After much anticipation within the industry, Clemenger Group has found its successor to Justin Hind, naming Wunderman Thompson’s Lee Leggett as the latest CHEP Network CEO. The appointment comes a month after Hind announced he would be leaving to launch his own agency – his second since launching With Collective alongside wife Dominique Hind in 2010. Leggett will join the Clemenger Group board along with fellow execs Dani Bassil and Angela Watson.
Next, the team touches on ex-Clemenger exec James Neale starting up his own agency a year on from leaving his 20-year post as Traffik CEO. The new business, Activation Union, will be – as the name suggests – an activation-led agency, that Neale said would leverage a space that has “traditionally been very transactional”.
Then, the team considers the impact of the freshly extended Warner Bros Discovery deal for Foxtel’s streaming future, now that it can guarantee its prized HBO assets for a few years longer. The multi-year deal will see Foxtel hold onto the exclusive rights for HBO and Max Original content in Australia, and with that in mind, the team looks at how important the deal is to the company’s streaming strategy.
Finally, EssenceMediacom’s APAC CEO, Rupert Petrie, and national chief strategy officer, Sophie Price, join the podcast to discuss the newly-merged agency’s launch into the Australian market, sharing how the agency plans to differentiate itself from its GroupM stablemates, and broader industry competition.
Episode breakdown
- Clemenger Group names Lee Leggett as the CEO of CHEP Network (2:04)
- James Neale launches a new agency (6:46)
- Foxtel’s extended deal with Warner Bros Discovery (8:31)
- EssenceMediacom’s Rupert McPetrie and Sophie Price (15:08).