Gloria Jean’s closes in-house marketing department
Gloria Jean's: looking for an agency?
Gloria Jean’s has folded its in-house marketing department as part of a wholesale strategic review that led to the recent exit of chief executive Gareth Pike.
The closure sees half of the coffee chain’s 25-strong marketing team – branded Immersed Marketing – leave the company, Mumbrella understands.
Among the departures is global marketing manager of campaigns Paul Mendham, a former Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney and AdPartners executive, who brings to an end two years with the brand.
The trimmed-down marketing team leaves open the possibility that Gloria Jean’s will start working with ad agencies again.
A Gloria Jean’s spokesperson told Mumbrella in a statement:
The arrival of a new Group Managing Director presented the company with an opportunity to fully review the business. We have restructured the internal marketing team to focus on brand growth and new product innovations for Gloria Jean’s Coffees in Australia and the international markets. We will work with existing and new agency partners to deliver exciting communication platforms moving forward.
The company did not comment specifically on the redundancies made.
The last ad agency to work with Gloria Jean’s was 303, now known as 303Lowe, in 2010. The company uses Horizon Communications to help with its public relations.
Gloria Jean’s is known to have a considerable marketing budget, with $3m spent on the ‘Stop the world for a Gloria Jean’s moment’ campaign last year.
If that ad was the result of doing it in-house (and likely the biggest thing they did all year), I’m not surprised they’re folding the department. So bland and no idea behind it. Not to mention the talent at the end is creepy as.
Nice to see work moving from in-house to agencies for once, rather than the other way around. I hope an agency does brilliant things with this client.
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Hillsong Dollars hard at work.
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It seems a bit knee-jerk to me. The PR scandal was authentic, that’s not necessarily the marketing department’s fault. I am sure it could have been handled way better but this seems like a big old knee jerk reaction to me.
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Come on “Aunty Viewer” get over it. Gloria Jeans and Hillsong are two completely separate entities. How many times do people have to be told?
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@ Jenna: Agreed that the talent was creepy — how many times do you need to lick your lips and slowly close your eyes?
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If they started making coffee that didn’t taste burnt, it would be a good start. I was opposite a GJ this morning and it wasn’t the ads or the branding or even their homophobic reputation that stopped me going in….I went home and had instant because their coffee tastes terrible.
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What a shitfight!
Also it needs to made clear , Gloria Jean are guilty of job title inflation.
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homophobic reputation?
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@Dana – what was this PR scandal you speak of?
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As long as the agency is held accountable, and are well above average – which most ARE NOT – fine. Ad / creative agencies… like lawyers and hair dressers, are obscenely overpaid for what they deliver. Skill set vs. Remuneration doesn’t add up. And GJ are now just going to be paying for their over styled digs. The only people you will ever hear defend this claim are from an agency. Kind of like how when everyone knows someone is crazy, except the crazy person.
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@awesome, here’s a couple of links: http://www.news.com.au/top-sto.....1115815321 and http://www.afterellen.com/node/30913
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Ive worked with Paul M as both a colleague and client. First class operator – I wish you well mate.
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@The Sky, yes, there are a lot of agencies out there that are crap. But the sweeping generalisation you’ve made is neither accurate, nor fair. Some of the hardest working people I know work in ad agencies. Ask anyone who has gone from ‘agency side’ to ‘client side’ and they’ll tell you the difference.
But yes, a lot of agencies carry dead weight – job titles that mean nothing, and people that do almost the same. The trick for clients is not so much to question the amount of money they’re spending for the agency’s output, but to whom in fact the money is being distributed. And when you get the answer, please try and see through the sales pitch. It’s almost like starting with a blank canvas and asking, ‘okay, what do I need, and who are the people that are going to deliver it?’ Everyone else is almost superfluous.
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Sorry that tvc didn’t encourage me to buy GJ would like the chance to put ideas forward but it’s about the aroma then the taste then the warm feeling
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Be interesting to see the outcome of this… how they go forward with attracting customers in a very competitive market, who they select to do the work, what their affiliations are…
Without wanting to activate the Hillsong protectionists…. Hey EditFreak… look at the facts… The guys that own Gloria Jeans are the leaders of Hillsong…
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what a crappy ad! if that is the best any marketing person can come up with, they need to take a look at themselves.
Imagine, someone had to come up with the idea for that ad, pitch it and a bunch of people had to say ‘good idea’. Really? is that the best they can come up with?
Seriously?
Gloria Jeans would have to be the MacDonalds of coffees. They’ve taken what is otherwise a great product and ruined it by mass production.
Close down the whole chain I reckon.
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Boring! No wonder they’re going external if that’s the best ad they can produce! No doubt they’ll now be paying much much more for using an agency. Great if you like winning awards that only agencies care about but not necessarily any good for much else. Perhaps they should have just cleaned out the deadwood. In house marcomms are seriously undervalued.
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@Doug.. ‘the’ leaders of Hillsong? Get your ‘facts’ right, the owners maybe members that have a pastoral role in the church but they aren’t ‘the’ leaders Hillsong.
Its not uncommon for ‘secular’ business to have close relations with causes or groups, yet it’s ‘fair game’ as a christian church. Charitable donations are common amongst all corporates so i’m loosing the relevance to the Hillsong link here? Are they bad because they make charitable donations?
Last I read this forum was about the marketing news/and or quality of the above advert
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