mUmBRELLA

The newly published Mumbrella Creative Agency Review examines Australia’s top 30 ad agencies. Today Robin Hicks examines how McCann Sydney has fared over the last 12 months.

In our survey, McCann Sydney finds itself propping up the rest in a category no agency wants to seen as deficient in – creativity. So it just as well that the agency’s ECD, Michael Raso, who jetted in from the network’s New York office in January 2011, has performed extensive surgery on the creative department. More recently, the reverse take-over by Smart in September promises a fresh start for the struggling Interpublic agency.

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Yesterday, I messed up. I stumbled upon what I thought was a new ad for Hungry Jack’s on YouTube, and we wrote a short story about it.

It was a blunder because it had actually been around for a few weeks, and we should have checked properly.

Rightly, our readers gave us the kicking we deserved for such sloppiness.   Read more »

The newly published Mumbrella Creative Agency Review examines Australia’s top 30 ad agencies. Today Robin Hicks examines how M&C Saatchi Sydney has fared over the last 12 months.

If new business was the only measure of the success, M&C Saatchi Sydney would be untouchable.

Named agency of the decade in a survey of new business performance by The Agency Register in 2010, M&C has gorged itself with new clients: David Jones, Building Brand Australia (Austrade), ING and Eftpos. Read more »

The newly published Mumbrella Creative Agency Review examines Australia’s top 30 ad agencies. Today Robin Hicks examines how M&C Saatchi Melbourne has fared over the last 12 months.

M&C Saatchi had enjoyed a prosperous existence in the Melbourne market, built on the back of founding client ANZ. Until this year, when the bank switched its $55m account to Whybin\TBWA\Melbourne after a pitch that also saw fellow incumbent DDB lose out.

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In Japan, a business card is an absolute necessity for doing business. It is seen as an extension of a person, to be treated with the utmost respect, delivered with two hands and a slight bow, and studied upon receipt with meticulous interest. In Australia, a business card – if one is carried at all – is often reluctantly produced from the depths of a wallet, crumpled, dog-eared and sat on, to be used to brush biscuit crumbs from a meeting room table.

The humble business card may seem a little dated in the days of digital devices. But they just might have something to do with corporate and personal branding. So we’ve picked the best – and worst – business cards we’ve collected in recent months.

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The newly published Mumbrella Creative Agency Review examines Australia’s top 30 ad agencies. Today Robin Hicks examines how Leo Burnett Sydney has fared over the last 12 months.

To think of the impact Leo Burnett Sydney has had on the industry in recent years. Earth Hour. The boss starring in hit ad show The Gruen Transfer. Consistently one of Australia’s biggest award winners. Winning Campaign Brief’s NSW creative agency of the year. Ranking top of AdNews’ list of Australia’s most awarded agencies. Yes, CEO Todd Sampson can be forgiven for feeling a little disappointed with his agency’s position in our survey. Overall, it ranked 10th.

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The newly published Mumbrella Creative Agency Review examines Australia’s top 30 ad agencies. Today Robin Hicks examines how Leo Burnett Melbourne has fared over the last 12 months.

It is not easy having a sister agency in Sydney that is twice the size and many more times as famous. Leo Burnett Melbourne does not have a boss who has been on a top-rating TV show. Or one, for that matter, who has climbed Mount Everest. And it has not produced a campaign like Earth Hour. What a difference Cannes can make. Read more »

The newly published Mumbrella Creative Agency Review examines Australia’s top 30 ad agencies. Today Robin Hicks examines how JWT Sydney has fared over the last 12 months.

Since the appointment of John Gutteridge as national CEO of JWT Australasia in July 2010, replacing Noel Magnus, the Sydney office has acquired a more settled look about it. The revolving door that has characterised the agency in recent years has stopped spinning, leaving the agency to knuckle down to some decent work for internationally aligned clients such as Kellogg’s, Johnson & Johnson and Nestle.

