303 Perth: Mumbrella Creative Agency Review
The newly published Mumbrella Creative Agency Review examines Australia’s top 30 ad agencies. Today Robin Hicks examines how 303 Perth has fared over the last 12 months.
303 is the dark horse of our survey, creeping past more established agency brands into the top half of our list of the top 30 creative agencies in Australia. It is the only player to feature in our list that isn’t from Melbourne or Sydney and scores highest in categories that portray an exciting agency on the up – talent, momentum and its impact on the industry.
The work has been at times very impressive, particularly for Perth Festival and Road Safety Council of Western Australia. The signing of Steve Straw from Lowe Singapore sees the agency form a joint associate creative director structure with Richard Berney, providing extra support for highly regarded ECD Simon Langley, who works across both the Perth and Sydney offices.
303 Sydney, which launched in 2007, has recorded decent growth on the back of clients such as Fairfax, Cerebos and Westpac Institutional Bank businesses. And while Perth remains the stronger of the two operations, 303 gains credit for using its talent effectively across both operations.
One panellist notes: “303 has talent that stretches beyond borders, leveraged to great effect in Sydney. In this market, it’s difficult to transfer talent from city to city, but 303 has done it in a fairly astute way. CEO Nick Cleaver bought the remnants of a business, enough to provide a base, and with a lot of guts and patience, built a presence in Sydney bit by bit.”
Another panellist is more circumspect: “303 Perth continues to be a very strong regional agency. But the East Coast agency has yet to fire – in any department, other than winning some business.”
Reflecting its ambitions to build on a stable platform of senior talent, 303 elected planning head Derry Simpson and long-serving media director Clive Bingwa to the board in August.
Looking to the future, the 303 is looking solid – even more so as a deal with Interpublic Group draws closer, bringing to an end 21 years of independence. How 303 will sit with Lowe remains to be seen, but it is testament to 303’s success that the wily Cleaver is sure to run both.
To read more about 303 Perth, including full details on how it was scored by both our expert panel and Mumbrella’s own readers, to view examples of the agency’s work and read its own assessment of its performance, buy a copy of the Mumbrella Creative Agency Review priced at $75. The book features an assessment of the country’s top 30 ad agencies.
To buy the book, click here.
Wily is indeed an apt description of Mr Cleaver
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