Australia’s best strategists to share their secrets at SAGE
Some of Australia’s most respected media and creative strategists are to share their secrets at next month’s SAGE conference.
SAGE – Secrets of Agency Excellence – is organised by Mumbrella’s sister marketing intelligence tool The Source. The one day masterclass takes place in Melbourne on November 20 and Sydney on November 21.
The session will get into the minds of chief strategists and planners as they reveal how to put strategy at the heart of an idea and how to hone your skills as a strategist.
The Sydney session will be moderated by Jonathan Pease, executive ideas director and managing partner of Tongue. He will be joined by Al Crawford, executive planning director of Clemenger BBDO Sydney, Rob Pyne, founder of X or Y Decisions; Razor co-founder Simon Rush and MindShare CEO Katie Rigg-Smith.
Melbourne’s panel will be moderated by Sapient Nitro’s national strategy director Phil Phelan with panelists including Naked Melbourne MD Tom Ward; DDBC executive planning director Ian Forth and Ikon Melbourne MD Trudi Sampola.
Sydney strategy panel:
Al Crawford is one of the industry’s most entertaining presenters, with his experience in Australia including three years as head of planning at DDB Group and five years at Clemenger BBDO Sydney. He trained in the legendary media department of the British agency BMP. Earlier this month, his article on how to bluff it as a strategist became one of the most shared articles of the year on Mumbrella.
Jonathan Pease is co-founder of stratgey-led agency Tongue, where he has been since 2009. Before that he spent three years as executive ideas director of Naked Communications. He also did a stint as global creative director of Mambo and was a judge on Australia’s Next Top Model.
Katie Rigg-Smith made her name as one of medialand’s brightest thinkers as chief strategy officer at MindShare. This year saw her promoted to CEO of the WPP agency, one of the youngest people to have held the role.
Simon Rush is a media veteran, having founded the respected media independent Razor a decade ago. He previously spent five years with Optimedia.
Rob Pyne has more than 15 years experience in media, and is the former strategy director for OMD and head of client media strategy for News Media. His previous role was as chief strategy officer for MFA Grand Prix winners Initiative, and in February he set up decision making training company X or Y.
Melbourne strategy panel:
Phil Phelan has more than 15 years in strategy and business roles. He joined SapientNitro earlier this year after seven years with MediaCom where he was strategy director and managing director.
Tom Ward will be making one of his first appearances since taking the helm of MD of Naked Communications’ Melbourne operation. He was previously national head of strategy and insight at GPY&R.
Ian Forth is executive planning director at DDB which has been making waves around the strategy underpinning the much talked about new Devondale campaign. Like Crawford, above, he is another product of the BMP/ DDB planning department in the YK.
Trudi Sampola has worked in strategy across a string of sectors including retail, telco, banking and FMCG. MD of Ikon Melbourne since 2011, she also founded and ran her own consultancy and boasts a previous job title of Inventiologist. She was also a strategist with OMD and Naked UK.
SAGE will see a series of presentations and discussions on many of the key aspects required for an agency – and its staff – to succeed.
Panelists have already been revealed for how to develop an agency culture and retain and develop talent, and on account management and how to keep clients happy.
The sessions also include innovation; case studies on creativity in action; the secrets of managing client relationships; how to PR your agency to the trade press and beyond; how to win new business; and how to ensure ongoing commercial success.
SAGE is designed for people working in agency management or business roles, or those aspiring to do so. Panellists will offer useful advice applicable to those working in big agencies or smaller independents. It will also be helpful for people working client-side involved in managing agency relationships.
In addition, the events will see the publication of the findings of The Agency Review – a book written by Mumbrella’s journalists offering an authoritative assessment of every one of Australia’s 50 largest and emerging media and creative agencies, along with a survey of the views of Mumbrella’s readership and a panel of experts.
SAGE is priced at just $495 per head. The price also includes a copy of The Agency Review 2013/14, usually priced at $125. An early bird discount of $100 is available until November 1.
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