Mitchell: the idea that we win business just on price is bullshit
The boss of Australia’s largest media buying company has described the market perception that his agency has harmed the market by winning business largely on price as “bullshit”.
Harold Mitchell, executive chairman of the $1.7bn-billing agency Mitchell & Partners, told Mumbrella that “it was not possible” for his agency to have achieved the success that it has if its only strength was undercutting competitors.
“We are the largest media agency in Australia. And we also happen to be best,” he said. “Of course we compete on price, same as everyone else. But we’re number one because we have the best people.”
He added that the Mitchells, which now consists of 28 companies following the $363m merger with Aegis last July, has an edge in offering “the full range of communications options.”
Hi Harold
We agree. Awards are just a bit of fun – and a little recognition for hard work.
Also, Naked is consistently featured in top agency listings – just not on the media buying lists (for obvious reasons).
We enjoy working with you and your team and look forwards to continuing to do so.
Adam and Mike
If price is not important, why does mitchells not disclose publisher rebates to clients?
When was the last time Mitchells won an award ha? Not much award-winning work going on there for the “best” agency in Australia
I know Mitchells demand a greater agency discount/rebate than any other agency we work with…
@J You must have been deprived of star stickers in primary school? Who needs a bloody reward when you have money!
Here’s a life lesson… you don’t have to be great to be No. 1, but you do have to be ultra competitive and act like the leader. Most of the “rest of us” don’t want to be like Mitchell’s, but if you don’t respect what they’ve achieved, you’re probably a Myopic stooge. BTW Awards are just a measure of how well your strategist can spin a yarn
I think ‘J’ works at Naked….
Hey @J
“Mitchell said that his company did not enter awards…”
Bit hard to win awards if you don’t enter them.
My tip of the day would be to read an article before commenting, but hey, I’m probably out of touch…
There are agencies out there that enter every single award there is, so then they can turn around and say “hey, come see how good we are, we have lots of trophies in our reception”.
Mitchell’s don’t need a trophy to know they are doing a good job.
Show me one piece of exceptional work produced by Mitchell’s in the past 5 years.
We all know they play purely on price.
To claim any different is simply untrue and frankly laughable.
@Yeah right… Winning awards don’t pay the bills mate. At the end of the day agencies operate to make money.
@Yeah right
What do you call ‘exceptional work’? Quirky or high profile executions that get a lot of industry buzz and possibly awards, or exceeding a client’s business objectives?
Mitchells have always been the “Coles” of Aust media buying. It is well known their most used new business tool is a calculator using only the minus button.
The reality is that other big groups (especially GroupM) are getting as aggressive as and as successful at getting the big rebates required to subsidise the ridiculous race to the bottom that is going on in Australia.
So, Mitchell’s can’t deliver the comprehensive price advantage it once did. Maybe it’s time to start entering some awards, Harold?
Word.
@JayZ… Thanks Hov. Finally, someone else says it isn’t just Mitchell’s that slashes rates (allegedly) to get clients. GroupM been at it for a while.
Peace out!
The culture and people at Mitchells are clearly different; and we (publishers) love dealing with people who appear to actually give a damn about doing things properly.
The industry could use a few more of that ilk, I reckon.
Mitchells has quite a few large clients who are not happy with disclosing internal figures and performance.. Otherwise I’m sure we would enter certain awards… 🙂
Size of turnover does not disprove accusations of discounting, just ask Walmart, Amazon and other successful discounters who have built massive revenues with low margins. In fact a retail discounter needs massive turnover to justify taking a smaller clip on the way through and in turn that size provides them with increased market clout to negotiate harder with suppliers for “co-operative” and other payments. There are many people who buy on price and this is there choice. But to say you do not discount because you are big does not stand up to any logical analysis.