End of the road for The Campaign Palace
The Campaign Palace – once one of Australia’s most respected ad agencies – is to be folded into JWT, WPP has announced.
The announcement comes days after Mumbrella revealed the imminent departure of executive chairman Mark Mackay from the troubled agency.
The agency has been in decline for some time. Last year, The Campaign Palace Sydney was scored bottom out of the 30 agencies features in the Mumbrella Creative Agency Review.
Recent years saw a revolving door of management arrivals and departures with many clients including Bonds, Target, Westpac and Domino’s drifting out of the door.
The announcement:
JWT Australia has taken over operations of fellow WPP agency The Campaign Palace, moving all existing staff and clients into its Sydney office from July 1.
“This move is designed to give Palace clients and staff the benefit of added resources to continue to deliver the exceptional work and results that the Palace has long been renowned for,” said JWT Australia New Zealand CEO John Gutteridge.
“There was a need for greater resources to be available to Palace operations and with no conflicting clients, moving into JWT makes perfect sense. We have nothing but respect and admiration for the role the Palace has played over the years in shaping the Australian advertising landscape and we are very much looking forward to working with both their clients and staff.”
The Campaign Palace name will not continue to be used at this stage.
“A great deal of consideration needs to be given to what is one of the industry’s most iconic agencies, so while The Campaign Palace name will not be used at this stage, this may change in the future,” added Gutteridge.
Accounts moving to JWT include Bayer, Panasonic, and Smartraveller.
The Campaign Palace Melbourne-based staff has been integrated into the Y&R Group in Collins St.
JWT Sydney’s Mark Harricks will continue to lead the creative team at JWT as executive creative director.
shame! Such an iconic brand
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It’s all a bit sad, really…
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There should be a public holiday in recognition of what they did for Australian Advertising on the Global stage. Sad day!
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Great shame, worked there years ago. maybe they should have just kept their “creative excellence” positioning and not got involved with trying to compete with the “big boys” on strategy, media and BTL activities.
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I remember the day Gordon & Lionel started it…I won’t remember the day it closed.
A tragedy, such an innovative brand
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Although not surprising it is a crying shame.
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WPP should hang their head in shame. Ruined Patts, Killed the Palace. and for what? ti’s not like Y&R or JWT are kicking huge goals in Australia.
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the Y&R Brands group is a case study on how to absolutely gut and destroy an ad agency
as Sad mentioned…they have destroyed Patts and obliterated the Palace by a series of transactional decisions and bad strategy
fyi, JWT gets the Palace because their only client left is Panasonic and Patts have LG
A great agency. With Mojo [in its heyday], MCR, Rogers Holland and Everingham and probably Clems today, one of the best, if not the best Australian creative agency ever.
It’s the one agency everyone wanted to work at. There was a time if you said you worked at The Palace, that was all the credentials you needed. Thanks Gordon. Thanks Lionel. Thanks, Ronnie, Jack, John, Rob, Ian, Tony, Chris, Terry, and the other Terry, James, Scott – you were the best.
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Sad to see.
Was completely avoidable, but not with the Y&R management-by-spreadsheet approach.
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And Russel said….?
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Terrible shame……we need more agencies prepared to shake the tree and become leaders like the Palace did.
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Why not offer it up at minimal cost to the legends who built it?
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Sunny Friday afternoons on the balcony with a glass of crisp white…..those were the days. Oh yeah, and the great work.
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The day they started trying to be media planners I knew they’d lost the plot. It’s ok to seek diversified revenue opportunities as long as you don’t lose your magic along the way
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My advertising career started at The Palace and what a start it was! Working with the BEST in the country was indeed a priviledge. Couldn’t agree more with ‘Sad’s’ comment. RIP TCP.
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Award winning creative work that built brands and sold product.
A great loss to Australian marketers. Hope they realise it.
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Is this the same Campaign Palace that the CEO of Y&R Brands said two months ago was safe in their hands as the business was cyclical and they would support it until it was back on it’s feet?
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Irony…! A business that’s core business is solving business problems and helping sick brands get better dies itself. The management of the past 10 years should be ashamed of themselves.
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This is rubbish. Not everyone has a job to go to, a lot of staff have been left without a position, including those that were the longest standing team members. Foreigners in there without a clue of what the brand stood for in Australia, and was just a spreadsheet to them. And when you’ve got puppeteers in the sky (head office in NY) pulling the strings it never stood a chance. Its all lies.
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I was fortunate to be part of the Fitzroy Street Palace – creativity was awesome – the support and friendship was sincere – truly a fun and very proud memory.
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