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In this guest post, Adam Ferrier reckons that the world got a bit carried away with the death of the man behind Apple.

The Naked office is a reasonably fun and happy place. On the whole it’s free of workplace bullying, and most people clock in and out at a reasonable hour.  However, recently something happened that caused great upset to our staff – it was beyond our control and very worrying.  There were group emails sent around with messages of condolence, and perhaps even a tear or two.  However, it wasn’t just our office – the same scenes of morning could be seen right across the world. What happened?

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The newly published Mumbrella Creative Agency Review examines Australia’s top 30 ad agencies. Today Robin Hicks examines how JWT Melbourne has fared over the last 12 months.

As international networks go in Australia, JWT’s Melbourne office is
one of the few that threatens to make a real impact on the market this year.
The bosses on Balmain Street are all too aware that JWT is – like the Sydney
office – lumbered with a reputation as an old school agency dependent on
internationally aligned clients and are keen to reinvent an agency that seems to have spent a while in the wilderness.

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In this guest posting, Cathie McGinn of media agency Mindshare reflects on today’s passing of Apple chairman Steve Jobs.

RIP Steve Jobs. In all the years I’ve been using social networks, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single topic so quickly and absolutely swamp all media. Within seconds of Jobs’ death being announced, Twitter was dominated by tributes.

Steve Jobs changed everything in terms of marketing and technology. And changed it again. Read more »

The newly published Mumbrella Creative Agency Review examines Australia’s top 30 ad agencies. Today Robin Hicks examines how Innocean has fared over the last 12 months.

Not the most popular choice to be included in this report. One panellist echoed the view of a number of others with the one-word summary, “who?” This view comes through in our survey. Innocean receives a kicking in almost every category, coming near bottom for creativity, planning, talent, commercial success, and rock bottom for its impact on the industry, talent and momentum. It does well in one category, however: client stability.

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The newly published Mumbrella Creative Agency Review examines Australia’s top 30 ad agencies. Today Robin Hicks examines how Host has fared over the last 12 months.

Host has a pretty good excuse for having had a quieter year than usual. The agency can no longer claim to be the best independent agency in Australia, having sold a majority stake to French group Havas in July, making a wealthy man of Anthony Freedman, who founded the agency a decade ago.

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So is there something about advertising culture that creates an instinct to behave in an inherently inauthentic way?

The latest example comes to us courtesy of Panasonic.   Read more »

The newly published Mumbrella Creative Agency Review examines Australia’s top 30 ad agencies. Today Robin Hicks examines how Grey Melbourne has fared over the last 12 months.

Grey Melbourne has built a solid reputation as a government communications specialist, and is described by one panellist as “one of the safest pairs of hands in advertising”. So it is a little ironic that its sibling is G2, a self-styled ‘vice agency’ with British American Tobacco as its biggest client.

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In this guest posting, Peter Biggs wonders whether the Nike swoosh belongs in the Louvre.

Advertising and art are subjective worlds: what is beautiful to one is ugly to another, or what’s genius on the one hand is stupidity on the other. I mean, the Mona Lisa isn’t exactly a hottie, is she? And the idea of a clown and a petty thief endorsing fast food seems ludicrous, right?

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The newly published Mumbrella Creative Agency Review examines Australia’s top 30 ad agencies. Today Robin Hicks examines how GPY&R Melbourne has fared over the last 12 months.

In a converted department store on Collins Street, change is afoot. Though there is little suggestion that former glories are about to be dramatically resurrected at Patts Melbourne, the agency has been quietly establishing itself as one of Australia’s best agencies by bringing itself up to date.

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The newly published Mumbrella Creative Agency Review examines Australia’s top 30 ad agencies. Today Robin Hicks examines how Droga5 has fared over the last 12 months.

Droga5 is an agency with a charmed brand, and one that punches well above its weight. Still a young, smallish agency with 50 staff, our survey places Droga5 as Australia’s fourth best player, beating plenty of more established, far bigger, but less fashionable shops.

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