative weight in Dublin, a market it did not previously hold in.

John Keane, Ardmore's chairman and chief executive, said the draw was Bonfire's record of effective, award-winning work, and that the people behind it brought the deal together. Hynes pointed to cultural fit as a deciding factor, framing the deal as a way to hold the momentum behind Bonfire's recent growth.

No financial terms, earnout or equity split were disclosed.