Social media agency The Population to close
The Population – the most ambitious attempt Australia has yet seen to launch a social media agency – is to close its doors and staff will move across to fellow Photon agency C4.
Population boss Tony Thomas told Mumbrella: “There is still a gap in the communications landscape between the opportunity versus marketers’ budgets. Social media continues to play a growing role in the digital mix, however it is still a relatively small part of the marketing budget.”
The agency was launched just over a year ago and had eight staff at its peak. Last week Mumbrella revealed that social media strategist Julian Cole was moving to The Conscience Organisation, while Ben Cooper departed for Three Drunk Monkeys a few weeks before.
It was headed by former Pepsi and nineMSN marketer Tony Thomas, who will leave the agency after overseeing the transition.
He told Mumbrella: “I’m a lover of big brand marketing. That’s where my history and my future lies.”
Thomas said that the move did not signal that the idea of a social media agency was a bad one. He said: “I think it signifies where the market is right now. We feel it’s better as part of an integrated offering at this point in time.”
He added: “We’re still delivering good projects for clients and the team will do so when we are working with C4.”
C4 CEO Tony Palmer said: “The Population has been a thought leader in social media since opening its doors 15 months ago. During that time they’ve won many new clients and friends and have developed some world class IP and technology, so we’re very excited about the opportunities. We’re looking forward to taking on their current team.”
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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Guess it’s hard to have cred as a “thought leader” when you can’t even write in English.
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…so viz Julian’s TCO promo video of last week, his core skill really lies in PR?
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That’s a shame.
The digital media landscape is very competitive and to launch a specialised one professing to be social media strategists and specialists is a tough gig.
There is definitely room for a smaller social type agency however, it could well work more efficiently if they offered more than just social media and actually concentrated on what the client objectives are.
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de-population?
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Social Media is a function of a good agency, not sure if it’s enough for an agency in it’s own right. Good that someone gave it a shot.
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Original article edited.
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