Introducing The Communications Council’s 12 wise men (Queenslanders, West Australians and women need not apply)
Yesterday saw the first election for the board of directors of The Communications Council.
It’s a list of extremely well respected people – but four things stick out.
First, for all its aspirations to be a truly national body, 10 of the 12 board members are based in Sydney. The other two are from Melbourne. (You can see the announcement here.)
Second, there are a lot of organisations entirely unrepresented. The anti-establishment Singleton influence clearly lives on at WPP-affiliated STW (Ogilvy, JWT, Moon etc), with nobody on the board. In the same vein, there’s nobody from a WPP agency either (the Y&R Brands group or Grey for instance). Ditto Interpublic (Draft FCB, Lowe & McCann)
Third, the cente of gravity is still advertising.
Fourth, where are the women?
These are the board members, their disciplines and locations plus agency and network affiliations:
- Anthony Freedman – advertising – Host – Independent – Sydney
- Craig Davis – advertising – Publicis Mojo – Publicis – Sydney
- Jeremy Nicholas – advertising – BMF – Photon – Sydney
- Mark Coad – advertising – CHE – Clemenger Group/ Omnicom – Melbourne
- Tom Dery – advertising – M&C Saatchi – Independent – Sydney
- Peter Horgan – media – OMD – Clemenger Group/ Omnicom – Sydney
- Iain McDonald – digital – Amnesia Razorfish – Publicis – Sydney
- Grant Rutherford – advertising – DDB – Omnicom – Melbourne
- Matthew Melhuish – advertising – BMF – Photon – Sydney
- Michael Ritchie – advertising – Revolver – Independent – Sydney
- Darryn Devlin – advertising – Lunch Partners – Independent – Sydney
- Sudeep Gohil – advertising – Droga 5 – Independent – Sydney
As you’ll see, they’re among the smartest people in the industry. But it still throws up issues.
Sydney vs the rest of Australia
So why so Sydney-centric? First, it’s worth acknowledging that for the agency networks, Sydney is the dominant city. In almost all cases, particularly for ad agencies, more business comes in through Sydney than Melbourne.
And a second factor is that a big part of The Communications Council is AWARD – a Sydney based event. No doubt it has designs on taking the other state design clubs under its wing (starting with Brisbane and with Melbourne the last bastion to fall I suspect).
But at the same time, it strikes me that The Communications Council will struggle a little to command deep national membership until there’s a bit more geographic balance on the board.
Holding group representation
It’s possible to read more than is actually there into the balance of power on the board – Omnicom – 3/ Publicis – 2/ Photon – 2, plus five independents.
I remember from my days on B&T trying to put together juries balanced across discipline, holding company and city was almost impossible.
One thing it underlines though is how poorly WPP is doing in the market. If it was an Australian powerhouse, it would be scandalous that one of the world’s biggest holding companies doesn’t have a seat at the table.
Advertising-centric
It’s lucky that Mark Coad is on the board as he’s covering off a lot of the minorities. Not only is he waving the flag for Melbourne, but he’s only just moved from media to advertising. So at least his former colleague Peter Horgan won’t be the lone voice of media around the table. (I’m sure that will change in time if the Media Federation decides to join the party.) Indeed, you could argue that until the MFA gets properly on board, it’s fortunate to have voices at the top table at all.
Meanwhile, Iain McDonald – is the only man in the room who lives and breathes digital, but it’s reassuring to see that represented there at all.
Male domination
Actually, I think it would be unfair to blame The Communications Council for its blokey board makeup. But it does rather hold a mirror to the senior ranks of the communications industry.
Indeed, the entire board makeup isn’t a bad mirror of our industry makeup. The next, trickier step will be to show the industry a lead without getting too far ahead of the reality reflects.
Let’s hope these 12 wise men know the way.
May 21 update: B&T has also looked into this issue today (link to PDF of B&T Today). Comms Council CEO Daniel Leesong told them: “We had a really hard look at women in the different senior positions, but there wasn’t a big pool of people. We should have more women in senior management positions.”
Tim Burrowes
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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Making popcorn.
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Story about nothing
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>Fourth, where are the women?
Seriously, what do you think is more likely?
1. There isn’t a single woman in the whole of the Australian communications industry who is sufficiently qualified to sit on this council
2. Men chose to hire other men
Take your pick.
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I still don’t understand why they don’t call this the advertising council. Calling it the communications council misrepresentative
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What is the Melbourne/Sydney split in terms of billings? Anyone know? Just curious.
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Far too few women at the top of ad agencies. Far too few men at the top of PR agencies. Far too few Aussies at the top of media agencies.
How about some sort of exchange programme?
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Maybe, there aren’t many women filling senior roles in the agency world, but on the client side, you’re lucky to find a male nowadays. So, let’s not go down this tired old gender route. Just let the cream rise to the top, regardless of which loo they use. And for the record, I’m male, own my own small agency and 4 of my 5 clients marketing departments are run by women; and, as of 5:00pm tonight, those 4-mentioned females were quite happy to have a male as their agency partner.
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What about Michelle Hutton, new CEO at PR firm Edelman? A worthy candidate, most would agree
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Teena Jameson would have ticked a few boxes for them
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http://alexbogusky.posterous.c.....-for-wtf-p
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It would have been inappropriate to put women onto the board because after all they tend to prefer flower arranging to golf and everyone knows that is the primary benefit of board-dom.
Seriously though, with two or three notable exceptions, at first I thought this was a list of Sydney’s most self-promoting FILTH (Failed in London, Try Here).
I understand now that the contentious ‘Communications Council’ name is actually a statement of irony.
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How embarrassing for all concerned. Sydney centric, no women, what year is this again? We should be ashamed of ourselves that the Sydney Boy’s Club is so transparent – and no-one cares…
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