BMF hires Paddy Douneen as media director
Creative agency BMF is to push into media, with the appointment of a media director, in an Australian first for an ad agency of its size.
Paddy Douneen, previously national advertising director for Fairfax’s integrated solutions offering, joined the agency this week. Prior to his five years at Fairfax, Douneen worked at media agencies in the UK and Australia including Ikon Communications, Universal @FCB, and MediaStar (now MPG). In Australia he also launched Mediacom out of Grey.
The appointment – which comes after more than four months of talks between Douneen and the agency – will renew questions about whether BMF is attempting to reinvent the full service agency model. Prior to media agencies launching in their own right about a decade ago, most media was planned and bought from within ad agencies.
Asked whether BMF, which was bought by Photon nearly two years ago, might turn to media buying, Douneen – who has years of experience in both media buying and planning – told Mumbrella: “Who knows what might happen in the future. That’s obviously something we might consider down the track. For now it’s more an extension of what’s already here in terms of channel planning. Adding a media planning resource is a natural evolution to the whole BMF philosophy.”
He added: “It’s designed to bring media back to the start of the process, but not to go back to the old model. This is, without doubt, the most exciting opportunity I have seen in a long time.”
Matthew Melhuish, BMF’s CEO, said: “BMF’s media business is growing. Adding Paddy’s depth of experience and commercial nous was a natural step. We are also looking to develop our relationships with vendors and our media agency partners.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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I am a firm believer that the full service agency model can succeed and thrive. Not as before, but reinterpreted taking into account knowledge gleaned from other models.
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Well done mate – good move
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Congrats Mate,
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Great move from bmf and hopefully the start of many more such moves. Always seemed crazy to have creative and media separated especially as fragmentation and diversity grows. And lets face it media companies have been offering creative services for years.
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Congratulations on appointment of Paddy Douneen.
We used to work with BMF prior to Photon takeover and have lost touch. Cavendish is responsible for the supply of very good quality merchandise for media clients – would love to work with you in the future!
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Smart.
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