Victorian Government takes $101m master media account to tender
After a two-year relationship with Mediacom, the Victorian Government is taking its master media account, worth over $100m, to tender, choosing not to extend its contract with the Group M agency for up to an additional two years, Mumbrella can reveal.
Mediacom took over from Dentsu Mitchell on 1 December 2017 with the contract set to expire on 20 November this year. The government did have two one-year options to extend the relationship.
Hopefully they learnt their lessons from last time and don’t run a commercial-focused procurement process squeezing agencies for the absolute lowest price. Feel sorry for the people over at Mediacom who had to work under those conditions.
This will teach MediaCom and Group M a powerful lesson for their behaviour on this piece of business. What business is left for MediaCom Melbourne to sustain this office? Mars could move to Sydney easily and the smaller clients (as WILLIE Pang calls them verbatim in all staff meetings “rats and mice”) could go to Mindshare. Hey presto, you save the cost of an entire office and maintain the remaining revenue!
Having seen the shifts first hand within the MediaCom business over the years, I understand the history and why it is heavily criticised however… lets just address a few things:
Never has Willie Pang referred to clients in anyway or at all (especially in Staff Meetings) as Rats and Mice.
Please don’t spread such a toxic sensibility around so easily. The leadership if anything has progressed exponentially in an effort to quell such ideas and sour misplaced gossip.
The powerful lesson here is that GroupM & MediaCom believe that to better the working relationship with the Victorian Government, and to put their people first – they need to revise the contract for it to be sustainable. Any amendments require the contract to go back to tender. The intentions to keep the client are there, but not at the cost of their staff’s integrity.
My thanks to the people, culture and teams who have shaped MediaCom since the days of its low point. You have created a better working environment and the tender is in no way a bad reflection of the tireless effort, hours, blood, sweat and tears you’ve put into that piece of business.
Continue to champion the new-age culture and we are all hoping for the best.
Wow.
You must be a real treasure to work for.
The type of person that takes pleasure in people losing their jobs.
Nice one, mate.
I don’t think anyone is enjoying the fact that jobs are on the line, far from it. This is where we need to differentiate between having genuine sorrow and admiration for the legends that have slogged their guts out to try and make it work and anger and resentment towards the ‘leaders’ who set them up for inevitable failure.
MediaCom desperately needed a win at the time they won this account, esp as CUB had just departed for PHD. They went in very aggressive to secure it and they never managed to turn it around. Remember that when they won it they thought they could do it with 30 people – half that of what it had been between Dentsu and Zenith.
It is tragic to think about how much people gave of themselves to try and make it work when they were really never much more than cannon fodder for an endless blitz of briefs and client disappointment. Hopefully most of the team can be redeployed or move with the business when it goes, and those who are truly responsible will be held to the proper account.
The saddest part of all of this is that the very same people who nearly killed themselves trying to service the account will now have to work endless nights and weekends to build a pitch that MediaCom has absolutely no hope of winning. Perhaps WPP can somehow keep it in the group but MediaCom is done with this account.
The account took just over a year to properly transition, they had minimal staff who suffered through working late nights and weekends. Interested to see what agency takes the account on a loss. Let’s face it, it will be on a loss.
I recall this period in time.
The Mediacom crew would call you at 9pm when you were on the couch for a chat about a response and how we were going to get it off the ground. We would work together to piece together the shit handover from DAN.
I admired the tireless effort then and really hope it all works out for those who may be affected by the account (potentially) departing.
The problem was accountants at treasury selecting a service provider for a service they have absolutely zero understanding.