Dentsu in ‘unchartered territory’, says Muddle, but ‘they’re in good hands’
Appearing on yesterday’s Mumbrellacast, new Dentsu Creative Group CEO, Kirsty Muddle spoke about the opportunity that presents itself for Dentsu, with its array of newly started executives, under the direction of CEO Angela Tangas.
She said with a number of senior executives also taking up their roles at Dentsu at the start of this year, including John Riccio, David Halter and Chris Bower, “there is an underlying commitment that we all want to work together and find solutions that pull on all of our specialists and expertise”.
Muddle says Denstu is moving in to “clear space”
Within this combined approach, Dentsu is putting itself on a new path, Muddle said, into a space that is currently unoccupied by its competitors.
“I definitely think we’re taking Dentsu into some white space, some clear space. Because we’ve kind of at both ends of the spectrum [..] where you’ve got the consultancies all the way at one end, and then you’ve got agencies of all kinds down this end.
“When you look at people like John Riccio and Chris Bower, and you’ve got myself and David Halter and then some of the existing, highly successful people like Sue [Squillace] who runs our media business, we’re kind of pulling Densu into this middle space, that is clear space, that no one is operating in, in the same way that we intend to.”
“There’s a bit of uncharted territory here, but we’re all experienced enough to have a good sense of where we’re going.”
Muddle also said that in her first days at the business, it is as she suspected, “a really interesting” one.
Dentsu ANZ CEO Angela Tangas has been on a senior hiring spree
“They’ve got a history of acquiring some of the most successful indie brands in the world, arguably, and then they’ve got the scale of a global network, and that intersection between both actually feels really familiar to me.”
Muddle said that in joining Dentsu, she was “ready for a new adventure”, rather than looking for one. After joining Cummins & Partners as a founding partner at 29, 11 years later and through peaks and troughs, it was “time to move on to a new chapter”, and “Dentsu presented itself”.
Another attraction, Muddle said, was the prospect of working with regional group CEO, Angela Tangas, who she said she was instantly sold by.
When I met her, I genuinely felt this connection,” said Muddle. “She’s very, very humble, she’s business savvy, and she has this different drive about her that I equally found really fascinating. Like a typical indie, I look through the lens of, could I start a business with that person even if it’s a holding company.
“And I was talking to her, listening to her going, ‘I could start a business with that person’.”
Listen to the full conversation below, which starts at 27:17. You can find previous episodes here, and don’t forget to subscribe on your podcasting platform.
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Calum Jaspan was news editor at Mumbrella, based in Melbourne. He was also the producer and host of the Mumbrellacast. He left Mumbrella in May 2023.
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