M&C Saatchi and The Works dropped from full-time Optus roster as telco shakes up creative arrangements
M&C Saatchi and The Works have been dropped from Optus’ main creative roster following the telco’s review of its agencies.
Optus announced today it has made the decision not to pitch its roster to save time and money, and instead spent time “mapping and understanding the market”.
Along with making 72andSunny a “full-time partner”, Optus will work with M&C Saatchi-owned Re, Emotive, Big Red, and recently created internal agency the Yes Agency to fulfil its creative duties.
The telco announced it was entering into an arrangement with 72andSunny to work “on a range of projects” last week.
The Works and M&C Saatchi Sport and Entertainment will “continue to work with Optus on bespoke projects”, the telco said, but are not listed among the agencies on its creative agency roster.
In June 2015 Optus reviewed its media, PR and creative accounts, which at the time were held by M&C Saatchi and Starcom.
It later appointed Big Red, M&C Saatchi, The Works, Emotive, With Collective and AKQA to its retail, digital, social and creative accounts.
Mel Hopkins, director of marketing communications at Optus said: “We want to thank both current and past partners for their effort and smarts in helping build our brand. As a business, Optus is transforming from the current prolonged agency pitch process and how we approach creativity in general. We believe these are the right steps to take, if we truly want to shake up the space we are in. ”
Chris Kay, from 72andSunny added: “The way the Optus team have approached this process was pretty refreshing, as it allowed us to get to know them, the other agency partners, and really clarified the role that we could play in the future growth of their business. We are honoured we have been given this opportunity to help a great Australian brand grow.”
Jamie Gilbert-Smith, managing director of M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment told Mumbrella: “M&C Saatchi were appointed as the sponsorship specialists for Optus at the start of the year. They did not pitch for the business as Optus believes in business partnerships built on relationships rather than the traditional and impractical pitching model. As they, they were appointed on a rolling project basis and will be continuing in this role beyond their current work on the Commonwealth Games.”
Mumbrella has approached The Works for comment.
So has M&C been finally dropped after all these years? Taken way too long. M&C work for Optus hasn’t been very creative and has been way too process driven for ages
But similar they can finally stop cost cutting so much and try to get back to where they used to be
Also @Optus please sort yourself out, the constant agency and brand changes is really confusing to the market
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what a horrible day for a 1500 word puff piece on the M&C CEO.
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This is a huge story.
Mostly because of what’s not being said.
“Mapping the market” is code for understanding what better partners there are. And you know what, they’re right. Big, traditional shops aren’t delivering the goods anymore.
They obsess over a line and don’t realize that the world has moved on.
M&C + The Works might not be part of a holding company structure, but they’re sure as hell relatively traditional businesses who probably lack in understanding modern marketing. It’s no longer about the quarterly campaign.
Good luck to 72andSunny trying to deliver this.
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So Optus are even writing Jamie’s quotes now!?
Octagon might have an alternate view on “business partnerships built on relationships”
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Give it 18 months and they’ll be at it again… Rinse and repeat. Fill ya boots 72…
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The huge agency roster was a knee jerk and flawed approach three years ago – so consolidating is an improvement. When the new Marketing/TV content guy came in he didn’t take the time to understand the Australian content and telco market. This review is a long time coming. The roster has been a distaster, leading to in-fighting and one tactical celeb ad after another. It’s chaos and it shows in the work. It will be the same agency shuffle again in 18 months. The only way the Optus numbers are growing are through the massive investment in buying customers through EPL and sports rights. When the rights move to another provider, so will customers. The marketing isn’t adding value, which will be a massive issue in the longer term. Hopefully, they can sort themselves out and we can start to see something a bit more interesting.
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The existing and slightly random agency roster was a knee jerk and flawed approach two years ago, so consolidating is an improvement. A new Manager came in and didn’t take the time to understand the Australian content and telco market . The roster has therefore been a distaster leading to in fighting and one tactical celeb driven ad after another. It’s chaos and it shows in the work. It will be the same agency shuffle again in 18 months. Such a shame. The only way the Optus numbers are growing is through huge investment in EPL and sports. The marketing isn’t adding value.
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Anyone who has ever worked on Optus in one shape or another knows they will continue to change agencies & blame their short comings on their agencies, rather than addressing their lack of any basic operational or marketing ability.
Whilst right now it must be frustrating to The Works & M&C who’ve no doubt been in client hell for the last few years, chins up – you’ll never work on a worse client!
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