Features
Is dentsu’s leadership team finally complete?
With dentsu now seemingly having its executive team in place, Darren Woolley, Damian Francis and host, Calum Jaspan discuss whether a holding group has splashed out on so many senior hires in a single year, and how that will play out moving forward. Plus, Initiative's chief strategy officer Chris Colter wraps 2022 in TV, who won, what media buyers are looking at, and what's getting ratings next year.
One year ago, dentsu’s leadership team in Australia looked vastly different from what it will do come 1 January 2023.
“We’ve seen particular units, or particular agencies have this type of leadership change, but never across the whole holding company,” says CEO of TrinityP3 Darren Woolley on this week’s Mumbrellacast.
Each of its main divisions, including Dentsu Creative, its media business, Merkle and Dentsu Solutions have all seen major hires across the year, with the new boss Patricio De Matteis still to come.
“The big change here is really all of these people have been bought from other organisations, and that’s going to have some significant cultural effects because all of them will come with their own ways of working and their own ways of doing things, which must have an impact on the way the agency feels and works.”
So what will dentsu look like in 2023? And what can it expect from the operators it has brought in, including Ben Shepherd and Fiona Johnston?
Then, what are the conditions leading to cuts across WPP, M&C Saatchi, AJF Partnership, Cummins&Partners and Ogilvy? The panel discusses the past two years of market conditions, why advertising businesses are getting things balanced for 2023, and if the talent crisis will roll on into the new year.
Finally, chief strategy officer at Initiative Australia, Chris Colter chats about what has done well, and what has not in 2022, who the real winner was [after a war of words], and the big bet Network Ten needs to lay to turn things around next year.
Episode Breakdown
- Has dentsu finally filled all its senior roles? (02:28)
- Job cuts take grip as 2023 looms large (18:45)
- TV ratings with Chris Colter (27:35)
Calum Jaspan was news editor at Mumbrella, based in Melbourne. He was also the producer and host of the Mumbrellacast. He left Mumbrella in May 2023.
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It’s a very special kind of optimism to believe, despite continual and long term proof to the contrary, that long term loyalty to a media agency will be rewarded. For everyone one person who has succeeded that way, there are fifty who have gotten a promotion and a substantial raise for a well timed move.
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Pretty sure it’s deliberate. The business seems determined, and probably rightfully so, to distance itself from the last 10 years and previous incarnations of the business.
Lots of legacy issues and underlying resentment amongst those people who stuck with the business during that period, whether that was under the assumption there would be some payoff or a lack of opportunities elsewhere.
Time to cut out the negativity, legacy problems and start with a clean slate.
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I find it interesting that there are a lot people who have stuck with Dentsu through the tough times (with the promise of some kind of reward on the other side) only to see a variety of external people fill the leadership roles across the business.
Has to leave a bad taste in the mouth for a few of them, but maybe that is part of the plan?
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Good cultures in this industry are based on mutual self-interest, the sense of productive satisfaction and camaraderie – in real time. Loyalty is the by-product.
Good cultures are not about obligation, good will debts, friendships or entitlement.
And let’s be real, independents are better able to shape and sustain their culture.
It’s important to recognise that if you choose a career in creative industries the energy of dynamism and change-orientation that we love also means uncertainty.
Sometimes it’s best for both the company and the people within it to scrape off their barnacles and move on!
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