GPY&R Sydney: Mumbrella Creative Agency Review – Is the agency that ‘understands Australians’ stuck in a rut?

The newly published Mumbrella Creative Agency Review examines Australia’s top 30 ad agencies. Today Robin Hicks examines how GPY&R Sydney has fared over the last 12 months.

Australia’s oldest advertising agency is looking a little out of breath. Though plans to rejuvenate GPY&R Sydney are now well under way under MD Phil McDonald and national CEO Russell Howcroft, the perception in the market is that Patts is a once magnificent agency that has lost its way, perhaps never to return to the form of two decades ago.

While its namesake in Melbourne has made bold strides to reinvent itself, GPY&R Sydney’s progress has been less sure-footed. The agency which now lives by the “ruthlessly relevant” mantra finds itself 17 places below its sibling in our survey – the biggest gap between the offices of any agency brand. Critics point to one of its key successes being a long copy press ad for Wagon Wheels that won a silver at Cannes as evidence that little has changed.

Patts Sydney’s best rank, for planning, should please chief strategy officer Jon Steel. And scores for account management and talent are respectable. But the agency performs poorly for effectiveness, client stability, commercial success and impact on the industry, which our panel rates as its weakest trait, slotting it one place above bottom-ranked Y&R stable mate The Campaign Palace Sydney.