Fitness First boss appoints media agency without pitch in stand against ‘flawed’ pitching process
Former NetX boss Andy Mallinson has made his first public move since arriving at Fitness First with a brief to overhaul the gym chain’s marketing strategy.
He has appointed media agency PHD to manage media planning and buying plus online performance marketing. He selected the agency without a pitch, in what he said was a stand against the pitch culture.
Mallinson said: “I made the appointment without a pitch because, in my opinion, the pitch process is a flawed approach to selecting an agency. It is an artificial environment. You end up selecting an agency based on the quality of the show that they can put on as opposed to the likely quality of work you will receive on a day-to-day basis. The latter is best established through experience of working with people before and references from neutral third-parties.”
One of the agency’s roles will be to help Mallinson build a business for increasing Fitness First’s marketing spend, including broadcast media. PHD will also offer strategic input into the development of creative. Fitness First owns 80 gyms in Australia.
Mallinson’s previous role was as MD at digital agency NetX, which soon became part of the Clemenger Group. Before that he was brand and marketing director of Virgin Mobile.
The appointment comes in the same week that PHD won Pinks Batts.
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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How about a strategy that moves away from hard-seliing instant sign up for the rest of your life as soon as you walk in through the door…
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The principals at Kinesis fully agree with the concerns about the current flawed practices with the pitch process – that’s whey we set this business up – we practice most of the improvements suggested in your article, plus several others that cut thru the bullshit!
Well done to Andy Mallinson and we wish him the very best with their measured approach.
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Makes sense as netx and total worked closely when andy was at netx (netx media was thru total) so he would have been familiar with their work.
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When I wrote this post, I was going to link to a good article that covered Fitness First’s current image, but couldn’t remember where I’d read it.
Just found it again – it was on The Oyster Project: http://theoysterproject.blogsp.....mouth.html
Andy M: Any thoughts on how you’re going to tackle this side of things?
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
With babysteps Tim. I joined FF because there was a great appetite for change in the business. The first step to change is recognizing you need to. From the new CEO down we know we have to, but it is going to take a while as it is like changing DNA. We have to put members first and find other ways to drive new business. Emotional loyalty is our aim, but it will take time. Watch this space.
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Good on you Andy. Successful client agency relationships are built on chemistry and trust. Can the two groups work together, do they have trust and respect and is there a common understanding of the task at hand. I’ve been on the sidelines of two pitches with pitch consultants and I still can’t see the advantage. Any pitch process that requires the pitching of creative and the selection based on that creative is going to be a lottery. You can’t ever know enough to truly nail a solution so the agency that wins is the agency that guesses right on the day. That’s never a good reason to choose a partner. It’s a bit like getting married on the outcome of a first date.
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Andy can you shed any light on the date for FF Five Dock opening?? Noone seems to be able to give a straight answer and there is obviously a lot more to it than a “power” problem.
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When is Fitness First Five Dock opening … it was scheduled for September 2008, it is now almost July 2009. I also had a peek at the time table which is available on the FF website and the class schedules are crap … some of us work for living and it seem there is not a lot of morning classes for people who want to do an early class before work!!
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