Ben Lilley on his return, acquisition strategy and making McCann ‘the best creative agency’ in Australia
In his first interview since returning to McCann as its new owner and creative chairman, Ben Lilley spoke with Mumbrella’s Zoe Wilkinson about coming home, burn out and his new acquisition strategy.
When Ben Lilley walked through the doors of McCann two weeks ago, he felt like he was home.
After departing the agency two years ago as CEO and creative chairman, Lilley felt the need to “re-engage [his] business brain again” so he reached out to McCann Worldgroup global CEO Harris Diamond.
“I literally emailed Harris Diamond out of the blue and said, ‘Hey, I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have left. I left too soon. I miss you. Can I come back? And, also maybe there’s an opportunity to buy my agency back?’” Lilley recounts.
“And so the conversation kind of went from there.”
Easy for this to be the worst of both worlds too, I would have thought.
How will local vs global client conflict be managed?
As for the capability build/acquisition strategy, all very well, but surely the IPG portfolio managers will hardly support McCann dialling up its competition with IPG sister agencies like Weber Shandwick, Mediabrands, Futurebrand et al.
It’s complicated enough when you’re trying to get the sister companies playing nice together. Harder still when there is a clear conflict of commercial interest within the family (above and beyond the usual revenue jealousy).
And just from a straight out brand authenticity PoV, can you really be an “independent” if you’re McCann…? Really?
Prediction – this is a transition step to a new brand for the agency. Or at least it will become that way once all the complications surface.
All fair questions, so I’ll answer them here (but if you’re genuinely curious, get in touch via LinkedIn and I’m happy to answer any and all other questions you may have):
“How will local vs global client conflict be managed?”
McCann Australia’s working relationship with McCann Global, IPG and our clients hasn’t changed – only the ownership has. Our contractual obligations remain unchanged. So if any conflicts were to arise, they’d be managed in exactly the same way they always have been across the group.
“As for the capability build/acquisition strategy, all very well, but surely the IPG portfolio managers will hardly support McCann dialling up its competition with IPG sister agencies like Weber Shandwick, Mediabrands, Futurebrand et al.”
We’re not adding any new offerings we don’t already have at McCann, so no not this is also not an issue. We already offer media planning and buying, PR, design etc, under our integrated creative umbrella, as do most other creative agencies. We are and will remain a creative agency first and foremost, but we want to further grow these services to offer the very best integrated solutions we can for our current and future clients.
“And just from a straight out brand authenticity PoV, can you really be an “independent” if you’re McCann…?”
Yes you can and we already are.
“Prediction – this is a transition step to a new brand for the agency.”
Our agency offering and proposition is entirely predicated upon us being a part of the McCann network. As a McCann agency we have the benefit of the global McCann Truth tools and studies and all other McCann and IPG network support, resources and IP. And we get work on brilliant global accounts like Coca Cola, CPW, eBay, MasterCard, LinkedIn, L’Oreal, Menulog, Microsoft and Nestlé. This is why I bought the business. We’d lose all these benefits if we ceased to be part of the McCann network. So no, it wouldn’t make any commercial sense for us our our clients or our staff to adopt a new brand for the agency and lose all this when we can operate as part of (and I obviously say this without any bias whatsoever) the world’s greatest global agency network.
Thanks for replying Ben – and there’s plenty of goodwill out there towards you so best of luck.
I suspect lack of complete local autonomy on the conflict thing will be hard. It flies in the face of an “independent” value proposition in my view.
On the portfolio side, I still suspect that if you start getting “too successful” at the expense of other IPG companies, push will come to shove as I assume the mothership sees a lesser margin outcome for business that goes through McCann vs a wholly owned entity. And that if you’re successful in realising your vision, that it a highly likely outcome – eg Thinkerbell’s success in winning so-called integrated business. Maybe the answer is to focus on bits of the IPG offering that are (a) shit here, and (b) valuable differentiators/capability builds…
Still. Good luck to you.
Just a pity you’re joining the ranks of the real independents 😉
Interesting read and very interested to see the success of smart and McCann can be replicated all over again. Don’t disagree with the comments about the current state of play in the industry right now – the market’s wide open.
Congratulations Ben, looking forward to seeing what happens from here.
Eight years ago I mounted a very public campaign about the ageism I was facing in trying to remain in the industry. At the time Ben had just taken the helm at McCann and a post defending his stance on ageism as being perfectly OK. The post was met with a huge amount of vitriol from both clients and agencies.
Here’s the post:
https://mumbrella.com.au/am-i-ageist-or-a-realist-64839
At the time I did ring Ben and we had a vigorous discussion where we agreed to disagree.
I went on to consult to both agencies and marketing teams for a few years and met some incredible people who were looking for a depth of experience and range of skills that were in short supply.
Along the way, I found a new passion and have taken many of my skills and applied them in a totally new direction, leaving the industry behind after more than 30 years. Sadly, the industry loses many like me at younger and younger ages as many ageist views still remain.
I do hope that Ben’s regret in walking away from the industry has seen his views of hiring a diversity of talent undergo change. The people hired should be, regardless of age, the best people for the job.
Recent redundancies and resignations at McCann may be an indication that yet another reinvention of McCann has its casualties. Hopefully, they are not a result of Ben’s previous ageist stance and he has moved on as he now pushes 50 himself.
A very tenuous link and attempt to resurrect a dead issue Tony.
This news has nothing to do with you or the ageism debate of nine years ago.
Best of luck to him. It’s great to hear someone talking so ambitiously about our industry and putting creative at the centre of it. And he’s putting his money where his mouth is. Bring it on.
“It is smarter to buy than build… ” reading it next to “culture that is rampant in the industry”
Nothing aligns here, except the short term thinking of the agency leaders that has been spreading like a plague on this slow dying industry.
Ben thanks for being so open – although that client list is a little hopeful. Are all those clients with McCann in Australia?
Could you also please let us know whose money it is you’re using to buy the independents?
Thanks for your interest.
Firstly yes these are all global McCann clients who are also contracted McCann Australia clients. In Sydney it’s: Coca Cola, CPW, eBay, MasterCard, LinkedIn, Menulog, Microsoft and Nestlé. And in Melbourne L’Oreal. I realise this list looks almost too good to be true – I thought so myself when I first joined McCann! Most of our clients run agency rosters so we’re certainly not 100% engaged on every brand and account and there are other very good agencies who also work on each. But they’re all active and current McCann Australia clients.
We obviously also have many other fantastic Australian clients across our Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland offices. But the full list is too extensive to include here and is frankly always changing (occupational hazard!)
On the qustion of acquisition funding, it will depend on the specifics of each. At SMART we had a commercial lending facility specifically for our M&A activity with Suncorp, who were great supporters and who we enjoyed an excellent relationship with. At McCann our previous acquisitions were all self-funded. It will really depend on the size and metrics of each.