Mel Roberts steps down from Ikon Melbourne MD role
Mel Roberts, Ikon’s Melbourne managing director, has stepped down from the position effective from the end of the month, 30 September.
Roberts took on the role in June last year, and will remain “closely associated with the agency in a consulting role” according to holding group WPP.
Mel Roberts has stepped down as managing director of Ikon Melbourne
“Mel’s passion is client leadership and she has decided the time is right to move into a client leadership role where she believes her skills are best suited,” said Ikon’s CEO, Lesley Edwards.
“I applaud her for pursuing her passion and am excited she will remain part of our team and take on a role consulting to Ikon. I thank her for leading the agency for the past two years.”
From 30 September, Ikon Sydney’s managing partner James Sawyer will expand his remit to also take on responsibilities for the Melbourne office.
WPP added that “further announcements will be made in due course”.
Last month, five roles were made redundant at Ikon on the Myer account, leaving just one person. The five redundancies constituted a quarter of Ikon’s Melbourne team, which, before the redundancies, sat at approximately 20 people.
A few weeks before the redundancies were announced, WPP split the Myer account across two of its agencies, Ikon and Essence, seeing them jointly handle the account under the leadership of Jenny Pham, managing director of Essence.
Brittney Rigby was Mumbrella's deputy managing editor - news and analysis. She left Mumbrella in April 2021.
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Replaced with an MD stationed in Sydney doesn’t bode well for the future of ikon Melbourne.
Good on Mel for falling on her sword. It must be tough to lose your biggest client to another WPP agency without being asked to pitch for it.
We might avoid huckleberry part 2 after all.
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So is anyone left at Ikon in Melbourne? Talk about a sinking ship!
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Shame this didn’t happen prior to half the office either resigning or accepting redundancy payouts in the last month.
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Did she come to this decision herself, or was she pushed?
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Looks like an Essence Ikon merger should be on the cards given WPP’s track record.
Ikon Melbourne are sinking in to a hole and have been since Sharon Cookson left the company. I hardly think keeping Mel on as a ‘consultant’ will lift the office culture.
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I’m assuming she will remain consulting on the conflicting toy companies – Skinner Advertising and their client roster as well as SpinMaster. It’s a shame the company has conflicting clients in 2 categories now (toys and education). New business hasn’t been a priority at Ikon for some time now it would seem.
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This vitriol needs to end! Especially when “those” people commenting do not have the facts straight. Mel is a fantastic and loyal leader who has had to make some difficult decisions in a tough climate. Congratulations to Mel for all of her efforts over the past year in an extremely challenging role. It’s great to see her follow her passion to focus on client service which is, as we all know, the key to keeping and growing client bases. The fact that IKON asked her to stay on to manage clients is testament to her brilliance.
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Loyalty to those working on toy clients is different to being loyal to an entire agency. And yes I agree, client service on her toy clients is probably better than having no interest in new business and driving an agency forward.
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It is no secret there has been a lot of internal issues at Ikon recently which have left many frustrated or, in some cases, traumatised. This is well known on supplier side and, irrespective of what people might feel is the truth, it cannot be ignored that a collective group of people with similar individual experiences been severely affected by this. I wish everyone involved in this scenario the best and hope lessons have been learned by Ikon.
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Steedy will not be happy with all these truthful comments…..
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This comment is an understatement. Well put.
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Looks like someone is pretty dedicated to taking a stab at Ikon! Well done Mumbrella for preserving the integrity of the comment section.
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What a sad state of affairs for Bendigo loosing its free community the Bendigo weekly paper to merge with the Bendigo advertiser which isn’t free.
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