DAN continues restructure with the exit of Amplifi’s Luke Manley
Amplifi’s head of programmatic Luke Manley has departed, the latest in a series of exits as Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) CEO Henry Tajer continues his restructure of the holding group. Mumbrella understands Manley’s role was made redundant.
Amplifi’s media and investment arms are being reintegrated into DAN media agencies Carat, Vizeum and Dentsu X, but the brand will continue to exist, cemented with the appointment of Michael Bass as chief investment officer last week, who stepped into the role following Ashley Earnshaw becoming CEO of DAN media agency Vizeum.
Manley began the role in 2017
“Our media business is undergoing a period of change. During this time, our focus remains on our people and our clients,” a DAN spokesperson told Mumbrella.
Manley joined in 2017 from Mamamia, where he was the Victorian sales director after being group sales manager at Ten.
The group-wide DAN restructure began in May, a few months into Henry Tajer’s tenure as CEO, when DAN made a number of executives redundant, including Adrian Roeling, president of Amplifi. Nick Seckold, managing director of marketing agency iProspect, and Andrew Hewett, head of public affairs and communications for DAN, were the other team members impacted by the round of redundancies.
Tajer’s restructure continued with the most recent departure of Carat managing director Simon Williams last week. Williams’ role was called into question when Sue Squillace was named CEO, but his departure was in contradiction to DAN’s assertion that Williams would stay in his role following Squillace’s appointment.
DAN media agencies have faced a tumultuous time. Carat has lost accounts including Super Retail Group, Virgin Australia, Asahi, Mondelēz International, Amart, and Bega.
Despite hiring Squillace, Alex Smith (client lead), Marnie McKeown (head of content services and media integration), Dick Laurie (strategy director) and Tom Andrews (returning to lead the $19.4m Disney account), and promoting Danni Wright to a national role, a number of staff movements have impacted the agency. Carat CEO Paul Brooks left to join Nine, while it’s also lost CMO Andrea Rule (moving to LinkedIn), head of strategy Alex James (shifting to a similar role at PHD), head of digital Michael Corry (jumping ship to 303 Mullen Lowe), and the former head of the Disney account, Laura Bartal (becoming partner at Lacuna).
Vizeum saw Travis Day resign as MD last July, national head of client solutions Corinne Moth left to join OMD as a business director, and it lost the $15m AFL account early this year.
Earlier this month, Dentsu X lost the Australia Post account to Wavemaker.
DAN’s Asia Pacific operations have also seen a number of senior-level exits this month.
Correction: A previous version of this story stated that Philip Zohrab had also exited the holding group. DAN has confirmed he is still with the business.
Brittney Rigby was Mumbrella's deputy managing editor - news and analysis. She left Mumbrella in April 2021.
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“Our media business is undergoing a period of change. During this time, our focus remains on our people and our clients,”
Seriously ?
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G’day folks, Costa here, and today I’m talking to you about pruning.
Winter is a great time to get the secateurs out. Your trees and shrubs are most likely not flowering, especially if you have a Caratarium, Dentsexus, Vizearius or worst of all Amplifillium in the garden.
It really is the right time to cut away the deadwood.
For those new to the garden, or need a refresher, the deadwood are the branches that are more or less doing nothing, costing your plant precious nutrients. And that’s on a good day, it could even be worse than that!
Like bad culture, lack of vision and very likely highly questionable [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy] behaviour, deadwood restricts airflow around the plant, which come spring, encourages disease.
With any withering plant, a good prune along with a proper winter feed gives it the best chance for growth.
Until next time, thanks for watching.
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Limited ROI for the amount of time and effort you put into this.
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Tragic systematic destruction of Australia’s leading media agency for nine straight years under the leadership/ownership of legendary Harold Mitchell.
The steady decline of the business during the last six years of Aegis/Dentsu management speaks for itself.
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