Ex-R/GA boss Jon Holloway returns to agency
The former managing director of R/GA, Jon Holloway, is rejoining the business as executive strategy director, Mumbrella can reveal.
Holloway said that despite the headlines around his exit from the agency in 2016, he actually left the business on really good terms. This time around though, he said he will be focusing on what he’s best at.
“I’ve changed a lot,” Holloway told Mumbrella of his time away from adland. “I definitely won’t be updating my LinkedIn profile at any point with anything that might be taken [by the media],” he said, referencing his 2016 post which said R/GA had been “floundering” and “all over the place”.
Holloway said he will still be opinionated, but is now more willing now to relinquish control.
“I certainly have an opinion on most things. That has been quite direct in the past. [But] I think there is an amazing opportunity now for the whole industry to come together and lift up what brands and businesses are doing in Australia to go beyond ad-funded media approaches, because that alone is probably not the best for companies and brands today,” he said.
Australia’s creative industry is also at a tipping point, he said, and is at further risk due to the talent drain and marketers losing relevance within big organisations.
“We’ve had some lean years from a creative point of view. And there’s been quite a lot of infighting between consultancies and agencies all going after the same type of work. So I’m definitely not the anti-advertising contrarian I probably was. I still have deep feelings and opinions about how the advertising world and now the advertising consultancy world works, but I want to try and change it by doing it, not necessarily by shouting it at people. I will still shout it at people, but I think the reason I’m back at R/GA is because there aren’t many businesses that are better positioned to take that work on and to really try to push it forwards to help brands work in this world that is really undefinable by all of us,” he said.
“It’s quite obvious we’re becoming less relevant. We are seeing less and less marketers in big positions at big companies. We’re seeing less and less budgets coming to creative businesses. We are seeing everyone trying to steal the cheese from each other. But if we can play a role in redefining who we are and putting creativity back at the heart of businesses, then I would be happy with that.”
As for what he wants the headline to be when he exits the agency again – rather than ‘Exiting R/GA boss Holloway claims agency was ‘floundering’ and ‘all over the place’‘ – he said he’s back for the long-haul and this time it’s about the business.
“I will be staying quiet and hopefully not leaving for a much longer period of time. Two years is a good stint in advertising. I would like it to be a lot more,” he said.
“I think that I would like the business and everybody within it to be part of the evolution of what creativity is in Australia. I think we have a responsibility as an industry to redefine that. To be really serious about that.”
Holloway’s role will involve working across commercial design, behaviour change, strategic design, customer experience and data sciences.
“R/GA in Australia has gone through a reinvention. It’s something that R/GA does a lot as the market changes. And what we have been doing over the last 12 months or so is to bring together this new creative proposition of agency and consultancy. So you get all the commercial rigour and commercial desire for consultancy… and what we call ‘business transformation’ has been launched in Australia and is growing across the region. And then you have all the fast-make-style culture of agencies brought together.
“So we are now operating like an agency. consultancy business that is allowing us to take that kind of deep rigour and design from consultancy and add that kind of creative layer of a creative business and do things that are truly quite different and operate in different ways,” he said.
Michael Titshall, VP and managing director of R/GA Australia, said Holloway was the right person to help transform R/GA.
“With his diverse experience across brand consultancy and innovation, being a founder of several start-ups and leading globally renowned creative work, Jon has the rare capability to combine brand strategy, commercial design and behaviour change. These capabilities and his passion for challenging the status quo, make Jon the perfect strategic leader for R/GA Australia as we continue our journey of building a new breed of creative business,” he said.
I thought ‘advertising doesn’t work’?
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6 years.
5 ESDs.
6 ECDs.
5 MDs.
2 CCOs.
… 1 client.
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Occasionally I read mumbrella and think, there are people who should seek out the trade press with their opinions and then there are others that should actively avoid doing so.
– Karen
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What globally awarded creative work has Jon led??
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Being so negative about the industry as you leave, and continuing to post negative comments about the industry as you try and make new go of it on a new business is silly. The reason why it’s silly is because it makes you look silly when you return.
Burning bridges with a company is one thing, burning them with a whole industry is absurd.
8 months – max.
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Good luck to Jon. Hope it’s a success.
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Grab the popcorn and keep an eye on LinkedIn!
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All the best Jon, haters gonna hate etc
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Congrats Jon.
Rock R/GA again!
2-1 🙂
#COYS
James
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The irony is that RGA are desperate for advertising revenue.
They’ve been completely out manoeuvred by the Consultancies in the digital space
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That’s a little more “reinventing” than the standard R/GA every-9-years thing…
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grabs_popcorn.gif
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And what ever happened to Delorean? https://mumbrella.com.au/jonathan-pease-john-du-vernet-and-other-adland-executives-launch-micro-consultancy-delorean-556918
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Nice to see the industry coming together in these unprecedented times
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The delicious irony is that ‘RGA’ is a singular noun and you wrote “RGA are desperate”. Tut tut.
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Hhmmm,
Oops…..awkward…..I had to come back. No dramas, come back. Do a great job and reinvigorate an agency – all good.
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Couldn’t agree more.
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This is one of the longest and best executed trollings of the industry of all time.
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The sad/funny part of this (depending on which side of the fence you sit) is you know how this is going to end.
The definition of insanity is…….
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Collective nouns can be singular or plural. Their intention is clearly plural: the team at R/GA.
https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/nouns-collective.php
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Welcome home sir. I wish everyone was as honest as you. I look forward to catching up. And getting your perspective on just about everything! Ignore the naysayers! Those who hide behind anonymity and so called common sense. X
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this is hilarious. the guy has been bagging out advertising for the past few years post his exit. good on him for starting his own fintech business but he’s obviously crawling back to RGA because his startup is flailing. #tailbetweenhislegs
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… speechless.
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How was the future Jon?
Not that great apparently.
You are crawling back to an industry you have spent the last 3 years slagging off and calling irrelevant.
How do you sleep at night?
I predict you will take the money for a while and then leave and slag it all off again.
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“So we are now operating like an agency. consultancy business that is allowing us to take that kind of deep rigour and design from consultancy and add that kind of creative layer of a creative business and do things that are truly quite different and operate in different ways,” he said.
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Dear clients,
This man wants your business after repeatedly calling you all stupid for working with creative ad agencies. This man wants your money after saying that you waste your money on creative agencies. This man will write opinion pieces that start with provocative statements like ‘advertising is dead’ and then try and sell you some programmatic digital advertising strategy that will most like be a series of banner ads. This guy is probably deleting all his past opinion pieces as we speak to cover his tracks and make out that he’s not anti-literally-everything. This man hates our industry and is not a positive force. Beware this snake oil salesman.
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No mention in the article of Zuper, the super pooper.
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“I’m definitely not the anti-advertising contrarian I probably was. I still have deep feelings and opinions about how the advertising world and now the advertising consultancy world works, but I want to try and change it by doing it, not necessarily by shouting it at people. I will still shout it at people…”
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“I will still shout it at people”
Wow.
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Why has R/GA taken this risk?
It’s not based on the success of past performance.
It’s clearly not based on any reputational benefit they might derive.
It’s not based on chemistry or leadership capabilities.
What am I missing here?
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Agreed. This smacks of desperation on RG/A’s part. Why else would you rehire someone who publicly defamed you on their way out?
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What happened to Victoria Curro? Are there no females at RGA leadership level?
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As a manager you get paid to make decisions. Time will tell if this is a good one or a bad one.
On the face of it it’s absurdly bad. But maybe he sees something we don’t.
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He said he doubled the size of the business, and they didn’t lose a pitch when he ran it. From his interview the business was going great.
So rga must have wanted to get back this greatness.
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Victoria is Sydney MD. Michael is national. This looks like a national role. Although what Aussie clients RGA has is anyone’s guess. Toyota and a bit of Google?
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